Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

We celebrated another wonderful holiday -- National Chocolate Chip Day! (I'm starting to wonder why we never celebrated these special days before.) The tasty morsels definitely deserve a day devoted to their honor! And who am I to deprive them of it???

We've made chocolate chip cookies, giant chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream - all desserts that allow the chips to shine in all their tastiness. Here's a list of recipes in which the chocolate chips compliment the recipe as a whole.

Butterfingers

chocolate bowls

chocolate chai bread
chocolate fudge

chocolate turtle cake

Girl Scout peanut butter patties
indoor s'mores
Jake's special cake (recipe created entirely by my 6 year old)
peanut butter bars
peanut butter brownie torte
peanut butter cream pie
s'mores ice cream
snack mix


So, after all those desserts with chocolate chips, what were we going to make on the day in which we celebrate its existence? Chocolate chip cookie bars! I hadn't made these in years, and this was the perfect time to make them again.

Measure.

Dump.

Pour.

Mix.

Crack.

Stir.

I'll skip all the boring stuff and jump right to the guest of honor.

The chocolate chips! We used a combo of milk, semi-sweet, and white. After all, we wouldn't want to show favoritism to a single kind.

Mmm, these bars are so yummy! A slightly crispy outside and ooey-chewy inside. Perfection.

These are phenomenal by themselves, but what do you add to really make a dessert shine???

Why, ice cream, of course! Warm cookie fresh out of the oven, cool sweet ice cream, and rich melted chocolate.

There's only one thing that could be better.

A second bar on top!


Please show the mighty chocolate chip some love and whip up a batch of these delicious bars. You will not be disappointed!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients:

2 1/8 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325° F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Pour cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Bake cookie bars for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.
Recipe adapted from two peas & their pod

Our Week

This has been a busy week. Saturday, Leighton took Jake to the Father/Son Cookout at church. They arrived early (2:00 pm) to set up and stayed late (8:00 pm) to clean up. That gave Alyssa, Zac, and me plenty of time to finish up Leighton's father's day present, do some gardening, make cinnamon rolls, and shop at CVS. 

Sunday, Father's day, started with the surprise cinnamon rolls (We have an extra fridge in the basement where I stashed the uncooked rolls until morning.) and the book we made for Leighton. Then we headed to church. After that, we celebrated the day with my parents and grandparents at Andiamo's. Then it was back home for a nap and back to church for the evening service. 

Monday, the kids and I had a play-date with good friends of ours. They splashed in the pool, dumped out every bin and pulled out every toy in the house, ate lunch, laughed and sounded like a herd of elephants. On our way home, they asked, "Can we go back again tomorrow?" I think that means they had a good time.

1) Zac was sleeping on the chair. 2) I don't know where Jake was. 3) I have no idea how Buzz got in our picture.

Tuesday, Leighton and I celebrated eight wonderful years of marriage. He brought home two dozen red roses on Monday night so I could "enjoy them all day." Isn't he sweet? I wanted to make him some fancy-shmancy cake for the occasion. But what does he request? Plain ol' chocolate chip cookies. I'll never understand that man. I love 'im, but I don't understand 'im.

I used a mixture of white chips and milk and dark chocolate chunks (cut up candy bars again because we have no chips.)

We dropped the kids off at my parents' and went to dinner at Abuelo's. It was our first time there and we loved it. Great food, great service, great company. It was, however, strangely . . . quiet. No kids talking, laughing, rolling crayons onto the floor, talking, wondering when the food will come, pointing at other people, asking question after question, talking, talking, talking.  

Instead, we got to talk. We reminisced about our how we fell in love, our wedding day, the births of our children, and our innumerable blessings. You know, all that mushy stuff. I am beyond thankful that the Lord made us for each other. I have been blessed far more than I deserve.

June 21, 2003

So, that's what we've been up to. Well, that and laundry and dishes and vacuuming and ironing and cooking and  . . . I don't think you really want to hear about all that though. Do you?

