Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Recipe - Dessert for Two (2024)

FAQs

Why are my cookie bars hard? ›

Overmixing develops the gluten in the flour, which can produce tough bars. If the recipe doesn't call for an electric mixer, mix in dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. When flour or other dry ingredients are "scooped" into the measuring cup directly from the container, it compresses, or becomes packed.

The caramelized butter, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, and subtle notes of salt offer a balanced flavor profile. The saltiness highlights and enhances the preexisting flavors. But what makes for the perfect chocolate chip cookie? You get what you pay for, and high-quality ingredients equate to a high-quality product.

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

Learn more about Fats in Baking. Check package to make sure the product you used contained at least 70% fat. Spreads with less fat contain more water, which will make bar cookies more cake-like and drier. Too little fat will result in dry or cake-like bar cookies.

How to Soften Cookies in the Oven: Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C). Wrap the stale cookies in aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet. Heat them in the oven for about 5-10 minutes. Check them regularly to avoid overheating or burning.

The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

Putting a slice of fresh white bread in the container with the cookies will help the cookies stay soft: fresh bread is moist, and that slice will give up its moisture for the greater good: keeping the cookies from drying out. We recommend white bread so that no flavor is transferred to the cookies.

The job of butter in baking (besides being delicious) is to give richness, tenderness and structure to cookies, cakes, pies and pastries. We alter the way butter works in a recipe by changing its temperature and choosing when to combine it with the other ingredients.

Softened butter and melted butter are not the same. Using melted butter will change the texture of whatever you're baking. If you only want the butter to soften for spreading, microwave it on the Defrost setting (30%) in 5-second increments until it's softened as desired.

Bread Flour: For Chewy Texture

Bread flour contains a higher protein content (around 12-14%), leading to more gluten development. This makes it ideal for bakers seeking a chewier texture in their cookies. The extra gluten can help retain gas and moisture, producing a denser and chewier result.

How to doctor up chocolate chip cookie mix? ›

Double the batch with another chocolate chip cookie mix or get funky and use a second flavor, like the peanut butter cookie mix, instead. Flavor Twist: To give your cookies a comforting and tasty twist, add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the dry chocolate chip cookie mix, before creating the dough.

Hard cookies: you are over mixing, baking too long, baking at too high a temperature, or some combination of these. Cakey cookies: not enough brown sugar, too much or too little egg, too much flour, maybe you used baking powder instead of baking soda?

Baking at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature will help cookies stay soft: they'll bake faster which means they aren't in the hot, drying air of the oven too long. Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven when the cookies are just set: underbaking is better than overbaking.

(2016) reported that hardness of the cookies is increased by the replacement of wheat flour with water chestnut flour. Further, Hoseney and Rogers (1994) stated that hardness of the cookies is caused by the interaction of proteins and starch by hydrogen bonding.

Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour. Baking soda helps cookies spread outward and upward while cooking.