What happens when you find a clearance on graham crackers for 50 cents a box and then score some 12 oz bags of chocolate chips of various flavors and sizes for ony 99 cents?
You have the ingredients for something new and different for dessert. Like rich chocolate chip cookies without the tedium of drop cookies (have I mentioned that I have tired, after all these years, of making those countless drops of dough?) and squares of gooey goodness that taste a whole lot richer than a plain old ordinary cookie.
I adapted the batter for the cookie layers from a recipe I found in my mother’s files almost 50 years ago. I often made it (without graham cracker crumbs) when my kids were young because it was less rich than the usual chocolate chip cookie recipes. The filling idea is a little like a few similar recipes out on the internet, but I think my twists really have made this my own recipe.
If you don’t have an 11 X 15 pan, you can use two 7 X 11 pans instead–or just make the recipe in your more standard 9 X 13 pan and end up with higher cookies. Personally, I like the results with the thinner bars but don’t decide not to make these just because you don’t have the right size pan.
The graham cracker and chocolate mix will be thick, and will spread best with a knife.
Graham Cracker Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Cookie Layers
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 packet graham cracker crumbs see NOTE
- 1 teaspoon soda
- 1 cup 6 ounces chocolate chips—mini-chip size works best for even mixing into batter
Filling
- 1 packet graham crackers crushed finely (see NOTE)
- 1/3 c milk
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Cream the butter, both sugars, and vanilla together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until fluffy.
- Stir the flour, graham cracker crumbs, and soda together and add to the egg mixture. When evenly mixed, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Prepare the filling. Heat milk and chocolate chips in the microwave at medium heat about 1 to 2 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the chips are melted and the mixture is well blended.
- Remove from microwave and stir in the 1 packet of filling graham cracker crumbs
- Spread a scant half of the dough evenly in an 11 X 15, oiled pan. Spread with the still hot filling (it thickens quickly as it cools so speed is of the essence) and then drop the remaining dough over the filling. Use a spatula to spread this layer as evenly as possible over the chocolate layer.
- Bake at 325? for about 30-35 minutes, until just barely done. Test by inserting a toothpick near the center, only into the top layer, not into thee chocolate. If no cookie dough sticks to the toothpick, it is done. Do not overbake.
Notes
Most graham crackers are currently sold in 14-ounce boxes, with three packets in each. When finely crushed, each packet yields just over a cup of crumbs. To simplify your preparation, just crush one packet for each part of the recipe separately. No need for further measuring. I find that using a food processor or blender is the easiest and quickest way to get the very fine crumbs you will want for this recipe, but putting the crackers in a plastic bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin will also work.
June 12, 2023 Update
A couple of notes here. First, using a glass 11 X 15 pan and baking at 325 degrees for 35 minutes resulted in a nice evenly baked result, not too brown on the edges before the middle was just the right amount of softness. And then a fun addition:
I had some leftover s’more sized marshmallows that had gotten pretty dry and hard, about a cup or so (hard to measure when they are crunchy!). I put them in the processor just to get them slightly crumbly and then spread them over the bars just before baking. I put foil very loosely over the top (so that the marshmallows wouldn’t end up sticking to the foil) and the result was the perfectly browned marshmallows I usually can’t get when I am trying to make real s’mores over the fire.