Making changes and chocolate chip bars

An attitude adjustment, a diet adjustment and some baking therapy.



I spent a couple days moping about my food options and then decided to just do a little overhaul. I took it upon myself to start switching around my diet. I need variation. I mean, need. I cannot eat the same thing every day. I feel better already. I'm being careful to control my carbs and not go over the carbs that I previously had with the dreaded half-sandwich. I'm watching my glucose levels to make sure things are in line. Everything looks good and I feel better. I can handle this.



Regardless of the fact that I can't eat desserts I still love baking. I baked thru weight watchers and I'm gonna bake thru gestational diabetes. I like baking for B and whoever else I can spread the wealth to, even if I can't eat it. Baking soothes my soul. It makes me feel domestic which is really the only time I feel domestic. Besides, why should B suffer because I can't have sweets? At least that's how I feel today but I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow.

I was visiting Ingrid who is a great fan of bars in general and knew I had to make some. This recipe is the Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Bars from Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness.



This recipe is uber simple and I love that there is no baking sheets and sheets of cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are B's favorite and so I was anxious to try these out.

Start by preheating the oven to 325 and melting 1 1/2 sticks of butter and setting it aside to cool.

Mix 2 cups & 2 tbs of flour and 1/2 teaspoon each of baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set it aside.



In a large bowl combine 1 cup of light brown sugar (I had dark), 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the melted butter. Blend away.

3 cheers for not having to wait for the butter to come to room temp!



Add in 1 large egg, 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix it again.



Using a spatula, fold the dry mix into the wet mix. Don't overmix the batter. You want to mix it just until it's combined.



Lori's recipe calls for 2 cups of bittersweet which I personally would prefer but I didn't have bittersweet.

I used a combination of semisweet and dark. The possibilities are endless! Fold the chips in.



Dump the mixture into a 9 x 13 inch pan that has been lined with foil and sprayed with Pam. When you line the pan with foil make sure to leave a little lip as it will give you something to lift the bars out with. Spread the dough out evenly.

Pop it in the oven for 24-28 minutes or until golden brown and slightly pulling away from the sides.



My pan is actually 10 x 15 so my bars will be a bit thinner.

Pull it out of the oven and let it cool. Lift the bars out of the pan using the foil.

Cut those puppies up and serve them out! These were so easy to cut I thought they would be great to use cute (large) cookie cutters on. The only draw back would be that you might have to eat all the extra scraps. That would be a tragedy.



For that matter you could divvy this out into smaller containers (like pie tins) and serve them hot and topped with ice cream. Who doesn't love a good Pizookie?

Has everyone had a pizookie? It's a cookie served in a deep dish mini pizza tin and topped with ice cream. So sorta half pizza and half cookie.

No matter how you serve them, B gave this recipe 2 thumbs up. Try it!