I've been "assigned" to make cookies for 40 people (and, no, I didn't know that many people were invited) this coming weekend.

I figure 3 cookies per person - no way.

Does anyone have a good bar cookie recipe? Last night I tried one off the Internet for chocolate chip bar cookies and it's TERRIBLE.

Any thoughts? Something simple and easy.

I haven't done any baking since my husband passed away but as I recall the stove is the appliance with the burners on the top, right?

haha. Here's one that's not too much work and I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was a huge hit with my family.
it's called a marbled caramel chocolate slice but it's basically a bar cookie. This recipe makes about 24 so I imagine you'll want to at least double it. And of course you can cut them as small as you like. They're pretty rich.

base:
2 1/4 C plain flour
1/2 C super fine sugar (baker's sugar)
3/4 C unsalted butter
mix together until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Press it into your pan (the book says to use a swiss jelly roll pan but I'm pretty sure any rectangular pan that is at least close to 13x9 in will work). You can go over it with the back of a spoon to smooth it if you want, but as long as it's fairly even it doesn't much matter since it will be covered up later anyway. Prick all over it with a fork and put it in the over (350 F) for about 20 min, until light golden brown. Let that cool.

caramel filling:
7tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1/2 C light brown sugar
2 14oz. Cans sweetened condensed milk.

once the base has cooled make the filling. Pour all the ingredients into a saucepan and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and gently simmer, constantly, gently stirring for about 5 min or until the mixture has thickened and is a caramel color.
pour it evenly over the base and leave to cool.

Chocolate topping:
3 1/2oz semisweet chocolate
3 1/2oz milk chocolate
2 oz white chocolate

the book I have says to melt all of the chocolate in separate bowls and then alternate milk chocolate, semisweet stripes across the top. Then drop small spoonfuls of the white chocolate and take a skewer or toothpick and run it through to create swirls. It's pretty, but not necessary if you don't feel like doing the extra work. Melting even just one type and smoothing it over the top would be just as yummy.


it looks like a lot of work, but waiting for things to cool is really the only thing that take much time.

This is my equivalent of being helpful:

Cooks.com - Recipes - Bar Cookies

Sorry :)

EDIT: Yes, I believe the oven has those hot circle-thingys on the top of it. Lots of knobs with numbers, or sometimes just a "Lo - Hi" diagram.

Wow, thanks -

And as far as This8384 goes - thanks for the site and also the description.

Yes, I think that's the stove that I'm looking at.

Cooks.com - Recipe - Magic Cookie Bars
(from this's link.)
My friend makes these all the time. They're amazing! We add extra chocolate chips. White chocolate, milk, and semisweet. And we use unsweetened coconut because the sweetened kind makes it too sweet, even for us.

Anytime :D

Actually, the first recipe looks relatively easy... maybe if you just doubled or tripled the ingredients?

Go with "Magic Cookie Bars" they are great and there are no bowls involved. You just put everything in order in the pan and cook and cut.

If this isn't the one you tried (and hated) and have never heard of them, let me know and I'll post the recipe when I get home. :)

Edit: that other post wasn't there when I posted, I'm too slow.

Actually if you're not too busy how long would it take you to bake (approximately) 10 dozen cookies and air freight them to me?

If you had given me more than 48 hours notice, I probably would have :)

I've made these many times with roaring approval - super easy, but the worst part is unwrapping all those caramels! Feel free to play around with the amount of pecan halves and chocolate chips you add. And be sure to read the recipe carefully a couple of times before you begin. (For instance, be sure to add the melted butter and evap. Milk to the dry cake mix.)

Easy Caramel Pecan Brownies - Foodista.com

(Ignore the site photos - the brownies will be thick and rich.)

Oh yeah, to make the magic bar cookies even easier... instead of putting the butter in the oven my friend taught me to just melt the butter in the microwave and pout it into the pan. It's so much quicker.

I made brownies similar to wondergirls. I was too lazy to unwrap caramels though so I bought a box of unwrapped chocolate covered caramel squares. Then all I had to do was cut them into smaller chunks.

That's the way I always do it, never heard of the oven method.

That's what the site said to do. I'd end up burning myself spilling the butter all over me getting it out of the oven if I tried it that way. Lol

I used the bar cookie recipe posted by Justcurious 55 - they came out just great, looked good, were delicious.

For anyone who ever needs cookies for a crowd - this is a great recipe.

And thank you justcurious!

... do you have any left over? :D