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Sometimes you're in the mood for cookies. But sometimes you're also not in the mood to form 25 small balls of dough and then pretend that you're naturally going to share them with other people. The solution: a gigantic cookie from the baking pan. Slightly golden brown on the outside, soft on the inside, and full of melted chocolate. Basically a cookie with increased efficiency. And thanks to browned butter, it also tastes like we put in significantly more effort than we actually did.

For how many?

For approx. 12–16 Cookie Bars, depending on how generously you cut and how seriously you take the word „portion.“.

Required material:

• 1 small pan or a small pot
• 2 large mixing bowls
• Hand mixer or food processor
• Whisk or spoon
• Dough scraper
• Knife and cutting board
• Parchment paper
• Springform pan, approx. 20 × 30 cm

Ingredients:

• 220 g butter
• 1 l milk
• 200 g brown sugar
• 50 g white sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 280 g wheat flour
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder, optional
• 1–2 tsp vanilla paste
• 280 g whole milk chocolate

Less sweet version:
Instead of 280 g of whole milk chocolate, just 140 g milk chocolate and 140 g dark chocolate use. For anyone who wanted to briefly apologize to their blood sugar upon hearing the words „280 grams of milk chocolate.“.

Step-by-step guide

1. The 220 g butter Melt slowly in a small skillet or pot over medium heat. Then continue to heat, stirring occasionally, until it turns a nice golden brown to caramel color and has a pleasantly nutty aroma. Keep a close eye on the butter while doing this. There are surprisingly few seconds between „magnificently browned“ and „we're ordering takeout after all.“ Then remove the browned butter from the heat and let it cool slightly.
2. While the butter is cooling, roughly chop the chocolate with a knife. It is fine if there are pieces of different sizes. The larger pieces will create particularly nice melted chocolate pockets later.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 °C conventional heat preheat.
4. About a 20 × 30 cm baking pan Line with parchment paper.
5. In a large bowl Flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and optionally this Espresso powder mix together. Don't worry, thanks to the espresso powder, the cookie bars won't suddenly taste like a cappuccino. It mainly enhances the chocolate flavor. Little kitchen magic, just with more caffeine.
6. Pour the slightly cooled browned butter into a second large bowl. brown sugar, white sugar and 1 tsp milk add and mix everything thoroughly together until a smooth mixture is formed.
7. Now the both room temperature eggs and the Vanilla paste add and mix everything together until the mixture is nice, smooth, and creamy.
8. Now the dry ingredients slowly and in portions add to the wet ingredients and mix only until just combined into a smooth batter. Do not keep mixing for minutes. We are baking cookie bars, not training the dough for the Olympics.
9. Add the chopped chocolate to the dough and gently fold it in with a dough scraper or large spoon until evenly distributed. If you like, you can set aside a few pieces of chocolate and scatter them on top of the dough later. Purely for the visual appeal, of course. Definitely not because more visible chocolate is fundamentally a good idea.
10. Place the cookie dough into the prepared baking pan and spread it evenly into the corners. If you saved any chocolate, you can now scatter it over the surface and press it gently into the dough.
11. The cookie bars at 180 °C top/bottom heat for approximately 30 minutes bake. They are perfect when the edges already look a nice golden brown while the center is still clearly soft. And now comes the most important point: Do not wait for the center in the oven to become completely firm. The cookie bars will become even firmer as they cool. Therefore, anyone who wants them nice and soft and slightly „gooey“ should take them out of the oven a little sooner rather than later.
12. Now there are two options. You let the cookie bars cool completely. Then they become firmer, can be wonderfully removed from the pan, and neatly cut into pieces. Very sensible. Very grown-up. Or you do it like me. When the cookie is still so soft that it can hardly be removed from the pan properly, it's just right for me. Slightly golden brown on the outside, warm, soft on the inside, and full of melted chocolate. Anyone who prefers it a bit firmer unfortunately has to wait until it has cooled completely. However, mine didn't survive that long.