Do you have lots of left over Halloween candy at your house? If you said yes, I’m totally jealous. Not only do we not have kids at our house to steal from, we also don’t get trick or treaters, so there is absolutely no pretext for me to binge on candy. But then I remembered that you probably need a recipe to use up some of that leftover candy, so I went and bought some so I could make something for you. Clever scheme, eh?
But really you should just throw in whatever you have lying around your house. Once the cookie base and chocolate sauce are made, this cookie bar can be tarted up with your favorite candy. Or all the left over stuff that nobody likes much. Throw it in a cookie bar, and it becomes instantly more interesting. I’m always looking out for you.
These monster cookie bars, originally from Bakers Royale, start out with a chewy oatmeal cookie base, complete with the deep flavor of brown butter. Then they cut some chocolaty, salty, crunchy action thrown in via mini chocolate chips, pretzel M&Ms, and macadamia nuts. After that, there’s a pool of chocolate sauce in which mini peanut butter cups and more pretzel M&Ms are floating. Then more of that cookie dough is crumbled on top to make things epically awesome.
It’s a thing of beauty. Okay, actually, it’s a little ugly, but it tastes beautiful. Never miss a chance to create ridiculous candy concoctions. It’s always the right choice.
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups quick cooking oats
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
- 1 cup pretzel M&Ms, crushed
- 1 cup milk
- 14 ounces chocolate
- 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
- Mini Reese's peanut butter cups (a few handfuls)
- Pretzel M&Ms (a few handfuls)
- Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x8 pan with foil, allowing some to hand over the edge for easy removal.
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and continue to cook until it turns lightly brown and begins to smell nutty. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together brown butter and brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and beat for about 3 minutes.
- With the mixer on low, slowly incorporate the flour mixture, then add the chocolate chips, mac nuts, and crushed M&Ms.
- In a small sauce pan over low heat, combine the milk, chocolate, and condensed milk. Stir slowly until the chocolate is completely melted. Remove from heat.
- Press about half of your cookie dough in the bottom of the pan. Pour the melted chocolate over this, and sprinkle your peanut butter cups and pretzel M&Ms into the pool of chocolate. Then crumble the rest of the cookie dough over the top. Don't worry about covering the whole thing completely.
- Bake for about 45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. Get ready to slap the table and try not to swear in front of the kids.
- The original recipe suggested this could be made in an 8x8 or a 9x13 pan. Next time, I'm definitely going to try the 9x13. Thinner might actually be better for this one.
I made these this evening. They smell so yummy! But will wait until tomorrow to taste one.