If you love a salty and sweet flavor combo (who doesn’t?!), you’re going to lose it for these munchies cookies bars. They’re loaded with all things salty and sweet: toffee bits, chocolate chips, potato chips and peanut m&ms – what could be better?!!
Salty and sweet is one of the best flavor combinations and these munchies cookies bars do it SO WELL.
I got the idea for munchies cookies bars when I was thinking what if we had a cookie that also perfectly satisfied what people want when they have the munchies. A little salty junk food, but something rich and chocolatey. Thus, munchies cookies bars were born! They’re somewhat similar in concept to kitchen sink cookies, if you’ve heard of those.
These munchies cookies bars are very easy to make. You make a batch of cookie dough, fold in all the great mix-ins, and bake it up. The technique that might be challenging here is making your own toffee bits, but if you want to get storebought toffee bits you can easily do that, too!
This post is ALL about munchies cookies bars.
Munchies Cookies Bars
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s the PERFECT flavor combination. Salty, sweet, chocolatey, caramel, nutty. All-star flavors only here.
- Cookie bars are SO much easier than cookies. You don’t need to let the dough chill, and you don’t need to bake multiple rounds of individual cookies.
- You can easily double the recipe! When I say these munchies bars will be devoured quickly, I mean it. This recipe uses about a half batch of my chocolate chip cookie recipe. You can double it for a crowd by using a 9×13 pan instead of an 8×8 pan. Just keep a close eye on timing.
Munchies Cookies Bars Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt or another coarse salt
- Unsalted butter (if you only have salted butter, you can omit the salt)
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Chocolate chips
- Peanut M&Ms or regular M&Ms
- Potato chips
- Toffee bits. You can buy these on Amazon, or make them at home (instructions below!) with just brown sugar, butter and salt.
- Flaky sea salt to top the bars (optional, but recommended)
How to Make Munchies Cookies Bars
1. First, you’ll make the toffee bits. If you don’t want to do this step, you can just buy toffee bits at the grocery store or on Amazon. To make the toffee bits, we’re going to follow a recipe from Handle the Heat. You’ll melt the butter over medium heat, then add brown sugar and kosher salt and stir constantly for about 5 minutes until it looks like thick, melted peanut butter. The butter may separate from the sugar as it cooks – if this happens, just keep stirring to bring it back together. You’ll pour the toffee onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, let it harden and then break into bits.
2. Now we’re ready to make the bars! You’ll preheat the oven and mix together your dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined. Mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. When the flour is almost completely incorporated, add in the mix-ins, reserving some to sprinkle on top before baking.
5. Press the dough into a greased or parchment-lined 8×8 pan. Sprinkle some remaining mix-ins on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the bars are golden brown on the edge and just turning nice and golden on top.
Tips for the Best Munchies Cookies Bars
- Properly measure your flour. I include this in every post for a reason! Flour is one of the most commonly mis-measured ingredients. Follow the below directions if you’re using a scale or measuring cups.
- Meaure by weight (kitchen scale): I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale).
- Measure by volume (measuring cups): If you’re using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Sprinkle some mix-ins on top. This is an ~aesthetic~ tip for any bars/cookies. Put some of the mix-ins on top before they bake and the bars will have that hot and stunnin’ bakery look.
- Make sure not to overbake. Overbaked munchies bars = dry munchies bars. Because every oven is different, check on your munchies bars at least 5 minutes before they should be done. You want to pull them from the oven when they’re golden brown on the edge and just turning nice and golden on top. Look at the pics here for reference!
More delicious recipes
- If you’re looking for more cookie recipes, check out brown butter miso chocolate chip cookie bars, the best BIG chocolate chip cookies and caramelized white chocolate sugar cookies.
- If you want to hit breakfast, try sweet potato superhero muffins, the BEST vegan banana bread and dirty chai cinnamon rolls.
- If you’re looking for more nostalgic bakes, go for the TikTok viral birthday cake blondies, almond frangipane blondies, or edible (safe to eat) cookie dough for 2.
If you make these munchies cookies bars, please leave a rating and review below. Follow along and for new recipes on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such! Happy baking, my buds.