Milky Way Chocolate Cookie Crumble Bars are my new favorite layered bar that’s a chocolate cookie dough base, topped with Milky Way bars, chocolate cookie dough crumbles, and drenched with creamy sweetened condensed milk. Less than 10 minutes to make without a mixer.
I was so in love with the bars I made two weeks ago and couldn’t get them out of my mind. So I made them again.
Chocolate style with Milky Ways instead of peanut butter cups. And I’m in love all over again.
Sometimes I go through dessert phases where all I want is cookies. And for weeks, I make batch after batch of cookies.
Right now I’m in a gooey bar phase. I’m loving this phase.
I just couldn’t get those Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars out of my head.
Soft and squishy centers with chewy edges. Dense, buttery, and full of gooey creaminess from the sweetened condensed milk. Not to mention, mini peanut butter cups in every bite.
Rather than remaking the exact same thing, although I was tempted but that doesn’t make for an interesting blog, I made chocolate cookie dough and baked in Milky Ways. If there’s a way to improve on something, adding chocolate is always good start.
Now I have two new favorite bars. I can’t pick which one I like better because they’re both ridiculously good.
Prep and assembly takes 10 minutes, no mixer is needed, and you can stir everything together in one bowl. The less dishes a recipe generates, the better.
Begin by melting one stick of butter. Stir in an egg, sugars, optional splash of coffee, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. The coffee brings out the chocolate flavor and it’s recommended. It doesn’t make the finished bars taste at all like coffee.
Transfer the thick dough into an aluminum foil-lined and cooking sprayed baking pan and press it down to form the base layer. Reserve about two-thirds cup dough for crumbling on top later.
I urge you to line your pan, leaving overhang, so you can just lift the bars out, and it makes cleanup a breeze. The sweetened condensed milk caramelizes, the Milky Ways melt, and without foil you’ll be cursing as you try to chisel glued-on bars out of the pan.
Sprinkle diced Milky Ways over the dough, or use another favorite candy such as Rolos, Snickers, Three Musketeers, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Then lightly crumble the reserved cookie dough in chunks before baking.
Pour just over half of one can of sweetened condensed milk over the top.
Use the other half to make 7-Minute Microwave Caramels or Chocolate-Covered 7-Minute Microwave Caramels. You can make them in the microwave while the bars bake in the oven, and your house will smell like a bakery with caramels in the microwave and chocolate baking in the oven.
The hardest part of the recipe is that you must let the bars set up for about 3 hours before slicing or you’ll have a hot mess. Let them cool on the counter for an hour, then place the pan in the fridge for at least two hours, or overnight. Lift out with the foil overhang and slice, making clean, pretty squares.
Alternatively, just dig in with spoons as soon as they’re cool enough from the oven if you don’t care about clean and neat squares. Your stomach doesn’t care if the bars were neat or not as you shoveled them down.
The chocolate cookie portion is brownie-like in texture and taste, especially the centers. Rich, dense and fudgy.
The edges are chewier and denser and more like chewy-cookie edges. The perfect balance of soft and chewy.
The Milky Ways provide texture and another dimension of chocolate flavor. Between the nougat in them, and the creamy, rich, sweetened condensed milk that thickens while baking, I was in gooey nougat heaven.
I adore sweet milk, especially baking with it in layered bars. It takes on creamy caramel and vanilla tones while baking, accentuating the caramel in the Milky Ways.
Supremely rich, intense, bold, dark, and perfect for impromptu chocolate cravings. So many layers of textures and flavors, all in one bite from chocolate to caramel to vanilla.
Layered bars are where it’s at. Definitely a new favorite.
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Milky Way Chocolate Cookie Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brewed coffee, leftover from the morning brew is fine, optional but highly recommended
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, I don’t sift
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups diced Milky Way Bars, or substitute with Snickers, Peanut Butter Cups Butterfinger, Heath, Rolos, 3 Musketeers
- about 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, just slightly more than half of one standard 14-ounce can
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute. Allow the butter to cool momentarily so you don’t scramble the egg. Add the egg, sugars, coffee (water may be substituted but coffee is highly recommended to bring out the chocolate flavor; the bars do not taste like coffee at all), vanilla, and stir or whisk vigorously to combine, about 1 minute.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, optional salt and stir until just incorporated. Dough will be quite thick and dense.
- Reserve about 2/3 cup dough; set aside. Turn remaining dough out into prepared pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula. Evenly sprinkle the Milky Ways over the dough. Using your fingers, lightly crumble the reserved cookie dough over the top in irregular, marble-sized chunks. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the top (just eyeball slightly over half of the can as you pour slowly).
- Bake for about 27 to 30 minutes, or until center is mostly set. The sweetened condensed milk should nearly be set in all places, but possibly a little loose in the very center of the pan is okay. Edges will be firm, raised, and darker than the interior. Bars firm up more in pan as they cool; don’t overbake because you want these to stay soft and gooey, and cocoa powder is prone to turning dry.
- Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 3 hours before slicing and serving (use foil overhang to lift out). I recommend cooling for 1 hour on the counter, and at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight. This ensures clean, pretty cut marks. If you don’t care about that, bars may be consumed as soon as they are cool enough to eat; grab a spoon and dig in. Extra bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Bars may be kept gluten-free by replacing the flour with your favorite gluten-free baking blend. Take care any ingredients used are suitable for your dietary needs.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Do you like Milky Way bars? Making pans of bars?
