Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars; perfectly soft and chewy cookie bars, crammed with chocolate chunks and topped with flaky sea salt.
Are there enough words in that title to ignite your hunger hormones?
Cookie bars. The vastly superior baby brother of the chocolate chip cookie. These Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars, like all cookie bars, provide even more:
- Thickness
- Chewiness
- Chocolate…ness
Bite into a whisper of crispness that gives way to a gloriously dense and chewy cookie centre. Slow your chewing as pockets of good quality dark chocolate submit to melting on your tongue. Lick your lips to catch any little crunchy sea salt flakes.
Skip the faff of dough-rolling, spacing, refrigerating. and carefully watching that comes with regular cookie baking. Press your dough (or what’s left of it after “tasting“) into your tray and bung it straight into the oven. What this Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars recipe lacks in technique, it makes up for in enjoyment.
Don’t fear the flakes. Even just the smallest sprinkle of sea salt beautifully amplifies dark chocolate, but if you’ve found your way here, I’m sure you already know that!
Also, I’ll let you in on a secret. These Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars are completely vegan.
Love vegan cookies? Try these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies!
Dairy lovers, do not despair. This recipe is divinely enjoyable for vegans and non-vegans alike. Inspired by the flavours of The BEST Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, today’s cookie bar recipe is for everyone.
The lack of dairy might be a blessing in disguise in this period of fluctuating supermarket availability. Using extra virgin olive oil and good-quality rapeseed oil gives these Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars all the colour and rich flavour of butter (though you can use margarine if you don’t like their slightly savoury flavour). The missing eggs are simply made up for with some non-dairy milk, I promise, you won’t even notice they’re gone!
If you are a new lockdown baker, or an experienced one, this recipe is the ideal lazy bake for a weekend morning. You don’t even reeeeeally have to wait for them to cool down, digging into these while still hot and gooey with a big spoon may just be the antidote to your stressful week. I speak from far too much experience.
To make these Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars, you don’t need any fancy equipment at all. Just grab yourself a mixing bowl, a spatula, some spoons, some greaseproof paper, and a sturdy baking tray.
I hope you’ll love these if you get a chance to make them. The making and eating of these has been a lovely antidote to the stress of my working life, and I hope it can be the same for you.
Thank you as always for stopping by, I hope you are all staying safe and healthy!
Want to save these Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars for later? Pin the image below!
To make these Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars, simply follow the recipe below!
Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: why not stir a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter into the dough for extra flavour?
These Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars will keep well in an airtight container for up to 1 week. No need to refrigerate, unless you like them cold!
Ingredients
- 60ml (¼ cup) rapeseed oil (or 60g melted margarine)
- 60ml (¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil (or 60g melted margarine, as above)
- 120g (⅔ cup) soft light brown sugar
- 120g (⅔ cup) caster sugar
- 4 tbsp non-dairy milk (I use oat milk)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 275g (2 generous cups) plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 200g (7 oz) good quality dark chocolate
- Generous pinch of flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven – 180 C / 160 C fan / 350 F / gas mark 4.
- Grease and line a 30cm x 18cm (12in x 7in), or 20cm x 20cm (8in x 8in), baking tin with greaseproof paper.
- In a large bowl, beat together your oils and sugars until they resemble wet sand.
- Add your milk and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat again until smooth.
- Gently stir in your flour, raising agents, chocolate and salt until you have a thick golden cookie dough.
- Use the back of a spoon, or your clean hands, to press the cookie dough into a flat layer in your lined trays.
- Bake the tray of dough for 18-22 minutes. The dough should look puffed and dry on top.
- Once baked, sprinkle over a little more sea salt and allow the tray to cool for at least 30 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Use a sharp knife to slice the baked tray of cookie into square or rectangular bars.
- Enjoy!
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