These chocolate chip cookie bars are soft and chewy and amazingly delicious! Forget about scooping cookie dough onto a pan...simply bake the whole thing as one and cut it up later! It's a great way to enjoy cookies..and you'd never guess that these are gluten-free!
It's hard to turn down a chocolate chip cookie...
...and it will be even harder to turn down these chocolate chip cookie bars!
Just as good as a cookie, but so much simpler because you don't have to fuss with making the cookie balls.
AND believe it or not, these tasty bars are gluten-free but you would never know it!
Making the Cookie Dough
I like to separate the ingredients into groups. It makes it easier to think about and easier to put everything together.
First comes the dry ingredients, which is a combination of brown rice flour, millet flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt.
Next comes the wet, which starts with whisking together almond butter, melted butter, and brown sugar.
To the butter mixture, whisk in an egg and some vanilla extract and you've got your "glue", so to speak, to bind everything together.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing it well until you form the dough. The final step and, perhaps, the most important to some people, is to add the chocolate chips! At this point, it's going to look exactly as you expect cookie dough to look.
Baking the Cookie Bars
This is where the recipe deviates from how you would normally make cookies. You don't need to divide the dough into cookie balls or worry about how you space them on a baking sheet. You also don't have to worry about that last bit of dough that is either smaller or bigger than the rest of your cookie balls or that is missing some chocolate chips!
All you need to do is simply dump all the cookie dough into a 9x9 baking pan (I line it with parchment for easy removal), spread it out evenly and bake! You can't get any easier than that!
To achieve that nice chewy cookie texture, the key is to bake them so they are slightly underdone. I found that the best way to achieve that was to bake it at a slightly lower temperature than most cookie recipes, but for about the same amount of time. For me, I found 12-13 minutes yielded the perfect results.
Customize Your Bars
Just like with regular cookies, you can put your own spin on these cookie bars!
Stir some chopped nuts, dried fruit, or dried coconut into the cookie bar dough. Mix them in with the chocolate chips or omit the chocolate chips completely!
Top with some flaked salt once you pull the pan of cookie bars out of the oven.
Drizzle the cooled cookie bars with melted chocolate.
How ever you might think of customizing regular cookies, you can also do the same here with the bars!
Commonly Asked Questions
Sorghum or oat flour are good substitutes if you do not have millet flour.
Guar gum is a common substitute. I have read about psyllium husk being used as a substitute, but I have not tried it myself.
Potato starch or cornstarch are viable options for tapioca starch.
No, you can't. Coconut flour has completely different characteristics that don't make it a good 1:1 substitution for other flours.
Your cookie bars will be slightly more crumbly than if you bake them longer. The soft chewy texture comes from when they are baked until they are slightly underdone.
I like to store them in a sealed container in the fridge. Eating them cold also adds to their chewy cookie texture!
Yes! You can refrigerate the dough in a sealed container or ziploc bag for a few days, or freeze it in a sealed bag for longer. Let the cookie dough warm up to room temperature before spreading into the baking pan.
If you're interested in more gluten-free sweet recipes, be sure to check out Flourless Chocolate Swirl Blondies, Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Cookies, or Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake, just to name a few! They're a small sampling of recipes I have to offer where you would never guess that they're gluten-free!
So that's it! Scrumptious, chewy, delicious cookie bars...exactly like cookies but way easier to make AND incredibly gluten-free! And try them from the fridge...it ups the chewy and delish factor! 🙂
~ Lisa.
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 100 grams brown rice flour
- 35 grams millet flour
- 35 grams tapioca starch
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup almond butter
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven 325F/162C.
- In a bowl, combine brown rice flour, millet flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt and whisk together. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine almond butter, melted butter, and brown sugar. Whisk together well.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract to the almond butter mixture. Whisk well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Spread cookie dough into a parchment lined 9x9 baking pan.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes. Do not overbake.
- Let cool in the pan. Refrigerate for the best chewiness!
Notes
- To achieve the chewy cookie texture, be sure not to overbake the cookie bars.
- Line your 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper for easier removal from the pan.
- To fancy up your cookie bars, drizzle melted chocolate over the bars after they have cooled completely.
- Top your cookie bars with flaked salt or mix chopped nuts, dried fruit, or dried coconut into the cookie dough.
- Store cookie bars in the fridge...they taste delicious cold!
- Make the dough ahead of time and keep it in a sealed bag in the fridge for a few days or freeze in a sealed container. Bring the dough to room temperature before spreading the dough into the pan.
elizabeth Keatley
these look lovely. I don't keep almond butter on hand--can you substitute peanut butter?
Yes, I would give peanut butter or any nut butter a try if I didn't have almond butter on hand. Thanks for the question, Elizabeth!