15 Delectable Bar Cookie Recipes for Sharing or Scarfing

We're raising the bar for cookie baking.

By
Sara Bir
Sara Bir
Sara Bir
Sara is a chef, culinary educator, and author of three cookbooks, The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, Tasting Ohio and The Fruit Forager's Companion. The latter won a 2019 IACP Cookbook Award.
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Published October 14, 2023
Sara Bir
S’mores Cereal Bars Viewed from the Top

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Bar cookies give you more bang for your buck. You can bake a bunch at a time—no juggling hot baking pans and constantly beeping timers—and there's something pleasing about their grid-like nature. It certainly makes them easier to pack and store than round cookies!

So many beloved cookies can take the bar treatment, and we have all the best ones. You'll find oaty, chocolate-studded, fruity, and nutty ones below. Take a look and soon you'll be itching to bake a pan for yourself. Thank goodness they're so dang shareable.

  • Caremelitas

    Three caramelitas cookie bars stacked on a plate
    Cindy Rahe

    So ooey-gooey, these finger-lickin' good bars are packed with chocolate chips, oats, and coconut. There's actually no caramel making involved; this is a simple stir-together affair.

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  • Classic Lemon Bars

    Lemon Bars Recipe - lemon bars on blue plate
    Alison Bickel

    Are lemon bars technically bar cookies? Who cares. No one can resist their sunny yellow sweet-tart curd and crumbly, rich shortbread base.

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  • Marble Blondies

    Close-up of one of the marble brownie slices, which is surrounded by more slices of marble brownies, all on a parchment paper lined baking sheet

    Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm

    The brownies-versus-blondies debate comes to a screeching halt here. You make one batter, split it in the half, and fold chocolate into one half. Then perform said marbling. The photographer of the image above shared his marble blondies with friends, and they told him they were the most delicious dessert they've ever eaten. Proof enough for me!

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  • Monster Cookie Bars

    Close up of an overhead view of Bar Cookies of the Gluten Free Monster Variety.
    Kalisa Marie Martin

    Monster cookies are loaded with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and M&Ms. I rarely make these because they add up to major cookie frenzies in my house. Blink and they'll vanish.

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    Continue to 5 of 15 below.

  • Apple Pie Bars With Crumble Topping

    Apple pie bars with pecan oat crumb topping stacked on a platter with apples behind them.
    Irvin Lin

    Apple pie fit for a crowd with no plates or forks. No pastry skills necessary; just make the pat-in-the-pan crust, which happens to double as a crumble topping.

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  • S'mores Cereal Bars

    S’mores Cereal Bars Viewed from the Top

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

    Classic campfire s'mores never pan out the way you'd like. They crumble, collapse, and defy to deliver the perfect mouthful. Not so these uber-chewy bars, which sub the graham crackers with Golden Grahams cereal.

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  • Raspberry Chess Pie Bars

    Raspberry chess pie bars cut and stacked.

    Angie Mosier / Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking by Cheryl Day

    Chess pie is a Southern classic. Adapting the custardy pie to bar form makes the dessert handheld and more achievable, and the raspberries flat-out make them prettier.

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  • Pecan Pie Bars

    Easy Pecan Pie Bars stacked up on a platter
    Cindy Rahe

    Reconfiguring pecan pie to a horizontal orientation means more pecans per bite. The crust doesn't get as soggy. Are you sold yet?

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    Continue to 9 of 15 below.

  • Peanut Butter Pretzel Magic Bars

    Magic Cookie Bars with Peanut Butter and Pretzels
    Cindy Rahe

    Seven-layer magic bars collide with kitchen sink cookies, and the fallout is incredible.

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  • Homemade Granola Bars

    Homemade Chewy Granola Bars sliced into rectangles.
    Kalisa Marie Martin

    Let's face it: granola bars are bar cookies that we pretend are healthy. And maybe they are. You choose the dried fruits and nuts. These are guaranteed to best anything you can get at the store.

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  • Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

    Overhead view of homemade chocolate chip cookie bars stacked on a platter.
    Marta Rivera

    Chocolate chip cookies are great and everything, but they enter blondie territory when you bake them as bars. They're also sliiightly like a cookie cake. I make these when I want a cookie and can't rally to make drop cookies.

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
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  • Flapjacks

    Sliced Flapjacks on a Plate Next to a Glass of Tea

    Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm

    Clearly these not pancakes. The deal with the name: These are a British treat made with oats and golden syrup. They're chewy and full of burly bits like dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds (or whatever you feel like swapping them for). Need to fill a care package? Flapjacks are the perfect choice.

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    Continue to 13 of 15 below.

  • Gingerbread Cookie Bars

    A cooling rack with cream cheese frosted gingerbread cookie bars
    Irvin Lin

    A general rule of thumb is a top layer of cream cheese frosting doubles a treat's curb appeal. These are solidly in cookie territory, though, not cake. We lovers of gingerbread know that its allure should never be limited to December, so bake these with abandon whenever you have an inkling for warm molasses notes and enticing aromatic spices.

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  • Old-Fashioned Date Nut Chews

    Chinese Chews dusted with powdered sugar on a plate
    Steve-Anna Stephens

    Some folks know these retro delights as Chinese chews, though we here at Simply Recipes can't figure out the origins of that name; absolutely nothing points to any association with China. They are super chewy and nutty and fruity and completely worth baking and sharing.

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  • Chewy Almond Squares

    A ceramic pan with cut almond blondies, each with half an almond baked into the top
    Elise Bauer

    Add a lot of almond extract to a pan of blondies and here's what you get. Take a moment to enjoy them with coffee and bask in the chewy edges, soft middles, and wallop of almond essence.

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