Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars
With three kinds of chocolate chunks and nutty brown butter, these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars are an extraordinary treat! So delicious and so easy to make!
A twist on Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, these have larger chunks of chocolate instead of chocolate chips. More chocolate for the win!!
Why You’ll Love these Chocolate Chunk Bars
- They are full of larger chunks of chocolate than chocolate chip bars!
- There are THREE kinds of chocolate in these bars providing a more interesting flavor palate.
- Cookie Bar Recipes are super easy to make! And both kids and grown-ups will love them.
Sometimes the simplest recipes reap the greatest rewards. As many of you know, my hubby requests chocolate chip cookies or bars nearly every week. Mr. Predictable has even learned to bake up a batch of “chippy bars” when he’s desperate. As a food blogger, I’m always hunting for new, innovative desserts to try…but my better half would be quite content with the same old Nestles Tollhouse cookies day after day. This was an easy way to make a slightly more gourmet treat.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is brown butter?
Brown butter or beurre noisette is butter cooked until it’s a light hazelnut or noisette (French for hazelnut) color. It has a nutty flavor and can be used in place of regular butter to dress vegetables, to drizzle over popcorn, to cook scallops and fish, and a lot more.
How do you make brown butter?
To make brown butter, slowly cook butter over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter foams and the butter solids brown. Do not filter out the brown specks of butter solids as that’s where all the nutty flavor is!
Why should you use chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips?
Both chocolate chips and chunks work well, but the bigger chunks made from Ghirardelli chocolate bars provide better quality chocolate in all 3 varieties. Feel free to use chocolate chips instead if that’s what you have on hand.
See my post on How to Cut Perfect Cookie Bars for lots of tips.
Make sure to bake your bar cookies in a pan lined with non-stick foil or parchment paper. This will help you lift the cooled bars out of the pan as a unit so you can place them on your cutting board. It will be easier to cut nice squares if the pan is not in your way.
First, cool and then chill the bars. They’ll cut with cleaner, sharper edges when cold.
Using a sharp knife, cut straight down. Use a ruler to mark where you want to start your slices if you’re not adept at eyeballing it.
PRO-Tip: Bring your cookie bars up to room temperature before serving.
Tips for Making Cookie Bar Recipes
- Line your pan with non-stick foil. This will make cleanup a breeze and help with slicing.
- Have the eggs at room temperature for easier incorporation.
- Mix in the flour in by hand as a mixer will add too much air to the batter and affect the texture.
- Do not overbake as this will make for dry, not moist bars.
- Use chocolate chips instead of chocolate chunks. Try adding butterscotch chips or other favorite varieties.
- Reserve some extra chunks to press into the warm bars. It will make a nicer presentation for company.
How to Make these Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Grease or line your pan with non-stick foil.
- Preheat your oven.
- Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix till combined.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Do not use a mixer as the texture will be best if mixed in by hand.
- Mix in chocolate chunks (reserve a few pieces to garnish the top).
- Press the dough into the prepared pan.
- Bake as directed.
- Cool, then cut.
More Chocolate and Brown Butter Cookies You’ll Love:
I tweaked this recipe from my friend, Danielle, by slightly browning the butter, then cooling it, and adding milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and white chocolate chunks instead of all dark chocolate. Feel free to use your favorite chocolate chunks or chips. These will be fantastic any which way you make them. These Brown Butter Easter Cookies are another fun way to use brown butter!
If these chocolate chunk bars are right up your alley, you’ll love these, too: Double Chocolate Chunk Bars, Toffee and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Chewy Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Quadruple Chocolate Cookies, and Death by Chocolate Cookies. And for a sweet-salty twist, try these Potato Chip Cookies with Chocolate Chunks!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars
A trio of chocolate chunks and brown butter make these cookie bars impossible to resist!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter (browned, then cooled to room temperature)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 ounces chopped chocolate (I used 4 ounces milk chocolate, 4 ounces semisweet chocolate and 4 ounces white chocolate)
Instructions
- Line 9 x 13 pan with nonstick foil or regular foil sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix till combined.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix in chocolate chunks (reserve a few pieces to garnish the top).
- Press dough into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Cool, then cut.
Notes
How to make brown butter is explained in the blog post.
Recipe adapted from Hugs & Cookies XOXO
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 244Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 39mgSodium: 220mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 3g
I spotted these Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chunk Bars on my friend Danielle’s blog. Bill was driving home from visiting his parents in Illinois as a wicked spring blizzard was hitting the Midwest. Knowing he’d be white-knuckling it the whole distance (or maybe it was me that would be the nervous Nellie), I wanted to have some fresh from the oven, chocolate treat waiting for him.
74 Comments on “Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars”
You’re such a good wife having these yummy treats waiting for your hubby! I can’t believe you had a snowstorm in April, wow! Hope it’s all melted and you’re having warm sunshine by now but if not, I think another batch of these yummy treats would certainly ward away the winter blues 🙂
I so want to addd these bars to my ‘bars to bake list’!!!
Great cause and wonderful that you’re helping to get the word out;-)
Liz this is a great cause you are supporting. In Sikh way of life” Wand Chakna” is an important principle. It means equal distribution of the fruits of labor. We see this world as one family and that is why understand the need to help. In fact one can go to Sikh temple on any day and anytime for food. Even youth group participate in helping taking fresh food every Sunday to East downtown Vancouver for the needy. i am not regularly involved but I do whatever I can.
At this moment I feel that I am a needy person for these bars. They look incredible!
Great cause Liz…and these bars look awesome, as I was recently introduced to brown butter…like the 3 kind of chocolate chips 🙂
Have a wonderful week!
Great cookie bars and an even greater cause! Love the brown butter tweak. I bet it adds a real nutty flavor to these bars. Great recipe!
Kudos for spreading the word. There are so many things we can do. These days grocery stores are often outfitted with bags you can purchase and donate. Love how used he pantry items because everyone deserves a sweet treat and then!
Love these bars Liz and I can only imagine how the browned butter upped the taste ante. Those stats are appalling, what a worthy cause.
Great recipe! Great cause! I hope he made it home safely. Snow driving is no fun.
Oh my good lord these look amazing!! Brown butter?! SOLD
Wow. These bars look so good. They look like the type of treat that’s even better the next day. Yum.
You had me at chunks, prefer them much more than chips. These bars look great! And this is a great cause to fight for sure. Hope getting the word out helps the cause.
I love that you are doing this for a great cause! The cookies look amazing by the way!
It is so good of you to bring attention to this important issue. I work at our local food pantry and it seems the number of people coming in just keeps increasing. And this recipe looks really good too – my husband is also a cookie fiend!
Such a wonderful cause to bring attention to! And I LOVE these loaded bars!
these sound great! i am discovering my love of white chocolate.
What a wonderful cause! The bars look incredible!!!! I might be drooling just a bit. 😀
Yes, I did, Karen! Thanks so much for the info.
Food Bloggers Against Hunger is a great venue to boost awareness and get these 1 out of 5 kids some help. Here in HK I see so much restaurant food thrown away and wasted in the garbage and it has not even gone bad they just made too much. I wish instead they could provide this to the poor.
Bless you , Lizzy ! A little help goes a long way ! Back home , it’s worse though *sigh* On a bright note , love your neatly sliced and delectable choco bars 😀
I bet these are addictive!