The Motherlode Layered Cookie Bars

The Motherlode Layered Cookie Bars - made April 1, 2019 from Picky Palate

This is one of the rare things I’ve baked since I moved. I just haven’t been in the mood to bake lately. Which sounds odd but there you have it.

But once I broke out my stand mixer, I was committed. For one thing, this has four layers. Three of those layers are made from scratch. You essentially make two complete cookie doughs for 2 of the layers, cheat on one layer by using pre-mixed cookie dough and throw together a very simple layer for the fourth one.

I haven’t bought sugar cookie dough in years. Maybe decades. And since my hiatus, it appears that they don’t sell them in logs anymore that you slice and bake but in flat packages where the cookie dough is already portioned. Which is fine if you want to bake individual cookies. I needed them for the bottom layer so I rolled each individual cookie into an even thickness and patched a package’s worth of cookie dough into a single layer.

For the chocolate cookie layer, I only made a half recipe. The original recipe says to just use half so I figure it was just as well to only make a half recipe in the first place. Turns out I was half – haha – right. The dough is a bit stiff and doesn’t roll out like a sugar cookie dough. Instead I had to dollop it over the sugar cookie layer and spread it around but it doesn’t take kindly to being spread. So instead of a smooth even layer, I had patches, thick in some places, thin in others plus some mocking gaps that told me I should’ve just made the original recipe so I wouldn’t run out of dough to cover the gaps.

The third layer was supposed to be a peanut butter layer. You know my indifference to peanut butter so I thought it would be better so substitute Nutella for the peanut butter and make as is. Hmm, not sure that was a good idea either as the Nutella stiffened up when the egg was added and didn’t spread smoothly either.

By the fourth layer, when I was wondering if I was a baking idiot, I had learned my lesson and made the chocolate chip cookie layer as is, ensuring I had plenty of dough to form the top layer as the overall blanket layer.

Also by the fourth layer, my baking pan was heavy. As anticipated, baking time took longer than the original recipe said and I did end up covering the top loosely with foil to prevent it from getting too brown.

When all was said and done, after all that effort, I wanted to be able to say these bars were amazing and well worth investing all the mixing time and ingredients. Umm, well, they were good. But my Nutella experiment didn’t work very well. For some seriously weird reason, I could almost taste peanut butter in the cookie. My layers weren’t distinct enough, the Nutella layer blended in too well with the chocolate layer, the flavor of the chocolate layer overwhelmed the other layers, I couldn’t even taste the sugar cookie layer and this seemed more like a brookie – a brownie layer and a chocolate chip cookie layer. It was good but not sure I’d go to the trouble again.

Layer 1: Sugar Cookie

1 roll of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Press sugar cookie dough into bottom into an even layer.

Layer 2: Double Chocolate Chip Cookie (use only half for the layer, reserve the other half to make cookies)
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until well-combined.
2. In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients then stir in chocolate chips. Layer 1/2 the recipe over the sugar cookie layer, pressing gently into an even layer.

Layer 3: Nutella Cookie
1 cup creamy hazelnut spread
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Press over chocolate cookie dough into an even layer.

Layer 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie (recipe makes double what you'll need)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups mini chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until just combined. 
2. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl; mix to combine. Slowly add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. 
3. Spread half the dough over the peanut butter layer into an even layer.
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until center of dough is mostly cooked through. Edges will be brown. Lightly cover the top with aluminum foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.
5. Let cookies cool completely. Let out of pan with edges of foil. Drizzle top with 1/2 cup melted chocolate chips if desired.