Welcome to the third week of our 2024 Baking Challenge! I am not a professional baker, but I do love to bake! I’m kind of a mess in the kitchen, but really wanted to challenge myself to bake more often, and to explore new recipes and skills, so the 2024 Baking Challenge was born!

We are baking on a budget, cutting corners to make things easier and more accessible, and altering recipes for food allergies and picky eaters (seriously, my kid doesn’t even like pancakes!)

Every week on Wednesday I will post the shopping list to our Facebook and Instagram accounts! Every Saturday at 9am Central, I will post a new video. These beginning videos are going to be shaky, but I’ll get the hang of it eventually! I can’t promise not to be awkward or ramble, that’s just who I am!

I do hope that you will bake along with me!

Week three is the Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar recipe from King Arthur Baking. You can find the recipe on their website here. The link to the video is here. I am not affiliated with, nor sponsored by King Arthur, I’m just a fan! (Although if they would like to sponsor me, I’m totally down!)

PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THE RECIPE BEFORE STARTING! This is what I call a “patience bake”! Don’t expect to eat this right away. I waited an hour and it just wasn’t long enough for the center to set up. Honestly, I’d let it sit overnight like the recipe suggests, unless you make it first thing in the morning.

I’m not going to bore you with my life story, I’m just going to give you the recipe right here. You’re welcome! (You can read further on for the tips that I offer for this bake, as well as the mistakes I made, because I’m always going to make mistakes. CHAOS BAKING FOR THE WIN!)

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Ingredients

• 11 TBSP butter, melted

• 2 cups plus 2 TBSP light or dark brown sugar, packed

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp butterscotch or vanilla-butternut flavor, optional (I used rum flavor!)

• 3 large eggs

• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp espresso powder, optional (I got mine from Amazon and it is soooo good!)

• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

• 3 cups of chocolate chips or any combination of flavored chips/nuts/chopped candy

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Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish.
• Melt the butter, and stir in the brown sugar. Add the salt, vanilla, and flavor, stirring until well combined.
• Allow the mixture to cool slightly (if it’s very hot to the touch), then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl midway through this process.
• Add the baking powder, espresso powder, and flour, stirring to combine.
• Stir in the chips or other additions of your choice. (You can use a mixer on low speed, or stir in by hand.)
• Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it to the edges with a wet spatula (or your wet fingers). Smooth the top as best you can.
• Bake the bars for 30 to 32 minutes, until they’ve risen, and their top is shiny and golden. Bake for the shorter amount of time in a darker pan; the longer time in a light/shiny pan. A cake tester inserted into the center won’t come out clean; in fact, the center of the very middle of the pan may look quite molten when you dig into it. But so long as no wet batter is showing farther out towards the edges, the bars are done. As they cool, the center will solidify.
• Remove the bars from the oven, and use a heatproof spatula to press down the risen edges; this will make bars with flat, rather than humped tops. Let the bars cool completely before cutting; overnight is best. Once bars are cool, wrap airtight. Store wrapped bars at room temperature for a couple of days.

As I mentioned before, I waited maybe an hour before trying to cut into these. As usual, I hadn’t managed my time well and we were supposed to be walking out the door, but I just didn’t want to wait for the results. The next day, the center had set up and they were absolutely perfect and delicious!

Other things to note, never add raw egg to a hot mixture. For you new bakers out there, that is how you end up with scrambled eggs in your dessert. Ask me how I know!!!

As for the optional ingredients, if you can then you should ABSOLUTELY use espresso powder. I had never used it before. My local, rural store didn’t carry it, but I found THIS BRAND on Amazon and felt that it was priced reasonably well. Considering that I have chosen a few other recipes that call for it, I went ahead and ordered it. WORTH IT!!! I’m not sure what kind of magic is in this powder, but it brings all the flavor! I took a gamble and added it to some rice krispy treats this week and it was a game changer for sure!

In my opinion, you don’t have to limit yourself with just flavored chips and nuts. Go crazy and chop up some Milky Way candy, or something like that! I think I remember my Grandmother doing that and it was heaven!

You can stir this by hand, but it’s going to be exhausting. I do recommend a mixer. You don’t have to have a fancy mixer to get the job done! I had an old Sunbeam that worked great for ten years! The only reason I got rid of it was because the glass bowl broke and they didn’t make them anymore. Then I went without a mixer for a few years until I got a KitchenAid. My first KithenAid mixer was this Artisan 5 qt in lime green, and it was great! In 2022 I got an upgrade to the 7 qt lift bowl style and I love it. It has a bit of a larger capacity so it is easier to double a recipe without worrying about overflow. And all of my various attachments still work with it. (Don’t even get me started on my collection. It is vast and WORTH EVERY PENNY. Since I’m cheap, that is saying something!) Honestly, there are so many mixers out there, do your reading and figure out one that will work for you! I really went with KA because of the longevity of the company, the customer service, and the insane number of different attachments that you can get! I’ve got a collection and have used them all! Well, except the pasta maker attachments, but that is on the list for this year!

All in all, I feel like this is a winning bake! I do plan on making this recipe again so that I can try out some different flavor combinations. I wonder about adding some cocoa powder to make the cookie chocolate? Maybe with some reeces peanutbutter cups chopped and added? There is so much potential here to get strange! Drop a comment and let me know if you tried this and how it went! You can also tag me in your photos on Instagram @blackberryhillhouse, although the lively discussions happen over on our FaceBook Page, I hope to see you there!

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