Ultimate Cookie Bars

Let's just cut right to the chase here - I've made these before for this here blog. They are the famous cookie bars, and were one of the first recipes I shared when I started this thing. Which means the pictures aren't that great, and the recipe itself, while good, could use a little more tweaking.

It really is pretty crazy to look back at some of my old baked goods on here and see how much my photos have improved. Of course, it helps having an actual decent camera. Like, a lot. A bajillion amount, really. My old little point and shoot camera could never get these kinds of photos, no matter how hard I tried. It did not like super close-ups, no siree.

But let's get back to the recipe. Every time I'd made these in the past, while they were definitely delicious, and deliciously gooey, they would always do that slumping thing where, after you take it out of the oven, the middle would deflate down a bit, with the edges staying up higher. Which, of course, made the edges the least desired pieces, as they were almost always much drier than the rest. So I thought to myself, I wonder if this is one of those moments where I should use a combination of baking powder and baking soda instead of just baking soda in the recipe, and what do you know!

Voila!

Magic!

The middle did not deflate after I baked it. The whole thing stayed nice and uniform throughout. Hallelujah! I may have done a mini victory jig after I let the bars sit for a while after taking them out of the oven. You know, no big.

One other thing you may notice in the below ingredients that's different from the original is that I cut down the amount of sugar. The less sugar is for a very simple reason - the marshmallows add a lot more sugar to the mix themselves, and the original recipe wasn't accounting for that, so it was very much a sugar overload situation.

I also did one more optional thing on half of my bars for this go 'round - I added some dulce de leche to the top to give it an extra boost of richness. You can see the dulce versions in the very first picture up at the top and the first one below the recipe. The dulce made the marshmallows explode even more than normal, so if you want some extra flavor, you can totally add it, but if you don't, that's fine too, it just depends on what you like.

Hopefully you all like this slight change to the original recipe! If you end up making them, let me know what you think in the comments!

Ultimate Cookie Bars
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 18 Bars
Prep time: 00:15

Cook time: 00:25

Total time: 00:40

Easy, gooey, and delicious for days. You can’t beat these cookie bars!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/14 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1+ cup mini marshmallows
• 1 15 ounce can dulce de leche (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 9x13" pan with cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute each until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Mix in the baking powder, salt, and flour on low until just incorporated. You don't want to overmix here. Then, add in the butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and marshmallows. I usually do this by hand so the marshmallows don't get too destroyed. Make sure all are evenly distributed. If you want your bars a bit gooier, add in more marshmallows.
4. Plop that into your prepared pan, and smooth out until even. Now, if you want, you can get crazy and add a layer of dulce de leche on top. For that, scoop the dulce into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it for about 30 seconds or so, just so it's a bit more pliable. Dollop that onto the top of the bars, then swirl around with a knife to distribute it around. You can do more or less here depending on your preference as well.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden. The middle can still be slightly less done, as it will set up more when you let the pan sit out for another 10 minutes to cool. You can adjust the baking time depending on your preference for gooeyness as well. The more gooey you like it, the less time you bake.