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These chocolate chip cookie bars are so rich and gooey! The browned butter gives them great flavor and the dark chocolate chunks are like little pools of heaven. You can swap out milk or semi-sweet chocolate if that’s more your speed, too.
Can we talk about chocolate chip cookies for a minute here?
They’re my favorite. That simple, classic cookie that everyone instantly recognizes, with no strange ingredients or difficult steps. Just a perfectly soft, somewhat chewy, chocolate loaded cookie. My favorite recipe comes straight from Anna Olson of The Food Network. I discovered her recipe when my girl, Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction, shared her slightly modified recipe. Since then? Total favorite. They became an instant hit and I always go back to that recipe.
I went ahead and doctored the recipe up just slightly by turning them into bars, browning the butter to give it some more depth, and replacing my usual milk chocolate chips with a bar of dark chocolate, chopped into chunks. The pools of melty chocolate will make you lose your mind. Truth. Best part about cookie bars? You don’t need to chill the dough before baking!
I baked an entire 9×13 pan of these cookies for only 15 minutes which meant that they were so perfectly underdone that they just melt in your mouth. If you don’t like gooey cookies, keep these in the oven for an extra 3 or 4 minutes. Don’t go too long, though, because who wants crispy, crunchy cookie bars?
You’ll want to let these bars cool for as long as you can stand it (for me, that meant about 30 minutes) before cutting. Like I said, they are underdone and gooey. They will fall apart if you don’t let them cool a bit. Then again, nobody said you can’t eat these with a fork, so if you’re really impatient, go ahead and dig in!
My daughter took one bite of these bars and proclaimed them the best ever. Her exact words were “these taste like a miracle.” Have I convinced you to let these be your favorite cookie, too?
Dark Chocolate Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 7 ounces dark chocolate chopped (milk or semisweet can be substituted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the butter to a small saucepan set over medium heat and cook until it melts. Whisk the butter constantly. It will foam and bubble.
- Continue whisking until the butter has turned a golden brown color and smells nutty. Remove from the heat, let cool 5 minutes, and add to a large mixing bowl.
- Beat the butter and sugars together until well combined. Stir in the egg and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and salt. Stir into the butter mixture and mix until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment or foil. Press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes exactly for bars with a gooey, underdone center. Bake a few minutes longer for firmer, more set bars.
- Cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting, longer if you don't want your bars to fall apart.
Nutrition Information:
Can’t get enough cookies? Check out some of my other favorite cookie recipes!
Salted Caramel Browned Butter Cookie Cups
Oatmeal Craisin Breakfast Cookies
Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookie Cups
Torin says
Simple and delicious! I will be browning butter more often and definitely will be baking these cookies again!
Karly says
So glad to hear that! Browned butter is magic, right? 🙂
Misty says
HORRIBLE DISAPPOINTMENT! These were all dry and had a shortbread like texture. Not gooey at all. Made them for a birthday dessert wanting the gooey texture and these were a huge let down because of the texture. Ruined the entire experience and I didn’t want to eat them at all.. Should have tried them without the cornstarch. Will have to find a better recipe and hope for a take 2 belated birthday dessert will work better.
Karly says
I’m sorry to hear these didn’t work out for you. Did you bake for the recommended amount of time? I can’t imagine how these could possibly turn out like shortbread if the recipe was followed – the ratio of butter to flour and the bake time makes for some pretty chewy/gooey cookies.
janet says
Can you sub. dark chocolate chips for the chopped chocolate bar? thanks!
Karly says
That should be fine.
Madeline says
Made these and as someone who isn’t a big cookie fan I have to say I LOVE THESE! Definitely will be making again, they were so easy!
We’re the people getting dry and crumbly resultant spooning and leveling?
Rachel says
Mine was dry and crumbly too, and I don’t think I measured incorrectly. I wonder what the common denominator with us “dry” folks is, when other people are successfully getting gooey bars. I didn’t weigh anything but I do consciously try to not pack the flour down in my measuring cup.
Nicole Zuppo says
These look incredible!!
Christie says
I’ve made these several times and they’re delicious! I bake mine a bit longer as I’m not a fan of the gooey type and they’re still moist and yummy!
Bela says
Can I substitute the flour with almond flour?
Karly says
No, almond flour doesn’t sub in 1:1. You’d need to make some other adjustments, I believe.
channy says
I tried these, measured everything out, be batter was super dry before i even baked it. did not turn out like the picture
Karly says
That’s strange! Sorry they didn’t work out for you.
An says
Hi! Does it need to be brown butter? Can I just use regular margarine, even if it won’t taste as good?
Karly says
Hi An!
You don’t have to brown the butter, but I highly recommend using real butter in place of margarine.
Christian says
So it says that you chop the dark chocolate. What do you mean by chopped? How big are the pieces?
Karly says
@Christian,
I chopped it into small chunks, like chocolate chips.
Lilly says
Randomly found this recipe online… Time to believe in destiny? 😉
I made these yummy treats for a family dinner yesterday and they were amazing! They are all gone today 🙂
Browning the butter made me a little nervous as I had never done it before. And, my final result wasn’t as photogenic as the above but they were still like the best cookie you ever had.
I’ve been asked to (more like ordered to, lol) make these for football season. Thanks for giving me a new recipe for my repertoire.
Joyce says
I just made these today to take with me to a friends’ house. EVERYONE LOVED them. I am new to baking / cooking so felt so proud of myself! Thank you for sharing so many of your great recipes.
Karly says
@Joyce,
So happy to hear that! Thanks for reading! 🙂
Claire Gallam says
I can not get over how INCREDIBLY DECADENT these look!!
Ak says
I made these following the directions and quantities (I only left out the corn starch) and they turned out completely crumby and dry. How do you make them so gooey?
Karly says
@Ak,
Sorry to hear that! Are you sure you measured correctly using a dry measure for your flour? Did you happen to overbake them?
Kristine says
@Karly, mine did the same thing. I did measure everything dry and did not over bake it.
Karly says
@Kristine,
I’m not sure what could be the problem. If the inside isn’t still gooey, I’d have to think it was overbaked. Every oven is different, so maybe you just need to bake for less time? I’m sorry I’m not more help. This is my standard cookie recipe and it’s been tested many times, so I’m not sure what else the problem could be. 🙁
Kristine says
@Karly, would adding more butter help? Because it looks and tastes underdone without the gooey and melty part. 🙁