These extra soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie bars are incredibly easy to make. No mixer, dough chilling, or rolling into balls required! Sprinkle with flaky sea salt for a little something extra.
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, helpful success tips, and additional flavors.
Taste testers have always given these chocolate chip cookie bars a stamp of approval—and I’m so glad because this dough makes my favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies, too. We’re talking the softest, chewiest, thickest chocolate chip cookies to ever come out of my oven.
And if you can believe it, baking chocolate chip dough as cookie bars transforms them into something even better. Plus, we don’t have to chill the cookie dough and we don’t need to roll the dough into individual cookies. So, they’re homemade soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, only easier to prepare. A lazy (I call it “tired”) gal’s cookie if you will. 😉
One reader, Kerri, commented: “I discovered this recipe when I wanted chocolate chip cookies but didn’t feel like waiting for my butter to come to room temperature and then also waiting for the dough to chill. It is now one of my go-to cookie recipes for those same reasons and because these bars are so delicious!! The texture is great and I love that they stay soft and fresh for a couple days. My son loves the addition of coarse sea salt sprinkled on top, too. ★★★★★”
Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Dense and buttery
- Extra chewy and extra soft
- Just like chocolate chip cookies, but they don’t spread
- 100x easier than making cookies—no individual cookie dough rolling
- No electric mixer needed
- A quick no-chill cookie recipe
- Topped with sea salt for a little something extra
- Still soft and chewy on days 2 and 3 (if they last that long!)
Key Ingredients & Why You Need Each:
If you’ve tried my beloved chewy chocolate chip cookies, you’re already familiar with the ease of this recipe. We’re using practically the same cookie recipe, but baking them as bars. Here’s what you need:
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of this recipe.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps these bars rise as they bake. Remember the crucial difference between baking powder and baking soda?
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch gives the cookie bars that ultra soft consistency we all know and love. Plus, it helps keep them wonderfully thick.
- Salt: Salt adds flavor.
- Butter: Use melted butter in this recipe for the chewiest cookie bars. Because we use melted butter, there’s no need to get out your mixer.
- Sugar: I like to use a mix of brown sugar and white granulated sugar this recipe. More brown sugar than white granulated sugar promises an extra soft and chewy cookie bar because there’s more moisture in brown sugar. I slightly reduced the sugar in the bars; it made no difference between the version tested with 1/2 cup sugar (100g).
- Egg & Egg Yolk: 1 egg binds everything together and 1 extra egg yolk adds richness and chewiness. You’ll lose a lot of moisture by skipping that extra egg yolk.
- Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract adds flavor. If you have any homemade vanilla extract, use that!
- Chocolate Chips: 1 cup of chocolate chips ensures tons of melty chocolate in each bite. Instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips, try using dark, milk, or even white chocolate chips. Or swap half of the chocolate chips for M&Ms like we do in these soft M&M cookie bars.
Flaky sea salt (I use and love this brand) is a lovely touch that offsets the sweetness, but it’s totally optional.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
The dough is incredibly simple. Whisk the dry ingredients together, then the wet, and then combine. It’s a thick, slick cookie dough:
After you prepare the cookie dough, press it into a baking pan. There’s no risk of cookie spreading with this recipe because the edges of the pan completely contain the cookies from overspreading. I love that.
- By the way, if you’re ever having spreading issues with your regular cookies, here are my top 10 tips for how to prevent cookies from spreading.
One batch of these chocolate chip cookie bars fits perfectly into a 9-inch square pan. I love using this size of pan because it yields a nice, manageable batch—about 16 thick bars. If you want a larger batch in a 9×13-inch pan, use my M&M Cookie Bars recipe and swap the M&Ms for chocolate chips. The recipe below is perfect for a single batch, but requires a few adjustments instead of simply doubling. That’s why I recommend my super similar, scaled up M&M cookie bar recipe instead.
Success Tip: I like to line my pans with parchment paper. This way, you can lift the entire cookie bar mass out and then easily cut into squares. Also makes for quick cleanup! I do the same when making rice krispie treats, too.
Do NOT over-bake these bars. Err on the side of under-baking because otherwise the cookie bars will taste dry and cakey.
Can I Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars?
