Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

 Double the Chocolate, Double the Delight: Easy Homemade Chocolate Chip Bars

Hey fellow dessert lovers! Are you craving something rich, chocolatey, and utterly irresistible? Look no further! Today, I'm sharing my go-to recipe for easy homemade double chocolate chip bars that are guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth. This recipe is great because it doesn't use any butter, making it budget-friendly!

These bars are the perfect combination of a fudgy, chocolatey base and an abundance of melty chocolate chips. They're quick to whip up, require minimal ingredients, and are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Whether you're baking for a cozy night in, a potluck, or just because, these bars are a must-try.

Why You'll Love These Double Chocolate Chip Bars:

• Easy and Quick: No fuss, no complicated steps. You can have these bars ready in no time.
• Double Chocolate Goodness: A chocolate cookie base packed with even more chocolate chips. What's not to love?
• Perfect for Any Occasion: From casual snacking to special gatherings, these bars fit right in.
• Customizable: You can easily adapt the recipe to your liking by adding nuts, different types of chocolate chips, or even a sprinkle of sea salt on top.

Let's Get Baking!

Before we dive into the recipe, let's talk about a few tips to ensure your bars turn out perfectly:

• Don't Overmix: Overmixing can lead to tough bars. Mix just until the ingredients are combined.
• Use Quality Chocolate: The better the chocolate, the better the taste!
• Cool Completely: Allow the bars to cool completely before slicing for clean, even cuts.

Recipe: Easy Homemade Double Chocolate Chip Bars

Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bake Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 16

Ingredients:

½ c shortening

⅓ c granulated sugar

½ c light brown sugar, packed

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

¼ c cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ⅓ c flour

1 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl combine shortening, granulated sugar and brown sugar and mix until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and baking powder and mix until combined.

Add chocolate chips and stir.

Transfer the dough to your prepared baking dish.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, the top should be set, but you want the interior to be a little gooey.

Allow to cool completely before cutting.

After the cookie bars have cooled, lift the parchment paper from the dish and cut 4 times across, and 4 times the opposite way, to make 16 fudgy cookie bars.

Variations and Add-ins:

• Nuts: Add chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds for a nutty crunch.
• Different Chocolate Chips: Try using white chocolate, peanut butter, or even dark chocolate chips for a unique twist.
• Sea Salt: A sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top enhances the chocolate flavor.
• Espresso Powder: A teaspoon of espresso powder added to the batter deepens the chocolate flavor.

Serving Suggestions:

These double chocolate chip bars are delicious on their own, but here are a few ways to elevate your dessert experience:

• Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
• Drizzle with chocolate or caramel sauce.
• Enjoy with a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee.

Final Thoughts:

These easy homemade double chocolate chip bars are a guaranteed hit! They're simple, delicious, and perfect for any occasion. So, grab your mixing bowls, preheat your oven, and get ready to indulge in some serious chocolatey goodness.

Don't forget to share your baking adventures with me! Tag me in your photos on social media and let me know how your bars turned out. Happy baking!

Find more tasty treat recipes here:

Homemade Rice Pudding

Instant Pot Banana Rice Pudding

Nilla Wafer Bark

Beginner's Guide: How to Carve Handmade Woodcarvings

 

Handmade wood carving crafts combine the beauty of nature's materials and the ingenuity of manual carving and are loved by many. With the development of wood carving, more and more people have become interested in exquisite wood carving crafts and are looking for ways to learn wood carving techniques. After all, it is a very pleasurable thing to carve a lovely little wood carving yourself. If you are also a beginner learning wood carving, then this guide is a good one to have.

Step 1: Prepare the required tools

1. Basic Engraving Tools: 

As a beginner, you do not need to buy advanced carving tools that are difficult to handle like the masters do, but just some basic engraving tools will suffice. For example, a flat knife, small saw, pencil sharpener chisel knife of different widths, as well as V-shaped knife and U-shaped knife for carving details.

2. Auxiliary tools

sandpaper, brushes, clamps, pencils, sketch paper.

3. optional tools: 

as a beginner who is not very good at using various shapes of carving knives, you can prepare an electric carving pen.