Did you do anything special this week? How did you honor your father/husband?

Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Chocolate.

Chocolate chip cookie.

Cookie dough.

Ice cream.

Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Any way you look at it, it's good.

I'm not sure what I like more: the raw cookie dough or the freshly baked cookies. I just can't decide! Leighton, though, has no desire to eat the raw dough, (How crazy is that?!?)  but he does like cookie dough ice cream. A little strange, but I love him.

In his post about the UM Natural History Museum, Leighton mentioned that we stopped at Border's on the way home. There, I bought Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. It's filled with recipes like orange cream dream ice cream, raspberry sorbet, fried ice cream, hot chocolate float, and hot butterscotch sauce. It's Ben & Jerry's - it's gotta be good.

Ben & Jerry’s Sweet Cream Base #1
Ingredients:

2 large eggs                                   2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar                                 1 cup whole milk

Directions:
1. Mix the cream and milk together and heat over medium-low heat.
2. While that’s heating, beat the eggs in a separate bowl, until they turn lighter in color. Slowly, add the sugar while continuing to whisk the eggs

3. When the cream/milk mix reaches about 140 degrees F (60 C), remove it from the heat. Gradually stir small amounts of the cream/milk mix into the egg/sugar mix until about a third of the cream and milk have been added. Then pour in the rest of the cream and milk and mix it all together.

4. Heat the mix over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it reaches175 degrees F (79 C).

5. Chill the mix until it’s below 40 degrees F (5 C).

6. Freeze according to the manufacture's instructions. It’ll come out like stiff soft-serve ice cream. If you like it firmer, put it in an air-tight container in the freezer for a couple hours.

Let me say, tempering while taking pictures is much easier when you have a little helper. Thanks, Alyssa!

Ben & Jerry’s Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, at room temperature                1 c + 2 tbp flour                                                    
1/4 c granulated sugar                                               1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c brown sugar                                                      1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg                                                                          1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla                                                             1/2 c coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
3. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well blended.Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
4. Drop the dough by small scoops 2-3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each scoop with the back of a spoon until about 3 inches in diameter.
5. Bake until the centers are still slightly soft to the touch, 11-14 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to the racks to cool completely.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe (1 1/2 c) raw Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Sweet Cream Base
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Chop the cookie dough into bite-size pieces. Place in a bowl, cover, and freeze.
2. Prepare the sweet cream base.
3. Once chilled, add the vanilla and blend.
3. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacture's instructions.
4. When the ice cream is quite stiff (about 1 minute before it's done) add the chopped cookie dough. Be sure to wait until the very last moment, otherwise, the dough will get sticky and unmanageable. Continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.

So, I'm not really sure how you chop cookie dough. It's soft and sticky and messy. I used a 1/4 teaspoon to drop little dollops on plates (so they didn't all freeze together.) Eventually, I just used my fingers to break apart pieces. I thought that the bits of dough in the ice cream were slightly too big. Personal opinion. Also, I found it to be a little too salty. Mini chocolate chips are perfect for this recipe. 

Since the ice cream required only half a batch of dough, we were forced to bake the other half. Oh, the things we have to endure! I didn't flatten them, but rather plopped them on the cookie sheet and baked. The seven cookies were inhaled within minutes of exiting the oven. Other than the saltiness, they were perfect. Crispy edges, soft chewy middle.

The cream base is another story. I have made the cooked bases a few times. No one in our family cares for this type of ice cream. The flavor is just . . . different. I have recipes that do not require eggs. We will stick to those from now on. Although, I'm thinking about trying this recipe again with pasteurized eggs. These are eggs that are quickly dipped in hot water to kill any harmful bacteria. You do not have to cook the base using pasteurized eggs.

With a little tweaking, this recipe will be perfect. I can't wait to make it again. And eat the extra baked cookies!

Do you have a favorite ice cream recipe? Topping recipe? Please, share it with us! We love trying new things.