Gooey Chocolate Swirled Cookie Bars
Mmmmm kay. YES. This recipe. These bars. These gooey chocolate swirled cookie bars. They're currently making my world go round. (Get it? Cuz swirls are round? No? K fine.)
What I did was, I took one of my favorite cookie bar recipes, and I swirled a gooey chocolate filling into the dough. The result? So much delicious gooeyness, it shouldn't be legal. Rebel with a cause, I am. Breaking maximum gooeyness laws left and right.
(What am I on right now?? I apologize. But not really.)
If you were wondering what that cookie bar recipe I was referring to before was, it's these no-butter chocolate chip cookie bars.
I switched up those bars a bit by cutting back on the sugar and some other flavors, omitting the chocolate chunks, and, of course, adding the amazing chocolate mixture, the one that makes my world go round and probably shouldn't be legal.
You know how much I love my quick and easy recipes. You also know how I love just using a mixing bowl and spatula as opposed to schlepping out my electric stand mixer.
Well, since these chocolate swirled cookie bars are dairy-free, there's no butter that needs creaming for this recipe. Just plain old canola or vegetable oil will do the trick. In fact, I think using just oil for this recipe is what really helps make these cookie bars so gooey and cookie-dough like.
And somehow, the bars still really taste like they've got butter in them. No, for real. Magic, I tell you.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that these cookie bars taste like cookie dough, even after being fully baked. I wasn't kidding about the magical powers of these babies.
Just make sure you don't over-bake the bars. Take them out of the oven when the edges are just set but the center is still kinda jiggly and under-baked. Or don't, and bake them until crispy if you prefer. As you can see, I'm pretty open-minded about things these days. (But actually, pleeeeeease, don't over bake them. Pleasethanks.)
So, you've got the easy, quick, rich, gooey, tastes-like-buttery-cookie-dough-even-though-there's-no-butter-in-them-and-they're-fully-baked aspect to these bars.
And then you've got the four-ingredient, super-easy chocolate mixture (cocoa powder, oil, water, sugar - that is all) aspect to these bars. And what you do is, you just swirl the wet chocolate mixture into the gooey cookie dough. And into the oven the bars go.
And twenty-two minutes later, you've got yourself some of the richest, gooiest, cookie dough-like bars that have got a gooey, deep, rich chocolate mixture swirled into them. Are you exciiiiiited yet??
Make these make these make these. Good day.
Gooey Chocolate Swirled Cookie Bars
Yield: about 18 bars
1/2 cup oil (canola, vegetable, melted coconut)
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Chocolate Swirl:
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoon water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8x8" square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving some excess hanging over the rim for easy removal later.
In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the oil, sugars, egg, and vanilla extract.
Pour the flour, baking soda, and salt over the wet ingredients and mix everything together until just combined.
In a small bowl, stir together the cocoa, oil, water, and sugar until smooth.
Drop dough into prepared pan and flatten to spread to the edges evenly. Drizzle the chocolate mixture in circles over the dough, and then use a knife to swirl it into the dough.
Bake bars for 22-25 minutes, or until the edges are just set and golden but the center is still slightly jiggly and under baked. Bars may seem a bit raw but they're supposed to be that way!
Let bars cool before lifting them out of the pan by the excess parchment paper and slicing into about 18 bars.