Step 2: Design Draft

To make a wood carving craft, beginners first need to design a draft. According to their own ideas, find similar works and copy, draw on the draft paper. Because wood carving has many different carving techniques, wood carving draft is mainly divided into hollow relief, three-dimensional round carving and plane carving. Each of these three forms has different design ideas. Openwork is the most difficult, so it is recommended that beginners choose either three-dimensional round carving or plane carving.

1.Three-dimensional round carving

First of all, we need to draw the plan of the wood carving according to our own ideas, and then deepen the details. Because the round carving is a three-dimensional shape, although we draw a plan, but we need to build a three-dimensional drawing in our mind, in the draft drawing to mark out which areas need to be reserved for how much size.

2. Plane engraving

Plane engraving is mainly in a fixed size plate, according to the drawing of the pattern for carving can be, is the most simple, the most suitable for beginners of the engraving process. So in the sketch only need to mark out the size of the plate and depict the pattern you want to carve can be.

Step 3: Selection of materials

1. Material:

 beginners choose softwood, such as basswood, pine, poplar and other wood easy to carve. Remember not to choose hardwood for the first time, the material is too hard for beginners to carry out carving is easy to appear hand injury accident.

2. Shape and size: 

according to the draft map marking the size of the wood to choose to meet the requirements. If it is a flat carving, find the right size can be: if it is a round wood carving, you can go to look for some unique shapes of wood, such as a long strip of wood with forked branches to carve a long ribbon fish.

3. Appearance: 

there should be no obvious cracks and scars on the wood, otherwise the wood carving may have irreparable flaws after completion.

Step 4: Base shape

Roughly remove the excess wood from the wood by chiseling and cutting. After removing most of the wood, use tools to sand the rough basic shape according to the draft. During the sanding process, the volume of each part of the wood should be left to allow some room for the rough carving later.

Step 5: Rough and fine carving

The basic shape of the wood carving work is completed, and then you need to take out the ready carving tools, in the wood carving was deliberately left on the margin area for processing. Fine carving requires beginners to work on the fine details of the work to modify and carve, according to their own ideas to optimize the carving of the details of the part. Rough carving requires the beginner to continue shaping the overall shape of the wood carving with a wider carving knife.

Step 6: Polishing

After the carving work is completed, the overall work will have angular carving marks. If you want to preserve the original carving marks and give the carving a more natural look, you can skip this step and go straight to coloring the wood carving wax. If you want the overall appearance of the piece to be smooth and have a flowing aesthetic, you will need to sand it. Use sandpaper to sand the edges and corners, and then use a brush to clean up the wood shavings after the sanding is completed, and the overall carving of the wood carving is finished.

Step 7: Post-treatment (waxing)

After cleaning up the wood carving and making sure there is no debris on its surface, you can start the final waxing work. If you like the original color of the wood carving, you can use wood dye to highlight the wood grain of the wood carving and show the natural original color. If you like colorful wood carvings with rich visual effects, you can use acrylic paints to color the wood carvings, which will have a good decorative effect. Finally, oil wax, varnish and other paints are applied to create a protective layer for the wood carving.

Conclusion

By following the steps in this guide, beginners can quickly learn how to carve a wood carving craft and know the details and safe practices to pay attention to in each step. Beginners, go to choose a few suitable carving tools and start carving your first wood carving crafts, which will be a very interesting and fulfilling thing for you.

Perfect Peppermint Treats for the Holidays

 

Get Your Chill On: Delicious Peppermint Desserts for Every Occasion

The cool, refreshing flavor of peppermint is a surefire way to satisfy your sweet tooth and awaken your senses. Whether you're looking for a festive holiday treat or a delightful after-dinner surprise, peppermint desserts never disappoint. From classic cookies and creamy cheesecakes to lighter-than-air meringues and decadent chocolate creations, there's a peppermint perfect for every craving. So, grab your favorite mixing bowls and candy canes, because we're about to embark on a delightful journey through the world of peppermint desserts!

Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars

Photo Credit: Courtney’s Sweets.

Give your sugar cookie experience a flavorful upgrade. These are easy to make and have the most festive flavor of peppermint in every bite.

