Sweet and Salty Cookie Bars
I love cookies. Occasionally I want to eat cookie bars. I’d never made them before this batch. How hard can it be right? It’s actually very easy. Make cookie dough, spread it in a 9x13 inch baking pan and bake. Simple enough right?
Just because they’re easy to make doesn’t mean they’re light on flavor. These are packed with sweetness, saltiness, and lots of chew. The pretzels give a nice crunchy texture along with a flavor boosting bit of salt. The semisweet chocolate chips give a wonderful sweet spot when you bite into them. We used the big ones made by Ghirardelli. These give you large melty pockets of chocolate when fresh from the oven. The massive amounts of M&Ms you can cram into these, when using the minis, really add tiny sweet crisp pockets of chocolate.
These cookie bars have everything. They’re well rounded in flavor and texture. Since they’re in bar form you can eat as big or small of a piece as you want. Each bit will give you chocolate, salt, sweet, and chew. Hints of vanilla and crunch from the pretzel are rounded out with mini M&Ms for tiny bits of sweetness. Flavor and texture aside they’re super simple to make. Great for a quick baking session with the little ones. These are simple enough that you could make them while having a conversation about how you’re feeling. They’ll give you a sweet way to get to know someone or hear what someone really has to say.
Ingredients
1 Cup unsalted butter
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 Cup m&ms (we used minis)
3/4 Cup crushed pretzel sticks
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
Cream the butter and sugars
Add the eggs one at a time, beating to combine
Mix in the vanilla
In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. mix
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do this in two batches. Don’t forget to scrap down the sides of the bowl between batches
Add the chocolate chips, M&Ms, and crushed pretzels and mix until just combined
Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper (if you want to remove the bars from the pan). Let some hand over the sides. You will use this as handles later to remove the bars from the pan if you’d like
Spread the batter in the pan. Make sure you get all the way to the edges and in the corners
Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean
Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan
