This is me finding a solution to your Halloween candy dilemma. It’s a problem, right? I mean… how are we supposed to live surrounded by the mini Snickers bars? It’s entirely distracting. Snickers breakfast lunch and dinner. Let’s not talk about it. Instead, let’s add butter and flour and disguise our Halloween stash into chewy sweet and salty cookie bars… all suited and booted for sharing and giving.
Suit and boot. That’s what we do around here.
Let’s meditate on the simplicity of this recipe.
Ok… that’s enough, we’ve got cookie bars to get in the oven.
Think of these cookie bars as a giant press-in chocolate chip. Buttery, crisp around the edges, filled with an obscene amount of candy. You know how we do.
Eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract are the usual suspects.
We’re blending molasses into granulated sugar to deepen the flavor of the cookie bars. That hint of base bitterness is just the ticket.
Yes… there’s still hella candy.
Whisked eggs, butter, and vanilla meets flour, sugar, and leavening. Stir stir!
The batter will be rather thick and glossy. That’s right. Stir in a handful of candy and press into the pan for baking… but not before adding like waaaay more chocolate.
Baked up chewy and golden. All the candy, baked in bars, for sharing (and caring).
Print
Candy Bar Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 12 bars 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups coarsely chopped Halloween candy
- coarse sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 9×13-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper, leaving two flaps hanging over the edges of the pan. Grease and flour the parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate small bowl use your fingers to work together sugar and molasses until no molasses clumps remain and the sugar is tinted a light brown. Add the sugar to the dry ingredients and stir.
- In a separate medium bowl whisk together melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Mixture will be thick and glossy.
- Stir in a scant 1 cup of coarsely chopped candy.
- Use your fingers to evenly press the dough into the pan. Top with the remaining chopped candy.
- Bake for 27 to 30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before slicing into bars. Wrap individually and store at room temperature for up to three days.
68 Responses
these came out a mess left them in for way longer because the center was still soup and now they are really dark… what did I do wrong?
Even the candies you are not fond of taste good in this recipe.
Joy, I have crazy candy. Do you think it would work to freeze a batch?
Ummmm Easter candy works too, right? Just no jelly beans.
Just made these. Followed directions exactly. Pulled them out of the oven after 30 minutes. They are brown but still look gooey in areas. Hopefully they’ll be ok when they cool??
hey there you’re really making hungry…. ur lucky to live alone….. you have allllllllll to ur self
I’ve had this sitting underneath the bag of candy in our pantry since you posted it….finally baked them yesterday and they are so good. And really, who doesn’t warm up for pie with snickers….thanks!
This is so cute they are perfect for younger children too!?
I think I’m defiantly going to have to try this one
Hi Joy,
these look and sound delicious! And I’m eager to bake those – but: since I live in Europe I don’t own a cup measure so I just started converting the cups into gramms and I’m really puzzled:
240 g flour with 450 g sugar?? and 225 g butter?
The amount of sugar seems huge – keeping in mind we still are going to add candies galore…
Could you pleaseplease confirm?
Thanks a lot and all the best,
Sina from Germany
By the way: I made your banana bread the other weekend and it was won-der-ful!!
I have to agree – I often make boterkoek and the batter looks like the picture but has equal amounts (250g) flour, melted butter and sugar … and boterkoek is definitely sweet enough! But the extra sugar in this would give it a grainer texture like a soft, chewy cookie, while boterkoek tends to be smooth-textured (when I cut mine it looks as smooth as glass inside). So it may be right – but it’s made for the American palate :-)
I think you’re funny to think they will last 3 days…. :-)