Chocolate Chip Cookies ‘n’ Cream Magic Bars

If I was in school this semester, it would be finals week for me. But I’m not in school. I’m not even employed right now. I have no reason to be stressed- but I should be stressed around this time of year, be it finals or work.

But you know what’s not stressful? These bars. Making them isn’t stressful.  And eating them is FAR from stressful. (Although stopping eating may be a bit stressful- they’re THAT good.)

So let’s break these babies down. They’re the same as 7 layer bars- minus two layers, making them magic bars. White Chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chips are all sandwiched between sweetened condensed milk and a brownie crust. I had never made 7 layer bars before this. I had also been scared of working with sweetened condensed milk before- namely because I have no idea what it actually is. Now I’m over that fear, and I see many more magic bars in my future.

Back to these bars. My mom and I can’t stop eating them. I’m hoping there will be enough for other people to try in the next few days!

Recipe:
Yeilds 20 bars.
Ingredients:

• 1 box brownie mix
• 6 Tbs butter, melted.
• 3/4 c white chocolate morsels, or finely chopped baking bar
• 1/2 c semi- sweet chocolate chips
• 1 140z can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup crumbled chocolate chip cookies + additional cookies for topping. (I used store brand soft baked cookies)

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Line 9×11 pan with aluminum foil and set aside. 
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter and brownie mix. Add more butter if necessary  Press in the bottom of prepared pan.
3. Sprinkle white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate over the crust. Add crumbled cookies and pour sweetened condensed milk over top. Add more cookies if desired.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until middle is set. 15 minutes into baking, pull out and fold the edges of the foil over so the edges of the bars don’t brown.

Just Like Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mother makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever, hands down. I know, I know, everyone says that about their mothers cookies.  But my mom’s cookies really are fantastic.

I’m not the only person who says so. My grandfather, her father-in-law, says so. Multiple teachers of mine in junior and senior high said so.  Everyone at my church said so. In fact, at bake sales for school and church, people would request her cookies.

I went to a private, K-12 school. My freshman year of high school we had our very first musical, and the woman in charge of refreshments at intermission was new to the school and had never had any of my mom’s cookies. My mom called her, volunteering to make cookies to sell, and the woman said “no, we already have plenty of cookies; you can make brownies though!” Well. At intermission on opening night, people kept coming up and asking specifically for my mother’s cookies by name. The next day mom get’s a call, asking her to make cookies for the remaining shows.

So when all is said and done, my mother does have the best cookies ever.  It’s proven by my tiny, 400 person school.

I do some things a little differently than my mother does- mostly because she likes her cookies crispier and crunchier than I like mine, so she doesn’t chill the dough or pull them out when they’re slightly under done and let them firm up on the stovetop like I do. If you do this right, they’ll taste just like raw cookie dough. No lie.

It’s similar to most basic cookie recipes: Butter, sugars, flour, vanilla, leavening agents, eggs, etc.  We like to double the amount of brown sugar to white sugar- this makes the cookies softer and more moist, due to the addition of molasses in the brown sugar.

Begin by creaming the sugars, butter, and vanilla in your stand mixer, then add the eggs.  Mix together the dry ingredients, and slowly stir them into the wet ingredients. After this you are done with the electric mixer, so make sure to scrape as much dough off of the paddle with a rubber spatula and a knife. Then, with the spatula, mix in the 1 1/2 c of chocolate chips. My mother likes to use 2 cups, but after doing some reading on other food blogs, I discovered that 1.5 c of add-ins was plenty, and having a little less will help bake the cookies thicker. I decreased the amount of chips, and it was still very, very chocolate-chipy.

See? still plenty of chips.

Here’s the recipe:

(yields 2-3 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

• 2 Sticks (1 cup) butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 c brown suger
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 c chocolate chips

directions:

1. mix butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time.
2. in separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. slowly mix in the flour mixture to wet ingredients, and blend until fully mixed.
4. stir in chocolate chips
5. let chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. drop rounded teaspoon size balls onto a nonstick cookie sheet and bake at 275 on convect or 300 on non-convect until the edges are golden brown.
7. pull out of oven and let sit for 3-5 minutes until cookies are firm, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

cookies will keep for 2-3 weeks in a jar or airtight container.

M&M Blondies

{recipe from Sallysbakingaddiction}

I had a rather horrible evening Thursday night. For security purposes I’m not going to talk about why, but essentially I got in a lot of trouble at work for a very small infraction, and I came home and sobbed. Friday I proceeded to eat my sorrows in Chocolate cookies and peeps. Feeling terrible about eating six cookies in one day and not saving many for my roommates, and wanting to do something other than moping over tumblr and cookies, I decided to try this recipe from sally’s baking addiction to use up a bunch of margarine and Christmas m&ms I had.

So I made these. I substituted margarine for browned butter because I accidentally bought eight pounds of it two months ago and really need to use it up; plus, I’m saving my butter for Easter. (I’m a poor intern, don’t judge me.)

I also used a larger pan instead of the 8×8 called for in the recipe because that was all I had,  so they were much thinner than Sally’s were.

To view and make this recipe, go here.