Get the recipe: Peppermint sugar cookie bars.

Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake

Photo Credit: Kate the Baker.

Give a pepperminty kiss to your next chocolate cake. This delicious and rich cake is perfect for a holiday gathering, or make it for an after dinner sweet treat to share with your family.

Get the recipe: Chocolate peppermint bundt cake.

Peppermint Ice Cream Pie

Photo Credit: What the Fork.

What could be better than a refreshing ice cream pie with plenty of peppermint and chocolate? This is awesome for a Christmas sweet, no matter what the weather is like where you live.

Get the recipe: Peppermint ice cream pie.

Candy Cane Cheesecake

Photo Credit: Homemade Heather.

This no bake cheesecake is creamy, rich and so indulgent. It has the perfect kiss of peppermint in every bite. You will love this blend of flavors and the seasonal appearance this easy dessert brings to the table.

Get the recipe: Candy cane cheesecake.

Christmas Macarons

Photo Credit: Little Sunny Kitchen.

Who could resist  these macarons? They are festive, flavorful and so pretty! You will love these with a cup of cocoa, or coffee as you prepare for your family Christmas gathering.

Get the recipe: Christmas macarons.

Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie Treats

Photo Credit: Three Olives Branch.

This peppermint bark rice krispie recipe is so good! Make these for a cookie exchange or to share with visitors who drop by to spread cheer.

Get the recipe: Peppermint rice krispie treats.

Peppermint Pudding Pie

Photo Credit: Cutefetti.

This peppermint pudding pie is so creamy and rich! You will love how easy it comes together for a fuss free dessert that happens to be dairy free and so indulgent.

Get the recipe: Peppermint pudding pie.

Peppermint Ice Cream

Photo Credit: Sift and Simmer.

Bring a kiss of peppermint to homemade ice cream for a gorgeous holiday treat. This recipe has the loveliest pink color and the creamiest flavor. After you try this, you might bring your ice cream maker out every year for a batch of ice cream to share with family.

Get the recipe: Peppermint ice cream.

Peppermint Meringues

Photo Credit: Cupcakes and Kale Chips.

Make a batch of light and airy meringue cookies and give them a cool kiss of peppermint for the best cookie of the season. These are easier than you would imagine and have a bakery quality flavor.

Get the recipe: Peppermint meringues.

Peppermint Patty Tartlets

Photo Credit: The Cozy Plum.

These yummy little tartlets have the iconic flavor of peppermint and chocolate in every bite. These are the perfect portion for an after dinner treat. Your family will love the ganache topping.

Get the recipe: Peppermint patty tartlets.

Peppermint Snowball Cookies

Photo Credit: Courtney's Sweets.

These yummy and festive cookies practically melt in your mouth. Make them for a cookie exchange, to share with loved ones or to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve!

Get the recipe: Peppermint snowball cookies.

Peppermint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Photo Credit: Baked Collective.

These easy crinkle cookies have a refreshing minty flavor in every bite. They pair so well with cocoa or coffee, or a simple glass of milk. 

Get the recipe: Peppermint chocolate crinkle cookies.

No Bake Chocolate and Peppermint Cheesecake

Photo Credit: Cooked by Julie.

This no bake cheesecake is so easy, and so pretty. Make this for the holidays, and your family will love the combination of chocolate crust, creamy cheesecake and plenty of crushed peppermints mixed in.

Get the recipe: No bake peppermint cheesecake.

Peppermint Whoopie Pies

Photo Credit: Neighbor Food.

The combination of chocolate cookies with peppermint frosting is a classic one that everyone loves. Why not make them into a sandwich cookie? These are sure to be Santa’s favorites of the  big night!

Get the recipe: Peppermint whoopie pies.

Mint Chocolate Pots de Creme

Photo Credit: Intentionally Eats.

You only need 6 simple ingredients to make these creme pots. They are so decadent, delicious and best of all easy, for an indulgent holiday dessert.

Get the recipe: Mints chocolate pots de creme.

Find more favorite recipes here:

Golden Graham Cookies

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Instant Pot Banana Cream Rice Pudding