Heavenly Cookie Bars

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I have been dying for some sweet, salty, chewy, and very chocolatey cookies lately, but have frankly been too lazy, and too busy (bad combo) to do anything about it.  One of my favorite bloggers, Sweet Pea's Kitchen, happen to post a  recipe for Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  All the yummy of cookies, without slaving over an oven repeatedly putting in and taking out sheets of cookies.  It mixes up quick, didn't even need a mixer, just a whisk (BIG bonus!!) and bakes up in no time.  The only modification I made was that instead of all chocolate chips, I added chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and then pretzel pieces, and then some whole pretzels on top just for presentation points. 

They truly are heavenly.  Sweet, salty, chocolaty, crunchy, chewy, seriously, just heavenly.

Heavenly Cookie Bars
(Adapted slightly from Sweet Pea's Kitchen's Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars)

Makes 1- 9x13 pan, cut into 24 or 32 slices

Ingredients:

2 ⅛ cups all-purpose flour (10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup light brown sugar (7 ounces)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
3 oz. mini pretzels, half broken into small pieces, half kept whole for the top

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper, with ends extending up the sides (will be for easy removal later).
2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix together with a whisk, the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until combined.
4. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well.
5. Using a spoon or spatula, mix in dry ingredients into the egg and butter mixture until just combined.
6. Mix in the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and broken pretzel pieces and mix well.
7. Scoop into the prepared pan, using a spatula to press it down evenly into the pan.  Place the whole pretzels on top in a decorative pattern (I used 24 evenly spaced ones, so when they are cut, there would be 24 servings, each with a pretzel on top) and press down slightly.
8. Bake for 27-32 minutes, until the top is light brown, slightly firm to the touch and the edges start to pull away from the sides.
9. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack to room temperature.  Using the parchment paper, lift the bars out, cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Pretzel Cookies

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Sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy, chocolatey, savory, butterscotchy, and just plain addictive.  That is how I will describe what is probably my most favorite version of chocolate chip cookies.  I know you may think that adding pretzels to chocolate chip cookies may seem way too weird to try, but think about it for a second--salted caramel is all the rage right now, think of it like that.  The pretzels add a pleasant burst of saltiness and a suprising little crunch every so often.  It is heavenly.  Try them.  Try them please!  They will change your thoughts on chocolate chip cookies forever.

These are dangerous to have in my house, I love them so much.  The freeze beautifully, so I am putting my batch in the freezer to 1) slow down my consumption (out of sight out of mind) and 2) keep them fresh for a long time.

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CHOCOLATE CHIP BUTTERSCOTCH PRETZEL COOKIES

Makes between 40-46 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter (1 cup), softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
• 6 oz. butterscotch chips
• 1.5 oz mini pretzels or thin pretzel sticks, broken into bite sized pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter and cream together with a hand mixer until well combined.
3. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
4. Add flour, salt, and baking soda and mix well.
5. Pour in chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and pretzel pieces and combine by hand or with mixer.
6. Using a #40 cookie scoop (1 1/2 Tbs.), drop onto prepared pan, about 12 cookies, 2 inches apart.
7. Bake for 9-11 minutes until they start to brown on the edges.  They will still look a bit light in the center, but will darken and firm up when they cool. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Mookies

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No, I didn't spell cookies wrong, I know what you're thinking.  I really mean mookies.  Muffin cookies.  That is what these are.  They are not completely cookie, nor are they muffin.  Hence, mookies.  They are slightly chewy on the edges, soft and fluffy in the middle, chocolaty to a heavenly degree, full of banana flavor, and just all around divine.  I have been yearning for a banana cookie recipe for so long.  I am kind of tired of banana bread and banana muffins, but man, I never get tired of cookies!  The perfect portable, freezable package.  I found a recipe for chocolate chip banana cookies from Six Sister's Stuff.  I must say they have fantastic recipes.  This is based on their recipe chocolate chip banana cookies.

The changes I made to it were two fold.  I first added unsweetened applesauce for 1/3 of the butter called for.  This gave them their more muffin/cake-like texture.  I also added 1/2 cup extra of old fashioned oats, just because at our house, we love oatmeal cookies.  If you want more cookie-like cookies, then by all means, head on over to their site and use the recipe as written, they will taste phenomenal, and I will not be offended in the least bit.

Baking action!  Yummy yummy mookies!

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Chocolate Chip Banana Mookies

Make approximately 40 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
2. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.  
3. Place butter, and sugars into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. 
4. Reduce speed to low.  Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until combined.   
5. Mix in banana.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  
6. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Don't fear, this dough is very moist.
7. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or 2 Tbs cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart.  Using a fork, flatten the dough into a disk shape, they do not spread much.
8. Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, about 12 to 13 minutes.
   

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

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I love chocolate.  If I can make something and somehow make it chocolatey, all the better I say!  I love making banana muffins.  Inevitably, I always have some ripening bananas lying around begging to be used.  Unfortunately, after making plain banana muffins dozens of times, I am kind of bored with the same old same old.  Then I had a brilliant thought.  Add chocolate!  It makes everything better.  I took one of my current  favorite banana muffin recipes, King Arthur Flour's Banana Muffin recipe, and after a nice online chat with one of the bakers there, set out to turn them in to double chocolate banana muffins.  The lovely baker on the other end of the online chat box gave me some measurements for adding cocoa to their recipe, I took it one step further and guiltlessly dumped a whole package of chocolate chips into the batter (I made a double recipe since I had like ten overripe bananas to use, otherwise a half a bag of chocolate chips is called for).

I think these still qualify as a good breakfast food, right?  I mean it has oat bran and bananas, ergo, must be a healthy breakfast food.  Ok, at least a yummy breakfast food.

Enjoy these moist, chocolatey, banana-y muffins.  If you want a finer texture, throw the oat bran in the food processor to make it finer, otherwise it will have a heartier texture to the muffins.  

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe

Makes approximately 16-20 per batch, depending on how full the muffin cups are.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup yogurt (I used Fage 0% Greek yogurt)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1/2 snack container natural applesauce (no sugar added) or 1/3 cup*
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana; 2 to 3 large bananas
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup oat bran (If you don't have this, grind up rolled oats in a food processor)
• 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/3 cup dutch process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips 

*If you double the recipe, I used 2 Tbs. vegetable oil, and a whole snack size container of applesauce, which is a little less than half a cup.  If you don't have or don't want to use applesauce, use 1/4 oil for a single recipe.  I like the applesauce to cut down on fat and calories, and I can never tell a difference.

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a standard muffin tin, or line with papers and grease the papers.
 2) Combine the yogurt, egg, oil, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar, and oat bran in a bowl. Whisk together and set aside for 10 minutes.
3) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cocoa.
4) Whisk the banana mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix in chocolate chips. Scoop into the prepared muffin cups, filling them almost full; the muffins won't rise much.
5) Bake the muffins for 20 to 24 minutes, until the muffins are set and browned. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and enjoy warm.