Easter chocolate is so good on its own, but baked into a cookie!?! These Easter cookie bars are insanely delicious and so so easy!
When it comes to seasonal holiday chocolate, Easter chocolate for me is top tier. Theres so many varieties, most of it is superrrr cute and so so delicious! These Easter cookie bars, take the delicious chocolate and bake them into browned butter cookie bars. The cookie itself is chewy, moist and full of rich nutty buttery flavour. But most importantly is SO easy to make. Cookie bars rather than a regular round cookie take far less prep and bake time, but are still so delicious. And gives the perfect base to push all our Easter chocolate into!!
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
- Unsalted butter – You need real butter for this recipe (though you can use vegan block replacements), as the first step is to brown the butter. This just means to brown the milk solids in the butter so they turn nutty and delicious. Once you know how to brown butter you’ll struggle not to do it in every recipe!
- Dark chocolate – For the cookie bar base I have used dark chocolate, and I really recommend sticking to that. As we’re adding additional Easter chocolate into the cookie bars, you want to use a dark chocolate base so its not overpoweringly sweet. I promise it will still be a really sweet and delicious bake, and not bitter from the dark chocolate.
- Easter chocolate – You can use whatever Easter chocolate treats you like here. I’ve used Cadbury mini eggs and Malteaser Bunnys and would definitely recommend! But you could use Galaxy mini eggs, Terry’s mini eggs, Kitkat bunnys…etc Whichever you like best!
How to make Easter cookie bars
These cookie bars are super easy to make, and are an Easter based version of my plainer salty/sweet recipe here. I’ve also made a peanut butter version too, as they’re just so versatile! The dough comes together really quickly, and as theres no cookie shaping OR chilling!! Your cookies will be in the oven baking before you know it. Unlike brownies you can also cut into these when they’re still warm, though they are delicious when they’re fully cooled too.
Browning butter
So the first step in the cookie bars is to brown our butter. It sounds more complicated than it is, because really all you need to do is place the butter into a saucepan over a medium-high heat. The butter will melt, then foam and thats where the magic happens. The milk solids within the butter will begin to toast and develop a delicious nutty flavour that makes your bakes taste incredibleeee. It also means the water content in the butter will evaporate, which is why in recipes where the butter is browned, more butter is used initially to compensate for the water content evaporating. I state 140g of butter in the recipe, so that once the butter is browned the correct amount of 115g is leftover to use.
When the butter is browning, don’t leave it alone as it can catch very quickly and you don’t want burnt butter. You will be able to see the milk solids in the melted butter, they’ll look like small dark flecks. And once the foaming has subsided, you can take if off the heat. With other recipes where they call for room temperature butter, you can leave the browned butter to solidify. But we can use it straight away while still melted.
Making the cookie dough
So once you have your browned butter, you can pour it into a large bowl, making sure to scrape in all the delicious toasted milk solids! Then both the caster and brown sugar can be whisked in all together. I like to use a combination of sugars in my cookies as it gives you a great texture, depth of flavour and moisture! The next step is to add one whole egg and one egg yolk – this is intentional to give the best balance of structure and moisture. At this point the vanilla extract can also be added. If you really want to elevate your baking, you can make your own vanilla extract here – though it does take a while to develop!
Finally, the dry ingredients should be added – the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and table salt. I always use a little salt in my cookie recipes as it brings out the best flavour! By this point you should have a soft pliable dough, and you can mix in the chopped dark chocolate.
The cookie dough should be spread evenly into your prepared baking tin, and then the Easter chocolate can be pushed into the dough on top. This is definitely the fun bit, as it looks so cute when it comes together!! Then bake for 20 minutes until its a light golden brown, and voila! You need to leave the cookie bar in the tin for at least 10 minutes, before removing and placing on a cooling rack. After about 30 minutes or so you can tuck in, and the chocolate will still be all melty and the cookie still chewy and moist and almost cookie-dough like! So SO good.
Tips & Tricks
Yes, you can. The cookie bars last really well for 2-3 days. However, I will say it depends on personal preference. If you prefer eating a cookie bar when the chocolate is still a little soft and melty, then I would bake same day. If you like the chocolate being a little harder and adding to the texture, then you can happily bake in advance.
I have not yet tested a vegan version of this exact recipe myself, but from other vegan cookie recipes I have developed, I believe these substitutes would work. The butter can be easily replaced with a vegan block alternative (must be block, not tub style). The egg & egg yolk can be replaced with 80g of vegan soy yoghurt. And the Easter chocolate for vegan variations!
I highly recommend you do, as it balances well with the sweetness from the sugar and the additional Easter chocolate. But if you really hate dark chocolate, you can swap it for milk chocolate. I wouldn’t advise swapping for white chocolate.
These no-chill Easter cookie bars are so so delicious, so simple and take hardly any time at all! With no shaping or chilling time, you’ll be eating a bar before you know it! You can also make these last longer by cutting them into small squares, but thats for you to decide! The perfect indulgent Easter weekend bake!
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Easter Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 140 g unsalted butter
- 200 g dark chocolate
- 110 g caster sugar
- 110 g soft light brown sugar
- 1 large egg & 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 80 g mini eggs or other small Easter chocolate
- 3 malteser bunnys or other small Easter chocolate
Instructions
- Firstly, preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4. Then grease a 9x9inch square baking tin, and line the base and two opposite sides with baking paper.
- For the browned butter: Place the butter into a small saucepan over a medium-high heat and melt stirring every now and then. Keep the melted butter on the heat as it foams, stirring every now and then until the foaming subsides and you're left with a light brown butter with darker flecks. Then take off the heat and pour into a large heat-proof bowl.
- For the dough: Firstly, chop the chocolate into rough chunks and set aside. Then add both the sugars into the browned butter bowl and using an electric hand-whisk, whisk on a high speed until well combined. Then add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and whisk again until well combined. Then whisk in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and table salt until you have a soft thick dough. Finally, mix in the chopped chocolate.
- Tip the cookie dough into the prepared baking tin, and press down evenly with a spoon or spatula. Then press the mini eggs and malteser bunnys into the cookie dough. Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown, then remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 15 minutes. Finally, remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack. Then slice into 8 bars or 16 squares.
