These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars taste like an extra gooey chocolate chip cookie with a little bit of a cake-like taste made into a bar.  They rank among my favorite desserts, and they’re amazingly easy to make.  They’re much easier to make with a mixer, but you can hand stir them in a pinch as long as the butter is soft.  They are best served warm or at least the day you make them.  They’ll still be good the next day, but they go downhill fast because of how gooey and almost undercooked they are.  Take them to a party, and they’ll disappear FAST.  

Difficulty:  Easy

Source:  you guessed it – my mom

1 package yellow cake mix (preferably Duncan Hines Butter Golden)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup softened butter (you could use margarine, but I stick with butter… no pun intended)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup pecan pieces (optional, and I’m always always always going to leave any type of nuts out of the recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or 325 convection.  Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips and pecans.  When thoroughly mixed, spread in a greased 9×13 inch pan.  Pam (original flavor) is my favorite cooking spray, but just be sure not to grab the garlic flavored Pam your roommate bought years ago and never used.  I can tell you from experience, that will completely ruin your dessert.  I get a bad taste in my mouth just thinking about it.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips (and pecans if you choose).  It looks like a lot of choc chips, but remember that they’re not mixed into the batter, so this is just right when they mix in as they bake.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes (or 325 convection for 20 minutes).  I take them out of the oven when the top has browned a little and the edges have browned a little more and start to pull away from the sides.  It may not look quite done in the middle, but that’s what makes it so perfectly gooey when it cools.  It will still be good if you cook it a little longer – just more like the consistency of a brownie.

Let it cool, and cut it into bars.  They are best on the day that they are made.

The Story:  To redeem myself from the last few times I’ve been caught empty-handed at the “what did you bring us” question, I dropped these off at my friend’s house – the one with 4 boys age 1-7.  She sent me this picture a few hours later.

And the 7 year old doesn’t like chocolate, so they were down a man when trying to conquer this pan.  Now THAT is impressive.  No word on whether anyone made themselves sick…