Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

These soft and fluffy chocolate chip cookie bars are crowd-pleasers! They’re easy to whip up and perfectly chewy.

Everyone loves a good chocolate cookie. But here’s something we think is even better: these soft, gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars! They’ve got an irresistibly chewy texture, featuring chocolate chips on the inside and chocolate chunks pressed into the top. A bit of oatmeal gives it a nostalgic heartiness, and the edges get perfectly golden. These were a massive hit over here, and the friends we gifted extras to were begging for the recipe.

There’s nothing better than a good tray of bars: for parties, pitch-ins or just an after school snack! The advantage to bars over cookies? They’re much easier: no chilling the dough or portioning it out. Just throw the dough into a 9 x 9 pan and bake! It’s unfussy and a fun way to make an easy treat. These bars come out irresistibly soft and gooey, and they stay soft for days. Here’s what you’ll need:

All-purpose flour
Old fashioned rolled oats
Baking powder
Butter
Light brown sugar and granulated sugar
Eggs
Vanilla
Dark chocolate chips

Once you mix up the dough for these chocolate chip cookie bars, throw them in the oven and bake for 21 to 23 minutes until golden brown. That’s it! It’s so much easier than cookies.

There are a few best practices for chocolate chip cookie bars. Here’s what to know:

Grease the pan, then line the pan with parchment paper. This makes them easy to remove from the pan. Cut the parchment so that it extends on two sides to easily remove it from the pan (cut it to fit right in the bottom on the other side). Greasing the entire pan helps the parchment stick to the bottom.
Allow to cool for at least 1 hour. This lets the texture set, firming it up so it’s the ideal gooey texture for eating. You may find you’ll need even up to 2 hours for the chips to fully set. But if you’d like to serve it warm with a fork, you can do that too (see below).
Top with flaky seas salt if desired. Pull them out of the oven and top with a few sprinkles of flaky sea salt, if you love that sweet and savory vibe.

Or, eat them warm with ice cream

These chocolate chip cookie bars are the perfect crowd pleasing dessert for cookouts, parties, and more! You can eat them cooled as bars, but if you just can’t wait? You can eat them warm, topped with vanilla ice cream as a showy dessert. If you do so, let the pan rest for about 15 minutes before serving. Or even better, serve as a sundae with a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Storage info

How to store these chocolate chip cookie bars once you’ve bake them up? Make sure to store them with parchment paper between each layer, so they don’t stick to each other. Then, place them in an airtight container and you can store them for:

3 days at room temperature
2 weeks refrigerated
3 months frozen

More chocolate chip recipes

Chocolate chip anything always goes over well, over here! Here are a few more chocolate chip recipes to try:

Opt for deliciously moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Try Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Make a big Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
Try a Chewy Cookie Cake Recipe
Go for Edible Cookie Dough (or Chickpea Cookie Dough)