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Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Swirled Cookie Bars. Sweet, doughy, and buttery, filled with chocolate chips, and swirled with creamy peanut butter. If your day needs a sweet, chocolatey treat, you should be making these bars…because sometimes all you need to brighten your day is a really good cookie!
You’ve probably guessed by now, but for whatever reason I am into baking at the moment. All summer long I’ve been baking up fresh fruit desserts (hello to this blueberry buckle, this peach cake, these raspberry bars, and this galette). But with school starting up again this week (Asher’s first day is Thursday), and feelings of fall beginning to settle in, I’m left craving some more classic recipes that remind me of being a kid.
Sooo. Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.
I’ve said this one times too many here on HBH, but when my brothers and I were kids my mom would make homemade cookies at least twice a week. We’d come home from school to cookie dough, eat some, and then help her bake fresh cookies. She’d always make a batch and half to ensure that there was enough dough to fill a 9×13 inch Pyrex pan with extra dough for eating.
She’s a smart thinker.
Honestly, baking cookies with my brothers and my mom are some of my best memories from growing up and it’s always so comforting to be reminded of them. It seems every single year that late August rolls around I love digging back up these memories. Do you guys ever do this? It’s kind of fun to feel like a nine-year old kid again, even if it’s only for five minutes while you stand over the mixing bowl and shovel in spoonfuls of homemade cookie dough…
Anyway, I’ve been really excited to share this recipe with you today. It’s one that has been requested over and over by friends, family, and you guys, so I’m glad to finally be sharing. Because let’s be real, the combo of chocolate and peanut butter is pretty unbeatable.
Let’s talk details.
It was really important to me that I keep this recipe as simple and classic as possible. There is a time and place for over the top desserts with crazy flavors and things, but sometimes you just need a good cookie bar. One with classic flavors, a doughy center, too many chocolate chips, and a ripple of peanut butter running throughout.
That is these bars.
I used my mom’s base recipe for the cookie dough, which I do believe is the very same recipe that’s listed on the back of the Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. I think the only changes mom made was reducing the sugar and adding more chocolate chips.
My addition? Salted butter, which I swear is the secret to giving baked goods that extra special touch. If you haven’t tried it, you have to bake with salted butter. You have to.
And now that I think of it, I am 99.9 % sure my mom always bakes with salted butter too, and her desserts are nothing short of perfect. So bake with salted butter. You’re going to love it.
Moving on.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add your eggs, vanilla, and dry ingredients. Stir in lots of chocolate chips. You could also use dark chocolate chips, but then if you’re making cookie bars why not make them really good…
Hint, hint. Use semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Snack on some dough (only use pasteurized eggs and toasted flour). Then spread the dough in a baking dish. Dollop with peanut butter and add the remaining dough. Bake, smell the deliciousness coming from your oven. Wait (impatiently) for twenty minutes, find some cold milk, grab a fork and eat hot cookies, right out of the pan because it’s Tuesday and summer is coming to an end soon, and sometimes in life, you just need to live a little.
Today is a good day to live a little.
Eat hot cookies with a glass of cold milk and enjoy every last moment of it.
Very dramatic aren’t I? But really, did I sell you? Pretty sure as my mom reads this that she’ll be hopping up from her computer, calling for Asher, and running to the kitchen to find herself some butter, sugar, eggs, flour, chocolate chips, and peanut butter.
Hoping you all have the same reaction, because like I said, sometimes you just have to do what sounds so amazingly good and comforting. Eat cookies now…have salad for dinner (new salad recipe coming Thursday!). And maybe even a smoothie for breakfast.
Balance, it’s all about balance.
And with that, enjoy your Tuesday…and make cookies!
If you make these chocolate chip peanut butter swirled cookie bars, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you. And of course, if you do make these cookies, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram so I can see! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
The Best Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Swirled Cookie Bars
Servings: 24 bars
Calories Per Serving: 1527 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2-3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until combined and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour, and baking soda, beat until combined. Stir in the the chocolate chips.3. Spread 1/2 the dough out in the prepared dish. Dollop and then gently swirl the peanut butter into the dough. Add the remaining dough overtop, don't worry if the dough doesn't fully cover the peanut butter. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, until just set in the center. Let cool and then cut into bars. Store for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Notes
*If you don't have salted butter, you can use unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt in place of the salted butter.
Can these bars be frozen. I’m gettingmarried I. 5 weeks I’m from Pittsburgh area so I need some good fast freezable cookie recipes
HI! I have not tried freezing these, but I am sure they will freeze fine. Congrats on getting married! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much! x Tieghan
And to think I’ve been using unsalted butter all this time!! I’m def switching. These sound awesome, especially with that swirl of peanut butter. Sometimes, a cookie bar is just what you need to feel good again 🙂
Thank you so much Danielle! I hope you try this!
From the looks of it, this recipe might become one of my go-to’s for any festive occasion. They are amazing! Thank you for sharing them!
Just to be sure, though, do I understand correctly that two sticks of butter amount to one cup in total?
Hi Inge! Yes, that is correct! I hope you love this!
Absolutely wonderful! I agree with your salted butter philosophy. I never use anything else. What’s the point? You might as well use lard. This is a terrific recipe. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much Elizabeth! I am so glad you like this and hope you try it!
I always use salted butter too! I never tell my husband because he pretends he doesn’t eat salt haha! Excited to try your cookie bars, end of seasons truly are nostalgic. Cheers!
Its the best! Thank you Christina!
I am sorry , but I cook with Unsalted Butter , I have a cookbook that the author uses only Unsalted Butter , and EVERYTHING is DIVINE . I have other recipes that use and recommend ONLY using Unsalted Butter , I have use Salted Butter and they do not taste right in my opinion . I would like to know why you think it is better . I have been cooking for Forty-Six years.
HI Mary, as I talked about in my post, I like the additional salt that the butter provides. I find it leaves baked goods with an extra special touch that is delicious. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much! x Tieghan
I think chocolate chip cookies make the best kind of food memories. Growing up, my grandma lived with my brother, Dad and me and used to bake chocolate chip cookies once a week. When she passed away 2 years ago, I had kids I went to elementary and middle school with telling me that they still remembered her cookies all these years later. These peanut butter swirled cookie bars are a definite must-make!
Oh wow! That is so amazing and I am so glad you can remember her by that! I hope you love these cookie bars Lauren!
3/4 cups PB?
Hi Lisa! Yes, 3/4 cup peanut butter! I hope you love this!
I love how the peanut butter is swirled into these bars! My mom always made “pan cookies” as we called them in a 9×13 pan too instead of making cookies…we loved how gooey they were that way! Plus even simpler than making individual cookies.
Thank you so much Brittany!
This looks great! If I used white whole wheat flour instead of the ap, how do you think it will affect the bars (if at all)?
The cookies will be more dense with the whole wheat flour and dryer. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much! x Tieghan
Looks delicious! If I used white whole wheat flour in place of the all purpose, would I use a 1:1 swap? And how do you think it will change the final texture of the bars?
HI! Yes, a 1:1 swap will be fine. The cookies will be more dense with the whole wheat flour. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much! x Tieghan
The cookies will be more dense with the whole wheat flour. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much! x Tieghan
Oh, Teigan! What would we do without chocolate and peanut butter? This is moving to top of my list for “must make” !
LOVE THAT! I hope you enjoy this recipe Melinda! Thank you!
If we don’t have salted butter, how much salt should we add to the recipe? Thanks!
hey girl- these bars look so yummy!
Thank you Shawnna!
Oh my goodness-gracious-nomness – YESSSS to these!!
Rebecca | http://www.peppermintdolly.com
Thank you Rebecca!