These are just about the best treats I’ve ever made: Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars. They’re full of gooey chocolate, and that’s a good thing!!
Watch the quick how-to video showing you how to make this recipe, then print out the complete recipe below.
September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness month. What do these goodies have to do with cancer? The Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars come from the “Cookies For Kids Cancer: Best Bake Sale Cookbook.”
The Cookies for Kids’ Cancer cookbook provides directions on how to hold a bake sale, signage, and lots of recipes and photos. The best part? All of the author’s royalties go directly to help fight pediatric cancer by funding research into new treatments and a cure.
Author Gretchen Holt-Witt founded cookiesforkidscancer.org in 2007 when her two-year old son Liam was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. A few years and a few hundred thousand cookies and bake sales later, this charity has raised millions of dollars to help fun new pediatric cancer treatments.
Kids helping kids… I like that.
These are slab cookies. Made in one pan and lifted out as a slab.
They’re a little chocolatey. SOOO good right out of the pan and warm and gooey, but rather hard to cut.
It’s best to chill them and them cut them neatly. If you’re into being neat.
So let’s talk about the makeup of these bars. They’re basically chocolate chip- oatmeal cookie dough spread into the bottom of a pan, then topped with a gooey chocolate layer, then topped with more chocolate chip- oatmeal cookie dough.
I love the sort of natural, rustic crackle look on the tops of the bars. Gives you a lil’ peek that there is a gooey layer of chocolate hidden in the middle.
Hungry? Craving chocolate now? Yeah, I thought so.
And there they are… my “neatly” cut Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars. Chocolate overload, if you like that sort of thing. Good with milk, if you drink that stuff. And perfect for a bake sale, where you’ll make big bucks to donate to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.
I think it’s a great idea for kids to have bake sales for charity– showing them that it’s not all about making money for themselves to purchase their next video game or iTunes gift card or whatever. There are things much more important in this world.
Here are a few more bar recipes you might enjoy:
- Strawberry Shortbread Bars
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
- Royal Chocolate Marshmallow Bars
- Apple Pie Bars
- Cranberry Bliss Bars
- Six Layer Bars
- Lemon Blueberry Streusel Bars
- Chocolate Revel Bars
Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars
Recipe Details
Ingredients
GOOEY CHOCOLATE FILLING:
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
COOKIES:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup quick-cooking or old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper, allowing enough overhang on the long side to lift the bars from the pan.
PREPARE THE GOOEY CHOCOLATE FILLING:
- Place the chocolate chips and condensed milk in a small saucepan over the lowest possible heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the vanilla, and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
PREPARE THE COOKIE DOUGH:
- Place the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Beat well. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add to the butter mixture. Beat until everything is well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
ASSEMBLE THE BARS:
- Using half of the batch of cookie dough, place dollops into the prepared pan and press down lightly to even it out. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and then add small dollops of the remaining dough on top. Don't worry if the dollops don't completely cover the chocolate mixture. Just spread it together as much as you can, and let some chocolate peek through.
- Bake until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely, then cut into 32 bars.
Video
Notes
- These are easiest to cut when they have chilled for a while. You'll be able to get nice, clean cuts when they're firmer, then they'll soften up a bit when they're at room temperature again.
Delicious, I left some with my daughter and husband who just had a baby and she asked for more. Easy to put together. I used less chocolate chips melted in the sweetened condensed milk and it was still plenty chocolatey.
Do you know if I could substitute something for the egg and egg yolk? One of my granddaughters is allergic to eggs.
I am not knowledgeable about egg substitutes, so I’m not sure. Maybe try Google to find out what is best to substitute egg for in baking?
Have made these twice now. I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I used peanut butter chips too and they came out great! Will definitely make these again and again. I like them best refrigerated or even frozen.
I followed directions completely and these did not turn out at all even turned down oven and cooked extra time and still spots were don’t cooked at all and other parts were burning. Vey disappointed wasted 2 bags of chocolate chips and a can of condensed milk don’t think I will try these again
I’m not sure what could have happened–this recipe has been around for a long time!
So delicious. Dessert chosen for daughter’s wedding.
I made these for a graduation party and they were a hit!!! So delicious!!! Question though…..can you use the pillsbury pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough roll instead of making it as instructed in the recipe?
I have never tried it, but you can certainly experiment!
I made these, it was really hard to spread the bottom so I had to use more batter, and the top looks awful because I ran out. They’re for a bake sale and I’m not sure how I’m going to salvage them. I really think you should adjust the cookie batter recipe so it’s not stretched too thin.
I made this two days ago and it turned out great.
I just made these!! Oh my goodness, so much deliciousness!! 🙂
In New Zealand it’s Anzac Day for us (a day of rememberance for those who’ve fought in wars for our freedom). So in the spirit of Anzac and to make this slice more Anzac-y, I made the base with a little less chocolate, added coconut and some golden syrup, and me oh my, it is so good. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us all! 🙂
I’ve looked at so many choc. chip bar recipes this morning, I honestly can’t remember how I got here – all I know is I started with Google LOL.
But these are the ones that are in the oven. I think I messed up a couple things though. The chocolate sauce was super thick (not pour-able at all), and every search for ‘how to thin chocolate sauce’ led me to comments about seizing, so I just left it and spread it on the best I could. I also found the dough really dry so I added about 1/4 – 1/3 cup milk. Then I put way too much batter on the bottom layer, and didn’t have enough to cover the top. Oops! It was quite the gong show this morning LOL.
Hopefully I didn’t completely ruin the recipe, and they still taste good!! Thanks for sharing!!
We used to make them in my HomeEc class, we used almost the exact same recipe and put it in a 9×9 pan, we called them yummy bars. They were very rich and yummy, hence our name for them 🙂
My mama used to make her regular chocolate chip cookie recipe in a 9 by 12 pan and cut them into bars. They were called bar cookies back then. Kept the house cooler in the summer than having the oven on baking regular cookies by the panful.
These cookie bars look amazing! Think I will make them for the Super Bowl get together tomorrow!
I love to bake, especially for people.. As the saying goes, love people cook them good food…
Making for our Grandkids tomorrow, they look so yummy
I’ve bought that book for people as a gift. I love it! And the spatula is adorable!
these look insanely good!and for such a great cause!
i made them they are so GOOD!!!
wowweeee. just made these and had in the soft gooey stage. excited to taste them when they really set up. the slab will be ravaged by the men of the house who can eat these and not gain an ounce. lucky them!
thank you for the recipe!
Oh my! I can’t wait to eat these! They just came out of the oven and look delicious! I altered the recipe a bit and used dark chocolate squares in the filling and put coconut on top (please don’t take offense, I alter every recipe I try to follow). Thanks for sharing with everyone!