If you love soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, you’re going to love these toll house bars! This sheet pan chocolate chip cookie bar recipe is a really quick and easy way to get the same soft and chewy home-baked cookie, but just baked all at once in bar form instead of needing to scoop them out into individual cookies and wait for several batches of cookies to bake. And the bonus of cooking them all together? You get a chewy dough center in every piece. These are super quick to whip up. In just about 5 minutes you can measure everything out, mix it, and pop these in the oven.

This easy recipe delivers wonderful results every time and are the perfect dessert for feeding a crowd too!

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How to make this Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix together your dry ingredients (all purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.)
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs and combine. Add your flour mixture stirring until mixed through.
4. Mix in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
5. Spray a half sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and then line with parchment paper, leaving several inches extra on each long side of the pan. Spread cookie dough out evenly in pan.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until middle is set up and edges are golden brown. Let cool and cut into squares.

Toll House Cookie Bars Ingredients

• Butter – take your butter out of the fridge before you make the chocolate chip cookie dough so it has time to soften at room temperature. This will help it really cream well with the sugars.
• Brown Sugar – Light or dark brown sugar both work in this classic recipe. If you choose to use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar, the cookies will turn out darker and have a deeper, more caramel-like flavor because of the extra molasses in the sugar.
• Granulated White Sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla Extract – Pure vanilla extract is always better than any imitation version. You can really taste the buttery, vanilla flavors in these bars.
• Flour
• Salt –only add if you are using unsalted butter. If you are using salted butter, omit the salt or your cookie bars will be too salty.
• Baking Soda
• Chocolate Chips – I love a mix of semi-sweet  and milk chocolate chips in these bars. 

I have a feeling you might already have some of these in your pantry and fridge. That’s the best part about this recipe…not only is it delicious, but it uses simple ingredients that are easy to find!

A FEW TIPS FOR BAKING SHEET PAN COOKIE BARS

• DO NOT OVER BAKE It’s VERY IMPORTANT to not over bake if you want the softest, chewiest pan cookies. For the best soft bars, slightlyunderbake them! If you’re worried about the centers being too soft, they will harden as they cool too.
• Don’t overmix your dough For a good chewy texture, take care to not overmix the dough with your electric mixer. Hand mixing will help this.

I know it’s hard but you HAVE to wait for these to cool completely before you cut them. If you try to sneak out a square right out of the oven, it will fall apart. As they cool they will continue to harden a bit. Cool completely to room temperature and then cut them into squares. The edges will be slightly crisp and the middle will be more like underbaked cookie dough. This is one of those rare baked-goods recipes that kind of even tastes better the second day if you can wait that long to eat them!

Making bar cookies in a pan and then cutting it them into squares is a total timesaver. It gives you the flexibility to feed a bigger group by simply cutting them into smaller squares. Cut them to be the perfect size for however many guests you are feeding.

To get the best clean cuts on your bars, brownies, and cakes, line your prepared baking pan with parchment paper, and leave an overhang of several inches on the long sides of the pan. When the bars have cooled, grab the parchment overhangs, and lift the bars out of the pan. Place your bars on a cutting board and allow them to cool completely. Then use a large sharp knife to slice them. Removing them from the pan you baked them in allows you to get nice clean cuts all the way through with nothing in the way.

Recipe Variations

This recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but have some fun with it. The best part about this recipe is that you can customize it with all kinds of chocolate chips – semi-sweet, milk, white, peanut butter, or even butterscotch! No matter what you use, just remember you want to end up with a total of 1 cup with 3/4 cup stirred into the batter. Keep a few reserved chocolate chips to press into the top of the batter before you bake them. 

• Bittersweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or a mix of chocolate types
• Chop up a chocolate bar to get great chocolate chunks
• Peanut butter chips and you can add a peanut butter swirl too!
• Chopped walnuts or pecans (added in with your chocolate)
• toss in M&Ms, coconut, chopped peanut butter cups, or swirl in some peanut butter, Nutella, or salted caramel…YUM!

What could make this perfect treat even better? I love to serve these toll house bars with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little chocolate syrup on top. Why does ice cream always seem to cut through the sweetest of sweets and make them easier to eat? I always think that is so funny that you use something sweet to help cut the sweet. HA!

The best way to store bars is in an airtight container at room temperature. These chewy chocolate chip cookie bars also freeze really well, which is a great option if you can’t eat them all at once…but I doubt that will be a problem. 😉

Yield: 18

Original Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Recipe

Print

Make these amazing toll house cookie bars in minutes.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels or chocolate of your choice
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients (all purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda) and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs and combine. Add your flour mixture stirring until mixed through.
4. Mix in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
5. Spray a half sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and then line with parchment paper, leaving several inches extra on each long side of the pan. Spread cookie dough out evenly in pan.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until middle is set up and edges are golden brown. Let cool and cut into squares.

Don’t miss some of my other favorite cookie recipes here:

Soft & Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

Amazing Bakery Style Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe

Incredible Fudgy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

The Best Christmas Sugar Cookie Cut-outs

Incredible Iced Oatmeal Cookies

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Happy baking!
Tammy