Sheet Pan Cookie Bars

Kitchen Supplies

Ingredients

• 2 Sticks of Unsalted Butter, softened
• 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
• ½ Cup White Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 3 tsp Vanilla
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 2 ½ Cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1 Package of Dark Chocolate Chips (about 2 cups)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Using your KitchenAid Stand Mixer, cream together the room-temperature butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until it is creamy.
3. Next, add your eggs and mix until combined. Scrap down the sides with your spatula after you stop the mixer.
4. Add the vanilla in and mix.
5. Now it is time for some dry ingredients. I know most recipes call for mixing the dry ingredients first and then adding it to your wet ingredients but I have never had a problem with the way I am about to describe.
6. With your mixer running, add the Baking Soda, Salt, and Cream of Tartar one by one and mix.
7. Add in your flour next, with your mixer off. No one needs to clean up a flour mess! Mix until smooth and creamy. You may have to turn your speed up here if your mixer is working too hard.
8. Pour in your dark chocolate chips and mix just until they are evenly dispersed. This takes less than 30 seconds.
9. Evenly spread your cookie batter onto your jelly roll pan. Make sure to get the batter into all the corners😊. There is no need to prep the pan. Your cookie bars won’t stick to it.
10. Bake for about 8 minutes and then check.  They may need a minute or 2 longer depending on your oven. 
11. Your cookie bars will be done when they are lightly golden brown.
12. Cool before cutting them into squares. You can make them as big or as small as you want. I usually cut 24 cookie bars.
13. If there are any left, store them in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Helpful Tips

• No KitchenAid Stand Mixer, no problem. A hand mixer works too. But you should look at investing in a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. It is a kitchen game changer. I use it for way more than baking!
• You can use salted butter if that is all you have. Just skip adding the salt to the cookie bars.
• If you don’t have Cream of Tartar on hand, you can skip it. Your cookie bars just won’t be as light and fluffy.
• When it comes to chocolate chip flavors, I have played around with this a lot and made my family do blind taste tests.  They all agree, myself included, that dark chocolate chips taste the best.
• If you want to make your cookie bars look a bit fancier, take them out of the oven at about minute 3 into baking, swirl the top with a butter knife, and then return them to the oven to finish baking. Please be careful that you don’t burn yourself!
• You can add other toppings to these sheet pan cookie bars including M&M’s, chopped nuts, sprinkles, raisins, and more.