Oatmeal Stout Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
A few years ago I had to sell a house. One I’d bought when I was probably too young to do so, and the Los Angeles housing market was angry and hostile. It was only about a year before things started to go south and I knew I needed out.
I had just one open house. The realtor asked me to leave an hour early so that she can get set up, work her house-selling magic. Before I left to wander the city and hope for the best, I baked a huge plate of cookies and left them on the kitchen table for the gawkers and home buying hopefuls to partake in. When I returned a few hours later I had three full-price-or-better offers, and a house that still vaguely smelled of vanilla and caramelized sugars.
Every offer was accompanied by a letter, and each letter mentioned the cookies. Maybe it was just the smell of freshly baked, chocolate studded, hand-held desserts. Or maybe there is something about fresh-baked cookies that will transform your house and make people want to live there. Either way, it was the best batch of cookies I’ve ever baked.
Ingredients
- 9 graham cracker sheets (147g)
- 2 tbs (39g) brown sugar
- 4 tbs (46g) melted butter
- 1 ¼ cups (100g) old fashioned oats
- 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (92g) brown sugar
- ¼ cup (58g) white sugar
- ½ tsp (3g) baking soda
- 1 tsp (6g) salt, divided
- 3 tbs butter, melted
- 1/3 cup (90g) stout beer
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 wt oz dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
- preheat oven to 350.
- Add the graham crackers and brown sugar to a food processor, process until just crumbs remain. While the food processor is running, slowly add the butter until well combined and resembles wet sand.
- Press firmly into the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish.
- In a large bowl stir together the oats, flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Make a well in the center, add the melted butter, beer, yolks, and vanilla, stir until just combined.
- Add the chocoloate chips in an even layer on top of the crust.
- Press the filling into an even layer over the chocolate chips, sprinkle the top with the remaining salt.
- Bake at 350 until the top is golden brown, about 22-26 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting.
These sound amazing. Is there any non-alcoholic substitute for the stout beer?
nothing that I’ve tested. I’d try heavy cream but you won’t get the leavening effects of beer and I’m not sure how it will do.
Love your recipes. As a writer, I have noticed something in your writing (verb tenses are changing) and I’d like to make a suggestion. Before posting, there’s a free application called Grammarly. I use it myself because who is perfect? They also have a higher premium level and provide weekly summaries of your usage which I find awesome and appalling. Keep the wonderful recipes coming – they are heavenly!
Thank you, I’ll look into it.
Made these for football today, delicious. Thanks for another bad ass recipe!
Thank you Jeff!
I think I’m in love with you!!! I love craft beer so much that I started brewing it…
Well thank you, I’m flattered 🙂
I have a Pumpkin Porter (Redhook Out Of Your Gourd) in my fridge, do you think it would work in place of the stout?
Yep! That should work great.
The picture looks amazing, but my cookies, not so much! They turned out spongy. Any ideas?
Spongy? I’m not sure. Did you use baking powder instead of baking soda? That’s odd. How did they taste?
I’m using a chocolate peanut butter stout since its what I had on hand…….sounded like a good substitute for this recipe. Love your website……keep doing what you’re doing!
Sounds perfect!
Currently in oven. I really should have read the recipe more carefully. I added the whole bottle of stout…. Wondering how this will turn out!