Yes! If you want to amp up the depth of flavor by using browned butter, you absolutely can! My team and I have tested it, and you need to start with an extra 2 Tablespoons of butter to make up for the moisture loss that occurs during browning. Otherwise, the bars will taste dry.
How to Freeze Cookie Bars
Homemade chocolate chip cookie bars freeze beautifully so they’re a great make-ahead dessert option. Follow these instructions and no one will know they aren’t freshly baked the day you serve them:
- Bake and cool the cookie bars completely.
- Slice the bars into squares. If you lined your baking pan with parchment paper, simply lift the slab of bars out of the pan, place onto a cutting board, and cut into squares.
- Layer the bars between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. The parchment paper ensures that the bars don’t stick to each other and that the tops of the cookie bars stay intact.
- Label the container with a “best by” date 3 months out. Cookie bars taste best if they’re frozen for just 3 months or less.
- Thaw bars overnight in the refrigerator and then bring to room temperature before serving.
More Cookie Bar Flavors
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
- S’mores Cookie Bars
- Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Magic Cookie Bars
- M&M Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie and Brownie Bars
And don’t miss my recipe for chocolate chip cookie bark!
Print
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 16 bars
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
No mixer required and there’s no waiting for cookie dough to chill with these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars! Do not over-bake these bars. Err on the side of under-baking because otherwise the cookie bars will taste dry and cakey.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup (200g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- optional: sprinkle of flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving enough paper around the sides to easily lift the bars out of the pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Add the egg, extra egg yolk, and vanilla extract. The mixture will be thick. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together until combined. The dough will be soft and slick, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. The chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them.
- Transfer dough to the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer. Lightly sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt, if desired. Also, I like to press a few more chocolate chips on top of the dough before baking; this is just for looks.
- Bake for 30-34 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. Err on the side of under-baking and do NOT over-bake, or the cookie bars will taste a little dry and cakey. Use a toothpick to test for doneness; if it comes out mostly clean from the center of the pan, the bars are done.
- Allow the bars to cool in the pan set on a wire rack for at least an hour. Once relatively cool, lift the bars out of the pan using the parchment and cut into squares.
- Cover and store leftover bars at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to come to room temperature and continue with step 4. Baked cookie bars freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw bars overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Square Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Flaky Sea Salt
- Larger Batch in a 9×13-inch Pan: If you want a larger batch in a 9×13-inch pan, use my M&M Cookie Bars recipe and swap the M&Ms for chocolate chips. Today’s recipe is perfect for a single batch, but requires a few adjustments instead of simply doubling. That’s why I recommend my super similar, scaled up M&M cookie bar recipe instead.
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars: If you want to use browned butter for this recipe, start with an extra 2 Tablespoons of butter before browning it, to make up for moisture evaporation.
Reader Comments and Reviews
These are SO delicious. I may have added a little too much flour, but I added a splash of milk and they turned out perfectly. 10/10 will make again!
I made these yesterday…i found them to be very mushy…too thick.
Hi! Confused about the flour measurements, and I don’t want to screw it up lol! 2 1/4 cups of ap should measure 270gms, not 281? Just not sure which measurement to use, and I find my baking to return much better results when weighing my ingredients. Excited to try this!!!
Hi MC! We measure 1 cup flour as 125g. We recommend sticking with the weights in the recipe for best results!
I just made these and added peanut butter chips as well as milk chocolate chips. So good!
Hi Sally,
I made your chocolate chip bars for July 4th picnic. They were a hit.
My question is the sides of the bars were higher than the rest of the pan.
I followed your recipe exactly. They were even when I took the bars out and the rest of the pan sunk leaving sides high. I understand baked too.
Any ideas? Thank you for your time.
Hi Karen, Unfortunately, it’s par for the course with cookie bars. Because of the high fat content and dense structure, they’ll always sink in the middle.
DELICIOUS!!!! Yummiest cookie i have ever eaten-should be 5-star!!!!!!!!!! Yum! Keeper.
It’s so good! Very soft and chewy. I actually put brown and dark brown sugar instead of white: 50 gr of light brown and 150 gr of dark brown because I wanted to decrease the sugar levels. It turned out amazing!
