How to make soft and chewy bar cookies with peanut butter cups (or your favorite candy) from scratch.
Somehow, we’ve collected an odd assortment of miniature candy bars. We’ve literally got half-empty bags pushed into every nook and cranny of our pantry. A few of those bags had one of our favorites, Reese’s peanut butter cups. This soft, tender and easy bar cookie recipe was the perfect way to use them.
Our Favorite From Scratch Cookie Dough for Bar Cookies
This cookie dough is versatile and can be used 100 different ways.
We absolutely love peanut butter cups. Especially the miniature ones — they have the perfect peanut butter to chocolate ratio for us. If you have another favorite — Snickers, Milky Way Bars, or other candy, use it. They work just as well.
The cookie dough comes together in minutes — beat butter and sugar, add egg, and then the dry ingredients. Soft, tender, chewy bar cookies! So easy and oh, so delicious!
This post was sponsored by Gold Medal Flour.
Easy Cookie Bars
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PREP
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COOK
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TOTAL
This soft, tender and easy bar cookie recipe is the perfect way to use your favorite candy bars. We love peanut butter cups, but most candy will work for this.
Makes 12 Cookie Bars
You Will Need
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, softened
1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed (65g) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 ¼ cups (162g) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup (125g) chocolate chips or chopped candy like peanut butter cups
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
2In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, both sugars, and the vanilla extract at medium speed with a hand mixer until creamy, light, and fluffy, scraping down the sides as necessary for about 3 minutes.
3Add the egg and beat until combined.
4In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5Add the flour mixture, in thirds, to the butter mixture, beating until incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
6Stir in the chocolate chips or candy.
7Press the cookie dough into the prepared baking pan and bake until the top is no longer wet and golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.
8Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Cut into 12 rectangles.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Make ahead: Refrigerate unbaked cookie dough up to 3 days.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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