Easy Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookie Bars

One of the best things I’ve ever eaten! Soft, chewy and Easy Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookie Bars ….there’s a seam of nutella in the middle….

(fyi – these bars are easy, and best made the night before you want to eat them to give them a chance to set because they contain that much gooey chocolate)

So it’s spring, post-Easter sugar high, and well into the realisation that summer/holidays are coming and we might want to shed a couple of winter pounds (five ways to go over here)!! Totally the wrong time to share these cookie bars with you then, but I can’t help it. THEY ARE AMAZING. (You will totally shout about it too once you make them!) and I can’t stop thinking about the next time I’m going to make them…

We all know that everyone loves cookies (if you don’t, we can’t be friends),  but these cookie bars are maybe even better than cookies (controversial I know)…? Let me tell you why…

I made these for the first time recently after having them on my to-bake list for quite a while. Don’t make the same mistake I did – bake these right away. Trust me. Or, trust the customers at my charity Bake Sale where these had sold out within seconds. I barely grabbed one for myself!

(please excuse the pictures of these bars – I couldn’t photograph them properly once they were baked but I knew I had to share them with you YESTERDAY!).

These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars have all the best qualities of cookies, with none of the bad ones. Think gooey chewy cookie dough-like centre (that is absolutely packed full of chocolate chips – seriously, I don’t think this recipe could hold anymore!), crispy, crackly crust.

(I’ve recommended my favourite chocolate for baking below!). Trust me, they’ll take these bars to a whole new delicious level.

The best thing I’ve eaten all year.

Oh, and I added a middle layer of melty nutella. You only live once, right? The nutella flavour isn’t super obvious, just a note of chocolatey nuttiness that runs through the cookie bars like a delightful geological deposit. Or something.

Sometimes have problems with cookies? ME TOO. With these bars, we’re sidestepping the issues with baking cookies that can frustrate us.  The bars can’t spread and the middle remains soft and chewy no matter what! Plus, there’s no rolling dough into balls or cooking in batches.

Easy, quick, simple. AMAZING.

I used my mixer to make these Easy Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookie Bars, but it’s just as easy by hand. If you make a BIG batch like I did (I’ve given you two options below), it will be easier to split the dough into two bowls before adding the chocolate chips, as there’s SO much of it!).

Even cats love them!

Cats supposedly can’t taste sweet flavours, but every cat I’ve had has liked the odd bit of cake. 😂

I adapted this recipe from this one by Ina Garten (LOVE the Barefoot Contessa!). The pan I used to make these very tall bars was about 14 x 10 inches  – with tall sides of at least 1 inch. I used a disposable tin foil tin to save time for my bake sale. Don’t worry if you don’t have that size tin, you can use two smaller tins too!

Each of your cookie dough layers should be about 1cm tall, so whatever the size of your pan, put enough cookie dough in the bottom to come up to around 1cm up the side, add a generous layer of Nutella (similar to what you’d add to a slice of nutella toast) and then cover with another 1 cm layer of cookie dough.

If you’re using a smaller tin and you have some cookie dough left, repeat the process again! (OR eat the cookie dough. Your call).

The recipe below will make twenty VERY LARGE bars, so I’ve put the halved amounts in brackets if you’d prefer not to make sure a big quantity! Though you could make them all and freeze half…

5.0 from 2 reviews

Easy Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookie Bars

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Author: Kerry @ Kerry Cooks

Serves: 20 large bars

Ingredients

• 450g (225g) unsalted butter (very soft)
• 440g (220g) light brown sugar
• 200g (100g) caster sugar
• 4 (2) large free range eggs
• 550g (275g) plain flour
• 2 (1) tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 (1) tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp (1.5tsp) salt
• 150g (75g) white chocolate chips/chunks
• 150g (75g) milk chocolate chips/chunks
• 150g (75g) plain chocolate chips/chunks
• 1 jar nutella

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (160 fan), so that's about gas mark 4, depending on your oven (mine runs cool so it was more like 5).
2. 
   
3. Grease your tin with a little melted or soft butter and a dusting of flour, then set aside.
4. 
   
5. In a large bowl or mixer, combine the very soft butter with the brown and white sugar, and mix until fluffy and soft.
6. Crack in the four eggs, and beat into the sugar butter mixture, then slowly add the flour, stirring and scraping the bottom of the bowl until everything is incorporated. Add the bicarb of soda, baking powder and salt, and mix thoroughly.
7. 
   
8. Finally, add the chocolate chips, and hey why not pop in a few more too?
9. Layer half of the cookie dough in the bottom of your pan (or up to about 1cm up the side of the pan). Spoon a generous layer of melted nutella (I microwave the jar in the microwave but DO MAKE SURE all of the gold label is scraped off as your microwave will not like that) on top and then top with more cookie dough. Smooth it out with the back of a spoon.
10. 
    Bake for 45 - 60 mins in the middle shelf of your oven (Assuming you've made a large batch - if you've halved the batch, cook for 25-35 mins.
11. 
    These cookie bars need some time to solidify before being cut, so put them into the fridge, ideally overnight, before cutting.

3.5.3208

Chocolate geek talk

SO you can of course use any chocolate chips or chunks in these cookie bars, and they will taste yummy. I often buy value bars of chocolate from the supermarket and cut it up into chunks myself. Lidl’s 35p / 100g bars are particularly good.

But I used my favourite Callebaut chocolate chips and I promise if you give them a try, you’ll love them too! I first discovered them when I went on a chocolate truffle making course with a master chocolatier. They’re gorgeous Belgian chocolate and you can really taste the quality – so gooood! I even love their white chocolate chips and I normally dislike white chocolate.

The really hilarious thing is that Callebaut chocolate costs way less than chocolate chips from the supermarket, even though those are vastly inferior (and kinda gross, I find). Plus I love how BIG they are (greedy baker over here). You do have to buy in bulk (I get the 2.5kg bags) but they are good for 2+ years usually.

Okay, chocolate geek out! Make these bars!

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