Absolutely love this recipe! I make it when I want something easy to bake without the hassle of a stand mixer. My whole family loves them and always ask me to bake them.
These were really dry and the texture and taste were off.
Hi Kim! Was the dough tough or dry? Or just the baked bars? They could have been over-baked, or there could have been too much flour added to the dough. Also make sure your baking ingredients aren’t expired if there was an off taste. Thank you for giving these a try!
Made the cookie bars and they turned out great :>
Can u use this dough to make just normal cookies?
Hi A, yes! This is the same dough we use for our chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Hi there! I use “Sally” all the time, and I’m so happy to say that once again, you did not disappoint!
I made these chocolate chip cookie bars this evening because I was in a time crunch. I needed cookies for my husband’s club fishing derby tomorrow, but I also wanted to make lemon blueberry muffins for the adults who help at the derby because I got a great buy on blueberries this afternoon.
I wouldn’t have even thought about making chocolate chip bar cookies because I usually use Sally’s great chocolate chip cookie recipe, but my 89 year-old mother who lives 45 minutes away called me this PM and needed me to take her to pick up some prescriptions.
So . . . it kind of put me behind on time because I made a quadruple batch of the muffins first because I knew it would take me longer to make them. Anyway, after checking the site, I came across this recipe at 9:00 PM, mixed up a quadruple batch of these and made two jellyroll pans of them. I baked them for the listed amount of time in my convection oven, and it’s now 11:30 PM.
The dishes are all done, the cookie bars cooled enough to cut them, and they are absolutely delicious! I can’t believe how quick and easy it was to make up a 4X batch of these. If you’ve been thinking about making these bar cookies, stop thinking and just do it!
I have been making chocolate chip bars for years and this is the best combination of gooey and chocolatey without being mushy! Super easy to double as well…always good to have some in the freezer!
What is the difference between light brown sugar and dark brown sugar for baking? I just have dark brown sugar and granulated sugar, and want to bake these today. Thanks!
Hi Eden, brown sugar has a deeper flavor than light brown sugar. They can be used interchangeably. Hope you enjoy these cookie bars!
These bars are delicious! I love the texture and they are just the right amount of chewy.
How would you adjust the baking time if you only had access to an 8×8 pan?
Hi Julie, we’re so glad you enjoyed these cookie bars! This is a bit too much dough for an 8-inch pan. You could fill your pan about half way, then use the leftover dough for a few cookies on the side. Bake time should be just a few minutes shorter, but keep a close eye on them.
Hi Sally ☺️
Could I substitute coarse Kosher salt for flaky sea salt?
Hi Nanny, you can, yes–the texture will just be a little crunchier on top. Enjoy!
Hi Kelly, were the bars relatively cooled before cutting? They will solidify as they cool. You can also try increasing the bake time by 2-4 minutes or so for your next batch. Thank you for giving these a try!
These bars are fantastic! I Jove them, my wife loves them and all of my cookie friends love them. Thank you.
I made these for Memorial Day, followed recipe to the letter, they were not as high as pictures, they were hard as a rock…left them at home.
What do you think went wrong?
Hi Judy! Did they seem over-baked? Otherwise, could did the dough seem dry? How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Maybe the dough was overmixed? Need to mix just until combined.
Another great recipe from Sally! These cookie bars are delicious and were a big hit with my family. They are soft and packed with flavor. I did not have a 9×9 pan so I used my 8×8. I put in less batter as noted in one of the comments and made cookies with the rest – perfect!
These turned out very nice.
I made them EXACTLY according to the recipe with all the same ingredients and measurements.
However, I tried experimenting and baked them in my convection oven instead of my normal oven, to see how they would turn out.
I preheated the oven to 60 degrees Celsius. Put the tin in the oven and let them bake for 23 minutes.
At around 14 minutes, I covered the top of the tin with tin foil, to stop them getting too dark on the top.
At 23 minutes, I took them from the oven and left them to cool on a wire rack for 4 hours (in the tin).
I then sliced them up, and they turned out fine. I’ll definitely bake these again.
