one-hundredth post : chocolate chip cookie bars.

100th post!photo pulled from the web.

Before writing my recipe this morning, I wanted to note that this is our hundredth post! We started this website back in April as a way to share our extreme love of food and have had so much fun doing it for these past four months (wow, 100 posts in just four months? We've been busy!) And thanks to all of our readers, we have gained a wider audience and been able to communicate with others all around the world, so thank you. We hope you all continue to read about our daily adventures inside (and sometimes outside) the kitchen.



Truthfully, I don't have all that much to say about these chocolate chip cookie bars because really, how wrong can you go with a pan filled entirely with a thick delicious cookie? As I spread the batter into my 9-inch cake pan, I knew this was going to be a flawless dessert. And a dangerous one- the kind of dessert that can easily be finished in one short evening, especially when paired with the inevitable hormone fluctuations of PMS. I got this recipe from the chocolate kings at Ghirardelli who I knew I could trust to deliver a good chocolate confection. And boy, was it ever.



Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars: from Ghirardelli Chocolate

Ingredients:

12 ounces (1 bag) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat butter with brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until combined. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl and gradually add to egg mixture while mixing on low speed. Fold in chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, if using. Spread batter evenly into an ungreased 13” x 9” pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan and cut into squares.

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