Looking for the perfect National Chocolate Chip Day recipe? Maybe it's Pan Cookies! They're what we used to call Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Bars back in the day. This version of the beloved American cookie bar is baked in an 8-inch square pan, so it's a small batch but not a tiny batch.
Baking Powder and Melted Butter
This is a very old recipe which happens to be a little different from other pan cookies because it has baking powder only, no baking soda. In addition to that, the butter is melted rather than creamed with the sugar, so the melted butter offsets any fluffiness from the baking powder. You get a gentle lift, tenderness but still dense and chewy bars. I've not yet attempted to brown the butter for this particular recipe, but I have tried to use really high quality butter which makes a difference.
Adding Brown Sugar to Hot Butter
This recipe does not say to cool the butter, so should you let it cool before adding the brown sugar? The advantage to adding brown sugar to hot butter is that it dissolves the sugar quicker, enhances the Maillard reaction and gives the bars a shinier top and dense, chewy texture. The disadvantage is that you have to let the mixture cool before adding the egg, lest it scrambles. Then again, scrambling rarely happens if using a cold egg. But you do want to make sure the batter is cool before adding chocolate chips. So what happens if you use cooled melted butter? You'll still get great results, but perhaps a less shiny to and thicker bars.
Pan Cookies Add-Ins
The base for these pan cookies is pretty simple, but you can jazz the recipe up by using different types of chips and nuts. I used a combination of cinnamon and chocolate chips, but you can use butterscotch, bittersweet chips, dark – whatever is on hand. What’s great about this bar cookie is that it’s moist, has a dense texture, chewy edges and a caramel flavor.
No-Fail Pan Cookies
¾ cup all purpose flour (95 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter (56 grams), salted
1 cup brown sugar, packed (200 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
¼ to ½ cups of your favorite flavor chips (butterscotch, chocolate chips, bittersweet) -- see note at bottom
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square metal pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper or skip this altogether and have fun prying the bars from the pan.
Thoroughly stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Melt the butter in the microwave. If you have a microwave-safe mixing bowl, even better! Combine brown sugar and melted butter and stir well. Stir in the egg and vanilla and beat 15 strokes with a mixing spoon.
Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir just until mixed. Mixture will still be very warm so let it cool for 5 minutes. Stir in chips.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and bars appear set (edges will be brown).
Let cool for about 20 minutes. Lift from pan and slice into 16 bars
Note: These bars are fairly sweet, so you may want to eliminate the chips altogether. I like chips, so I add them. If you are using a sweet chip such as butterscotch or cinnamon, you might want to use ¼ cup, but if you are using a dark chocolate type chip, go for the higher amount. Nuts are a good add-in too.
Makes 16
Recipe
No Fail Pan Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup all purpose flour (95 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, salted (56 grams)
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed (200 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 large egg
- ¼ to ½ cups of your favorite flavor chips butterscotch, chocolate chips, bittersweet -- see note at bottom
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square metal pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper or skip this altogether and have fun prying the bars from the pan.
- Thoroughly stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in the microwave. If you have a microwave-safe mixing bowl, even better! Combine brown sugar and melted butter and stir well. Stir in the egg and vanilla and beat 15 strokes with a mixing spoon.
- Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir just until mixed. Mixture will still be very warm so let it cool for 5 minutes. Stir in chips.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and bars appear set (edges will be brown).
- Let cool for about 20 minutes. Lift from pan and slice into 16 bars
- Note: These bars are fairly sweet, so you may want to eliminate the chips altogether. I like chips, so I add them. If you are using a sweet chip such as butterscotch or cinnamon, you might want to use ¼ cup, but if you are using a dark chocolate type chip, go for the higher amount. Nuts are a good add-in too.
Anna says
Thank you for leaving a comment, April. It reminded me that I need to put this recipe in recipe card format.
April M says
I've been making these on and off for at least a decade and they are always so good. I needed something quick and easy for a family visit tomorrow and remembered these. Bar cookies are a baker's friend.
Cindy P says
These sound awesome. Cannot wait to make them. Only problem today is I actually have no baking chips of any type in our pantry!!
Sheri says
one of my fav recipes EVER!
I know it by heart, have made it so many times since you posted it
Last night I made this into actual cookies- increased the flour, sadly no idea by how much- made best cookies, husband and both kids raved!
Amanda says
You are not kidding when you call these "No-fail"! My baking skills are pretty much limited to slice-n-bake and to be honest, I'm even pretty sloppy with my slice-work 🙂 I made these for a party this weekend and they came out FABULOUS. Seriously, my friends were shocked that I had made these from scratch. Thanks for the great recipe!
