Last summer when I was visiting my parents, my nephews and niece typically ate lunch with us. Their parents were working and Grandma’s cooking beats frozen pizza 🙂 One thing I noticed is that they really loved the M&M ice cream cookie sandwiches my Mom had for dessert. So when I saw these bars on Pinterest, I figured my family would enjoy them.
I particularly love the fact that these are bars versus cookies or candies. It can be a real time-consuming process when you have to make individual pieces, but here — it’s just one, big pan. And that makes Tanya very happy!
These are very reminiscent of blondies and are chock full of M&Ms and chocolate chips. Since I wanted to set these out for Christmas, I used holiday M&Ms but these bars aren’t just for Christmas. You can make these year-round with regular M&Ms or coordinating M&Ms for any holiday, like Valentine’s Day or Halloween.
We had our quarterly volunteer meeting this past weekend at the library, so I brought a big pan of these bars to the potluck. They were a huge hit and I was grateful to not have to deal with the temptation of eating all of them. 😀 Give these a try whenever you need an easy treat for the holidays, a bake sale or just because your sweet tooth demands it.
Chocolate Candy Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups M&M's, plus more for topping
- 1 1/2 cups Triple Chip Morsels (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x13 cake pan with non-stick spray or line with aluminum foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add flour, baking soda and salt and carefully mix until combined. Stir in M&M's and triple chocolate chip mix. Reserve some for the top (optional).
- Evenly spread cookie dough mixture in the prepared baking dish.Press additional M&M'S and chocolate chips into the top of the cookie dough.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. It's best to bake on oven rack in lower third of oven to avoid bars getting too brown. Cool completely and serve.
Notes
The original recipe called for 1 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips. My store was out of mini chocolate chips and I noticed the triple chocolate morsels so I used those instead. Either works!
Mine turned out a bit dark. I misread the baking time and over-baked mine. They were still delicious, but next time I would watch the time better. 🙂
Recipe source: Number 2 Pencil.
Enjoy!
Tanya
Wow, these look good Tanya! 🙂
Thanks, Mackenzie! They are delicious! 😀
I love anything with M&M’s in it. I’ve been thinking lots about making M&M bars for Christmas for some reason. I’ll have to try this recipe!
Definitely give it a try, Laurie. Really easy to make and they taste great!