What a mind blower these lovely rigs are! I fiddled things a bit – can’t help myself: swapped in 1/4 cup malted milk powder for 1/4 cup flour, added a teaspoon of instant espresso powder, browned 14 tablespoons butter (instead of just melting 12), and added a cup of toasted pecans. My two perfect grandlings each insisted on wrapping up a piece to bring to their teachers, because, “These are like, perfect, Grumpy! They’re, like, my favorite chocolate-chip *anythings*! Ever! Literally!”
Thank you Sally, you baking genius!
Delicious and great for a pot luck; they disappeared! Very easy.
Amazing recipe as always. I doubled it and ended up having to bake for an extra 20 minutes, but my oven tends to run cold so that probably contributed. Next time I double it I’m going to try and put it in a jelly roll pan and see how much reducing the thickness will reduce the cook time. Highly recommend tenting with foil as other comments have mentioned if the top is getting too brown
Yum, yum, yum! I have been baking anything chocolate chip for 50 years(ish) and this has just become my favorite! I grew up with Crisco cookies, but the buttery flavor of these bars is the bomb! Thanks for this fabulous recipe!
This is a really nice “I’m feeling lazy but want to bake” recipe. Super quick and super simple, yummy and produces a good yield.
My bake time was exactly 30 minutes and it came out great, but next time I’ll probably watch more closely because the top did get more crispy than I’d like. Watch your bake closely and tent it with foil if the top starts looking crunchy. It needs the bake time for the thickness.
I made this recipe because I wanted a quick and easy snack for my family. It turned out great and saved time using a 9×9″ pan instead of making cookies. I will make this again and add it to my favorites!
These are amazing. I have made them five times in the past couple of months. No one complains about having them again.
I only have an 8×8 pan. What do I need to do to adjust baking these?
Hi Heidi, this is a bit too much dough for an 8-inch pan. You could fill your pan about half way, then use the leftover dough for a few cookies on the side. Hope you enjoy it!
I accidentally used my metal 8″x8″ pan and they turned out well. I just threw in a circular 8-inch piece of parchment paper on the bottom and they released well. They were baked but chewy on the inside. I had no idea I grabbed the incorrect pan size until I came to write a review. Instead of chips, I cut up Guittard semi-sweet chocolate bars (6 oz. box). My oven runs hot so I baked them for 25 minutes, heeding the warning to not overbake. My food snob family enjoyed them and amongst the 4 of us, we ate almost all of it this evening! Thanks, Sally for another great recipe! I love all your details and the optional substitutions on many of your recipes are so helpful too because I’m a rule follower who will buy an ingredient fearing it won’t turn out if the exact ingredients aren’t used.
I just sent it in my 8×8 and it turned out great. Vibes were great and cookie bars even better
Hi Sally and Team,
Can we add mix-ins such as chopped nuts? If so, how much can we add in? TIA!
Hi Audrey, absolutely! Keep total amount of add-ins to about 1 cup.
OMG! I can’t wait to make these.
Sally, are you sure a double recipe, meaning 4 1/2 cups of flour and everything else only needs to bake in a 9×13 for 35 min. Could you double check the bake time is correct. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes, this one just didn’t work out for me.
Hi Stephanie, we are working to update this recipe and the doubling instructions. Thanks for adding this feedback!
Hi Sally,
I’ve made these several times and always excellent using a scale and grams. I’m now living in NZ and none of my shipped stuff is here yet (including scale), and I’m noticing the amount of flour is inconsistent between cups and grams. It’s written 2 and 1/4 c or 281g. Could you please clarify the correct amount? Thanks!
Hi Jasmin, we consistently measure 1 cup of flour (spooned and leveled) at 125g, so 2 and 1/4 cups at 281g is correct. Hope this helps!
How long does it take to make them?mixing and all.
Hi Linden! The total time is about two hours, including cooling time.
I love all your recipes! There is one thing though, about the bar recipes, they seem to all be for a 9×9 pan or similar. We make all our bars and cakes in. 9×13 so it lasts longer lol. On this specific Chocolate chip bar recipes it says you can double the recipe, but it doesn’t work. I thought something was off as I was doing it but it came out as tall as the edge of the 9×13 pan! Anyhow, I wish there was already doubled recipe options. Or bar recipes for 13×9 pans. Other than that, nice job on the page, recipes and Congrats on the book!
I did some maths and 1.5x the recipe would give you slices the same height 🙂
Ridiculously easy and very yummy