Kate says
You're a girl scout! Hubby volunteered me to make these at the cub scout camp out. Over a fire. In a dutch oven. Ummm...any ideas? I've already put the husband up for sale on e-bay. It's probably going to cost me a pretty penny to get someone to take him.
Kate says
My husband called at the last minute tonight saying that he was supposed to bring the snack for his Bible study. After tearing through a few cookbooks and finding nothing that met my two criteria: quick and using ingredients I had on hand, I ran here knowing I'd find something. These were a huge hit using semi-sweet chips! And they were so, so easy. Thank you!!
steph says
Have you seen this pan? I saw it on the Early show so I googled Baker's Edge brownie Pan, I thought of these no fail cookies when I saw it!
Anna says
Wow! Crushed Oreos. Brilliant.
Deidre says
Anna, I made these again today, but with some modifications. I realized last time that because of my inexperience in the kitchen, for some reason, I thought a stick of butter was 8 ounces, so I ended up using half as much as necessary.
They still turned out well the last time, so today I used half the butter again.
I also added (in addition to 1/2 cup of semisweet chips) about 1/2 cup of crushed Oreo's. They were fantastic, and definitely better than before.
Baking time was a little more confusing though because it seemed like every time I stuck a toothpick in, I either hit molten chocolate chip or molten Oreo.
Regardless, they really are fantastic, and fantastically easy. I think I'm giving up drop cookies for a while.
Anna says
Deidre, thanks for providing cook time for a 13x9 inch pan. And yes, they are supposed to be shiny. I don't remember mine being puffy, but that could have been due to the larger pan size. I'm happy to hear they worked out. I think this recipe originally came from Betty Crocker.
Deidre says
I just made these, and they are great! Definitely very sweet.
I accidentally used a whole stick of butter when I was putting these together, so I ended up making a double batch and baking these in a 9x13 pan. They took a while longer to bake - total bake time for me was around 35 minutes, and they ended up really puffy and shiny on top? I'm not really sure why they look so much different from yours, but they really turned out well. I'm practically a baking and cooking failure so that actually suprised me.
Thanks for the recipe, Anna!
Stacy says
I made these yesterday with some butterscotch chips I had in the freezer. Yummy! I'll definitely be making them again. Thanks so much for sharing this, and all of your wonderful recipes, Anna! 🙂
Jacey says
I made these over the weekend, and they were just what I was craving! I substituted wheat flour for one-fourth of a cup, and it worked well. Thanks for a great easy recipe! It will definitely be a repeat for me.
Stephanie says
Thanks for this recipe, Anna. I'm making these this morning with semi-sweet chips and some Trader Joes bittersweet Pounder Plus chocolate. I'm sure they'll be wonderful!
Angie says
yum! I just pulled these out of the oven and can hardly wait to cut them up! My house smells incredible. I like the melted butter and brown sugar bit.....
Jen says
Hi Anna,
This is the 2nd recipe of yours I have tried and I have been so happy with both of them! I was asked today to make something for a school bake sale... tomorrow... and I quickly realized I could make these bar pan cookies and they taste great! Very easy to make and I think they will make the high school kids very happy!
Keep up the great ideas, suggestions & recipes 🙂
Anna says
Hi Steph,
Those Sunshine Bars were an old Bake-Off recipe which I just modified. Wish I could take the credit.
For the pan cookies, doubling would probably work, just watch the cookie time closely. I think one thing that makes the pan cookies so good is the thick and chewy edges. You'd still get the in a bigger pan, but not quite so many. Let me know if it works for you. I've always made these in an 8 inch.
steph says
Hi Anna!
I made your Sushine Dream Bars for Superbowl, everyone loved them. For this recipe I want to use a 13x9 pan. Would I just double the ingredients?
Thanx, you rock!
Anna says
Sue, these will be perfect. They are very portable.
Marie, thanks for commenting. I hope you keep reading Cookie Madness and finding recipes you like. I agree. These have a lot of caramel flavor. I've seen versions of them made with butterscotch chips, which I think would be even better than chocolate. I think broken up Heath bars would be good too.
Marie says
Hi there. I'm relatively new to your site having only discovered it about a month ago. I typically bake 1-2 times a week but I bow down to your ability to do it a couple times a day.
I tried these tonight using peanut butter chips and semi-sweet chips and they're really good. They have a strong caramel note which I think goes nicely with the peanut butter. The only thing I would add is that the batter was a bit sticky, so I had to work quickly to get it into the pan.
I'm looking forward to try more of your recipes. Anything with dark chocolate or peanut butter makes me happy.
Sue says
My son is doing a 72 hour trivia marathon contest next weekend, and I always make some food and treats to send along. These sound perfect! Thanks!