13 Delicious Bar Cookie Recipes that Can Serve a Crowd (2024)

FAQs

What pan is best for bar cookies? ›

9-by-13-inch baking pans: To make bar cookies, you obviously need a pan to bake them in. I prefer metal, straight-sided pans that truly measure 9 by 13.

Bar cookies baked in insulated baking pans often don't brown well. Try baking bars longer than called for in your recipe. Realize that most published recipes are not developed using insulated pans. Ideally, only bake one baking pan of bar cookies at a time, placing it on a rack in the middle of the oven.

I am going out on a limb against popular opinions by saying, YES, it's okay to place your under baked or underdone cookies back into the oven for a second bake. But here's the condition: you would need to adjust the baking time and temperature.

Bar cookies should be cooled in their baking pan on a cooling rack. Use a sharp knife to cut the bars in the pan into rectangles, squares, diamonds or other shapes. The following guidelines for the number and size of the bars a recipe will make are approximate. Using a thin, narrow metal spatula, remove bars from pan.

For a 13×9 Pan:

On the long side of the pan, make a mark and cut down every 2 1/10-inches, so you have 6 columns. Turn the pan to its shorter side and make one cut down the middle, 4 ½-inches from the edge. You'll end up with 12 2 1/10×4 ½-inch rectangles.

For cake-like bars, test with a wooden pick inserted at the center of the pan. If it comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, the cookies are done. Chewy (moister) bars will have a dull, rather than shiny, surface; a slight imprint will remain after touching the surface lightly with your fingertip.

To protect flavor and prevent the cookies from drying out, wrap tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil or freezer wrap, or pack in freezer bags or plastic freezer containers with tight-fitting lids. Separate bars with waxed paper between the layers. Remove as much air as possible and seal tightly.

Cookies become hard when the moisture in them evaporates. This can be caused by leaving them out in the air for too long, baking them for too long, or storing them improperly.

If you cut bars or brownies while they are still warm, they will crumble (some more than others.) Make sure cookies are completely cool in order to get best results when cutting them, regardless of whether or not you line the baking pan with foil or simply grease the pan.

Too much butter makes cookies turn out just as you'd expect: very buttery. This batch of cookies was cakey in the middle, but also airy throughout, with crispy edges. They were yellow and slightly puffy in the middle, and brown and super thin around the perimeter.

What does an underbaked cookie look like? ›

Colour: Raw or undercooked cookies tend to have a pale appearance, lacking that golden or slightly browned hue that indicates they're fully baked. Watch for cookies that still have a doughy or unbaked look. Texture: Touch the surface of the cookies gently.

Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and tender, 12 to 15 minutes. For crispy-cakey cookies: Bake the cookies at 425 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, 8 to 10 minutes. For chewy cookies: Use 1 cup light brown sugar and 1/4 cup corn syrup and omit the granulated sugar.

Baking Pans for Bars

Those include an 8" x 8" x 2" baking pan, a 13" x 9" baking pan, or a 14" x 10" jellyroll pan, depending on what the recipe specifies. (Learn more about baking pans and how to choose one.)

While stainless steel is a preferred material for many cookware pieces, it's widely known to be a poor performer in the baking sheet category because it's not as good at conducting heat as aluminum.

– but metal does an overall better job than glass of baking almost everything except for acidic desserts. It bakes evenly because it heats up so quickly. It also browns beautifully and crisps to perfection.

That is actually my first tip. I use a glass pan (like this Pyrex Baking Dish ) instead of a metal one, because I always found the edges would get to brown in the metal pan. That would also cause all the bars along the edge to stick. The glass pan doesn't over do the edges and they don't stick nearly as much.