For straight up eating, I don’t generally reach for Milky Ways, but they’re wonderful to bake with because of their soft, malleable, texture compared to harder and crunchier Butterfinger or Heath Bars.
Pans of bars are one of my favorite things to make. Fast, easy, and I can be as creative as I want and not have to worry about something rising too much or not enough or spreading. No dough to chill, roll, knead or worry about. Just slap it in a pan and bake.
Thanks for the entries in the 24 Hours of Peanuts Cookbook and Prize Pack Giveaway and the Bestowed Healthy Care Package Delivery Giveaway
Averie, you’ve so done it again! Who can resist the milky ways… this is so delish! Seriously, putting this one on my list…weekend baking list!
These look awesome and I can’t wait to try them but I’m a little confused on the amount of condensed milk. It says 1/2 cup, a little more than half a 14oz can. Should it be 1 cup? I think that is 8oz
Just go with slightly over half of one can. It’s more than 1/2 cup, probably in between 1/2 c and 3/4 cup. Sweetened cond milk is so sticky and thick that unless I absolutely have to measure it out, I don’t. I just eyeball. It’s quite a forgiving recipe so just go with slightly more than half a can and you’ll be just fine!
Sweetened condensed milk makes everything better, and these bars have just made the top of my “to-make” list. They look incredible! Pinned
Thanks, Rachel, for the pin and hope you make them!
It’s looking at recipes like this that make me wish I had no food allergies, that bars like this were calorie free and better for my health than zucchini pasta (which I do love, actually, but you get my drift) and that eating the whole pan might aid my digestion! LOL! At least I can drool over the pretty photos! :-D
Oh Michele, I know, there is way too much in here that if you have food allergies you can even work around. In 80% + of my recipes, there are substitutions one can make to keep it vegan or GF or even allergen-free based on certain allergies…but not these. Just too much going on!
This gooey bar phase is my favorite. I totally want to dive face first into this pan of milky way heaven.
The more chocolate the better! These look amazing! I go through phases too…but mine never seem to be healthy phases. ;)
Must find an occasion to make the gorgeous cookie bars.
I keep my healthy phases separate from my dessert phases :)
Averie – I just found your blog and everything looks so yummy! I can’t wait to start baking some of your goodies, but I am addicted to my kitchen scale. What weight measurement do you use for flour? I just want to get the same results! BTW, I love yoga too ;-)
Thanks!
I use King Arthur all-purpose flour (red bag) and honestly I don’t weigh it for 99% of my recipes. I maybe should, but I don’t. So I don’t know what to tell you. One cup, piled in semi-loosely, not SMOOSHED down, measuring flour how you’re supposed to with the scoop in method.
These cookie bars though, not going to matter if you’re off by 1/4 cup. HIGHLY forgiving :)
Appreciate the response. Thank you!
I get the same way when I realllllly love something–I have to try all sorts of different varieties. These look just as amazing as the peanut butter ones! Maybe a white chocolate variety in the future?? :)
50+ white chocolate recipes here…many of them are bars!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/05/white-chocolate.html
And these 3 are AMAZING
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/08/white-chocolate-vanilla-marshmallow-cake-bars.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/03/coconut-peanut-butter-magic-cake-bars.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/08/coconut-white-chocolate-chip-blondies.html
I can see why you’re in love with these bars. I am in love with them and I want to marry them and have lots and lots of Milky Way babies with them. AMAZEBALLS.
LOL :) I would marry them if I could, too!
I was never a huge Milky Way fan. I loved candy bars with nuts, caramel, and/or toffee. Oh heck, combine all 3 if you will!!
For regular eating, they’re just meh to me. But for baking, they are so squishy and so nice (unlike a Heath Bar, which I love on it’s own) but for baking, I could chip a tooth chomping down into baked-in chopped Heath bars..lol
I think the only way to choose which bar I like best is to do a taste-off!
I know…how fun would that be!
Loving these! They look so great and love the addition of condensed milk as well, definitely be making these with some of my leftover candy bars!
YAY! And please LMK how they turn out for you!
Yum, these look so good! I love ooey gooey bars also! Thanks for sharing!
Such a great a versatile bar recipe. Love it :)
I want to bring these to Big PL but they’re so messy. I think I need to think of something neater :)
OMG, I cannot wait!! Whatever you bring will be fabulous, I know it!! :)
Girl I don’t even know what to bring. I thought I had it all figured out and then…I realized I don’t want to bring anything fussy and want to bring something in a nice, sturdy pan, not some delicate layer cake. I’m supposed to bring cake. But I kind of want to bring bars :) I wonder if I’d get in trouble? lol
Goooodness gracious, this is easily one of my favorite recipes I’ve seen from you! Aren’t layered bars the best? I feel like I have been in this phase for months and never want to leave, haha. It’s just so perfect, experiencing all those amazing flavors harmonized into one ultra gooey bar. I’m adoring this Milky Way adaptation!
You had me at ‘diced Milky Way bars’. I guess my ultimate weakness must be bar cookies/squares because just scrolling down this post had me making all sorts of inappropriate noises.
inappropriate noises…LOL
It’s been than the holy Sh*t!!! that I think to myself when I see some recipes that get me particularly excited on certain blogs :)