Forgiving Cookie Bar Recipe

So we all need those recipes in the house that you can bake up even if you are short on ingredients.  Because lets face it, when it comes to baking, I some times don't have the best luck.  Having all the proper ingredients around when I haven't gone to the grocery store is pretty rare.

Heck, having everything I need AFTER I get to the store is still a stretch for this one.  Especially when I tend to make complicated recipes that call for the same ingredients over and over, and then I have to add in my head, and then I fail because math is hard. 

And you know those bakers that can rattle off how many cups are in the pint and exactly how much a "smidgen" is?  Yeah, I'm not one of those.  Thank goodness for my droid.  I'm that frazzled woman wandering around your local grocery store with her nose buried in her phone and a basket brimming with butter, eggs, butter, cream, more butter, unsalted butter, chocolate, and caffeine.

And I'm also the person who always thinks its a good idea to grab a basket, not a cart.  Especially when my husband is there to carry it.  I have this strange idea that if I have a basket and not a cart, I'll buy less and save money.  In all actuality I just cram everything in and annoy the husband.

Ok, I've seriously gotten off topic.  So I wanted to used up partial bags of chocolate chips and nuts, so I decided to make some cookie bars!  I also ran out of flour, so they became oatmeal cookie bars!  And no matter what you do, they are delicious.  So grab you half eaten bags of Reese's pieces, your handful of peanut butter chips from a recipe long forgotten, and all those crumbled bags of various kinds of chocolate chips in the back of your cabinet.  Check expiration dates.  Double check by sampling a few.  Might want to check a couple more times.  Annnnd- it's time for some bars.

Cookie Bars that even I cannot screw up
If you are feeling fancy, go ahead and sift together your flour, baking powder and salt.  I am not fancy.  I am lazy.  So I skipped this part.


I started with creaming together your butter and your sugar.  The entire pound of brown sugar.  Good times.


Add in your eggs, one at a time, until just combined. 

Add in your vanilla followed by your dry ingredients (flour or flour and oatmeal)

Finally, add in your mix ins!


Pour your dough into a greased 13 by 9 cookie sheet and pat it down, like so.

Honestly, since this is the forgiving recipe, I didn't worry too much about proportions.  I added the flour I had and then added in oats until it reached the right consistency.  I listed what worked for me below.

Bake at 350 for 30 min or until done. 

Yum.

PS: I don't like edge pieces, so I cut them off.  Like so.  Also using a pizza cutter is the easiest way I've found to cut up cookie bars!

These are nummy- as always.  I've made this recipe a bunch of times!  I love mixing it up and adding in whatever I feel like.  These + glass of milk = heaven.

Recipe!!


Cookie Bars
Recipe adapted from: http://www.bakerella.com/i-hope-you-have-chocolate-chips-handy/

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour (If you want oatmeal, you can do what I did and used 1 3/4 cup flour and 1 1/2 cup oats- add more or less to reach desired consistency)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Any mixin's you want!  I used about 11.5 ounces of various chocolate chips and 5 ounces of nuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  You can sift together your flour, salt and baking powder as the original recipe calls for, but I did not do this step.

Cream together butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

Grease a 13 x 9 pan and spread batter into dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.