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Tis the season - for cookies!!! Cookies are one of the most versatile treats you can make. They are perfect for gift-giving, office parties, dessert, or a quick snack. They please children and grown-ups alike. Most cookie batters freeze well so you can make cookies anytime you feel like it. Cookie recipes are easy to make and hard to screw up. You just need to keep an eye on them so they don't burn. You can double up recipes to make two batches, and in general, they're not too labor-intensive. Even if the recipe is a little more time-consuming, like roll-out cookies that you have to cut out and decorate, it's still not work. It's fun!
These chocolate-chip cookie bars are a slightly different take on an old classic. They satisfy chocolate-chip die-hards while making the holiday cookie tray look a little more special. Cookie bars have the added benefit of being extremely fast to make. This is my mother's recipe, and one of my childhood favoriites.
I combine butter and shortening in this recipe so that you get the richness of butter without the bars becoming too soft. For a richer, denser and more buttery bar use all butter. For a lighter, more cake-like bar use all shortening.
Recipe after the jump!
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS
2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
3 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 ounces chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together butter, shortening and sugars. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix.
Mix together flour, baking soda and salt.
Gradually add dry ingredients to mixer. Mix.
Stir in chocolate chips. Spread into a large rectangular pan (9" x 13" or 10" x 15") and bake tor about 20 minutes or until done.
You can also add walnuts or pecans, or if you're really feeling wild - M&Ms.
Photo by Blair Christenson via Flickr
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Looks delicious!
Your cookie bars employ the same trick I use when making my chocolate chip cookies. I use the Toll House recipe, but I always do half butter and half shortening, instead of all butter as it calls for in the recipe (cause that's how my mom taught me). I'm honestly not sure why they're so much better this way, but they are!
that looks sooo good!
I f@ckin love blondies. This recipe looks great. But: I'm not sure how it differs from the classic. Is it the crisco?
The difference here is that they are a square bar cookie instead of the usual chocolate chip cookies that look dull on a holiday tray, but are always the first ones to disappear.
The Crisco-butter combo is my own spin for making bar cookies. Cookies baked only with butter are very dense and tend to spread out flat. That is what I normally use. Cookies baked with Crisco are lighter, rise higher, and don't spread out much. This way the bars are buttery without becoming a flat, dense brick.
We'll make sure to post a nice Blondie recipe for you before we're done!