My Younger one had cookie bars in his class holiday party and was describing about it when he returned home. When I took him to weekend grocery purchase he asked me to buy M&M cookies and bake cookie bars at home. Since its holiday season we took m&m milk chocolate with red and green holiday special candy packet. These M&M Blondie Cookie Bars are our recent favorite, I have egg based Chocolate Chip Blondie Recipe, so I adapted it to an egg less version (since I don’t eat eggs on particular days 🙂 and baked it the following week. They were so crisp and perfect blend of candies and chocolate chips in each and every bite. I have made it thrice for school snack and kiddos play date so far…Do give it a try and make sure to tag Nitha Kitchen in Instagram or Facebook 🙂 Also made few other cookies to post in blog (recipes coming up soon) so stay tuned.

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour – 2 Cups
M&M Candies – 1 Cup *reserve 1/4 cup to add it later to the cookie dough
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips – 1 Cup
Sour Cream or Thick / Hung Yogurt – 2-3 Tbsp (Just for binding the dough reserve 1 tbsp to add if needed)
Clarified Butter / Ghee – 3/4 Cup, (1 and 1/2 sticks butter melted, browned, and cooled
Brown Sugar – 3/4 Cup (I use organic brown sugar and prefer reduced quantity)
Regular Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp)
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp

M&M Blondie Cookie Bars Preparation

Add butter in a sauce pan, allow to melt and turn brown, refer the video tutorial HERE.
Pre Heat the oven to 350° F.
Line a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving enough overhang to help you lift from the pan when they are done.
Aluminum foil makes perfect indent on the edges so I prefer it.
Anyways if using parchment do grease the pan with butter then layer with parchment otherwise they won’t stick on the pan properly to give perfect cookie bars.
Keep the greased/ layered pan aside.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in medium bowl, set aside.
When melted butter is warm add both sugars (step wise pic 1) together in medium bowl until combined.

Add cream or yogurt (Pic 2, also reserve 1 tbsp to add if needed), vanilla extract and mix well like shown in Pic 3.
Fold the dry ingredients into yogurt mixture until just combined, do not over mix (Pic 4).
If needed and you see traces of dry flour do add the reserved yogurt.
Now add M&M candies and chocolate chips (Pic 4), fold gently using rubber spatula.
Evenly place the batter into prepared 13 X 9 inch cookie pan also smooth the top.
Take care of the edges too, press them gently all over the sides.
Just place the reserved m&m candies here and there (Pic 5).
Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes (Pic 6).
The cookie bars look like soft and gooey once they are out from the oven but when cooled completely they turn crisp and perfect.
Cool on wire rack to room temperature, I left it as it is for an hour.
Gently remove the baked bars from the pan by using the overhang foil and also place hand underneath while lifting up.
Transfer to cutting board and cut into 24 decent bars.

Notes

Cut the bars neat and perfect once they are cooled completely, don’t rush and mess while they are warm.
You can chill in refrigerator in case of urgency 🙂
Stays fresh for 3 days in room temperature later refrigerate and warm before you serve.
You can add more candies when they out from the oven.
You can reduce candies and chocolate chip to 3/4 cup each, it works well too.

Recipe Card

Author: Sangeetha Priya

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 2 Cups
M&M Candies - 1 Cup *reserve 1/4 cup to add it later to the cookie dough
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips - 1 Cup
Sour Cream or Thick Yogurt - 2-3 Tbsp Just for binding the dough reserve 1 tbsp to add if needed
Clarified Butter / Ghee - From 1 and 1/2 sticks butter melted browned, and cooled
Brown Sugar - 3/4 Cup I use organic brown sugar and reduced quantity
Regular Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp

Instructions

Add butter in a sauce pan, allow to melt and turn brown, refer the video tutorial HERE.
Pre Heat the oven to 350° F.
Line a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving enough overhang to help you lift from the pan when they are done.
Aluminum foil makes perfect indent on the edges so I prefer it.
Anyways if using parchment do grease the pan with butter then layer with parchment otherwise they won't stick on the pan properly to give perfect cookie bars.
Keep the greased/ layered pan aside.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in medium bowl, set aside.
When melted butter is warm add both sugars (step wise pic 1) together in medium bowl until combined.
Add cream or yogurt (Pic 2, also reserve 1 tbsp to add if needed), vanilla extract and mix well like shown in Pic 3.
Fold the dry ingredients into yogurt mixture until just combined, do not over mix (Pic 4).
If needed and you see traces of dry flour do add the reserved yogurt.
Now add M&M candies and chocolate chips (Pic 4), fold gently using rubber spatula.
Evenly place the batter into prepared 13 X 9 inch cookie pan also smooth the top.
Take care of the edges too, press them gently all over the sides.
Just place the reserved m&m candies here and there (Pic 5).
Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes (Pic 6).
The cookie bars look like soft and gooey once they are out from the oven but when cooled completely they turn crisp and perfect.
Cool on wire rack to room temperature, I left it as it is for an hour.
Gently remove the baked bars from the pan by using the overhang foil and also place hand underneath while lifting up.
Transfer to cutting board and cut into 24 decent bars.

Recipe Notes

Cut the bars neat and perfect once they are cooled completely, don't rush and mess while they are warm.
You can chill in refrigerator in case of urgency 🙂
Stays fresh for 3 days in room temperature later refrigerate and warm before you serve.
You can add more candies when they out from the oven.