So far here I’ve posted lots of healthy side dishes and main courses. Even my desserts have been full of fruit! And there will be more of that to come. However, today it’s time for something a little different. This is the other side of ‘A Little Bit Of Bacon’ when it’s time for a sweet treat and not a vegetable or fruit in sight. Instead, I have yummy, gooey, easy butterscotch bars for you. And, if that wasn’t enough, I’ve filled them with chocolate chips too.
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The base of this recipe comes from the Cookie Companion by King Arthur Flour
I have their Baker’s Companion
As for this particular recipe, these butterscotch bars don’t get easier. Really, they don’t!
There is no mixer required. Nothing fussy at all. Just a bowl and a spoon. (Okay, and a few measuring type things.) It takes about five minutes to combine everything in the bowl and then you’re ready to spread it out in the pan and put it in the oven.
Don’t you love easy cookie recipes? I do! Like my One Bowl Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies or my Simple Double Chocolate Cookies.
While you can, and I frequently do, cut the bars right in the pan, sometimes it’s nice to be able to pull the whole thing out. Take a length of parchment paper, trim it to the size of the pan with a few inches hanging over either side, and press it into the greased pan (so it sticks to the bottom), and then grease the parchment paper.
When the bars are done, let them cool until just warm, slip a butter knife down each of the short sides and pull it all out onto the cutting board. Boom! You’ll have the whole tray of bars right there where you can cut them neatly. Your choice whether you cut the edges off (cook’s treat š ) or go country style and keep them on.
Once they are cut, I like to set them out on a rack to finish cooling. Or at least I like to put the ones we haven’t eaten yet on a rack.
Oddly enough a few always end up disappearing as soon as I get them cut up. I have no idea what happens to them. None at all. But the rest have to wait until dessert.
Just look at all those gooey chocolate chips! Yum!
Is it dessert time yet? š
– Happy Eating, Annemarie
Need some other chocolatey ideas? How about:
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- Triple Chocolate Banana Scones
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- Best Every Easy Chocolate Lava Cakes
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- Chocolate Almond Stuffed Cookies
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- Dark Chocolate Mousse Pie
Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Bars
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4 oz 8 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 c (12 oz) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 c (7 1/2 oz) all purpose flour
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13 pan. If desired, cut a length of parchment paper to size - so that it fits the length of the pan and overhangs the sides by at least a few inches - and then grease the parchment.
- Melt the butter, either in a saucepan set on medium low or in a bowl in the microwave. If using the microwave, use a medium sized mixing bowl which will be large enough for all the ingredients and have one less thing to clean.
- Now, either add the brown sugar to the microwaved butter in the bowl or pull out your medium sized mixing bowl and whisk the butter and brown sugar together until smooth.
- One at a time, add the eggs, the vanilla, the salt, and the baking power and, using a large spoon, mix each one in until well combined.
- Add the flour and mix in until almost combined. Then pour in the butterscotch and chocolate chips and mix until no white streaks are flour are left. This should take only a few swift strokes of the spoon.
- Scrape batter out of the bowl and into the prepared pan. Spread it out evenly to the edges. Bake the bars for 20-25 minutes being careful not to overcook them. When they are ready to come out the top will be set and shiny and the edges will be brown and beginning to pull away from the side of the pan. A little underbaked in this case is better than dried out and overbaked.
- Let the bars cool until just warm and then - if you used the parchment - run knife along the short edges of the pan, pull them out carefully, and transfer them to a cutting board. Cut into 24 bars and let cool completely if you can resist eating them while they are all warm and melty.
Notes
Erika says
Iām a beginning baker and this was an AMAZING recipe. I was worried I did something wrong when the batter came out thicker than I thought it would but I pulled them out 20 min later and they were perfect!
Thank you for the recipe!
Bre says
Hey – thanks for the recipe! I made it last night and the consistency isn’t quite right. I live at high altitude and the batter was much too thick, couldn’t mix in all of the flour, so I added an extra egg. I think that was a bad solution. Any high altitude tips?
They taste great, though! Not too sweet for me.
Annie says
Perfect for a butterscotch bar craving! Only reason for the 4 instead of 5 stars, is I think they are a little too sweet. To prospective bakers: ask yourself how much sugar you really want in a bar before dumping all the ingredients in the bowl!
I think someone else had a great idea by chopping some nuts into these, that would help. I didn’t exactly measure, but I think I used 1.5 cups of chips total, instead of the called for 2. If I do this again, I might stick closer to 1.25 cups of chips total.
Once again, if you have a super sugar tooth, these are perfect! But for me personally, it’s a little too much. Last thing, mine stayed in the oven about 30 minutes, I kept checking but they seemed to loose to come out earlier.