Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Cookies

These Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Cookies are a perfectly delicious, easy, and fun recipe for your holiday cookie exchange. Or even a virtual holiday cookie exchange—like today's edition of #FreakyFriday!

 

I made these Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Cookies as part of a virtual holiday cookie exchange. My blogger buddy—Michaela, from the wonderful An Affair from the Heart—has been organizing these Freaky Friday recipe swaps for a bunch of bloggers. We are each assigned someone else's blog and we select a recipe to try and then share. And look at all the yumminess that came out of this event:
 

It's a big secret who is assigned to which blog...Until now! I am thrilled to announce that I got A Dish of Daily Life because it's a blog I follow and adore. Michelle's food is always gorgeous and delicious and, most often, pretty healthy. Her recipes are creative but accessible for home cooks.

Now, despite all of Michelle's healthy dishes, our assignment for this Freaky Friday was dessert: cookies or candies that would be at home on a holiday dessert tray. I actually let my husband choose which of her recipes I should make. I was pretty sure he was going to pick her Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cookies because he's a Nutella freak. But he actually chose these Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Cookies.

And I was so glad! After recently making batches of my Thin and Crispy Salted Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies I was thrilled to make bars—much simpler than dropping cookie dough balls onto tray after tray for baking! Plus, I'd never baked with granola and was really intrigued by the idea. (I also had my eye on Michelle's PB&J Bars with Strawberry Jam, but those will have to wait for another time!)

Guess what? They were wonderful! The balance of chocolate and the spiced oats of the granola was unique and very yummy. My husband and son both really enjoyed them. My son called them "cake cookies' because of their cake-like texture; I liked that they were just lightly sweet and had a delicate, buttery crumble to them.

 Ingredients

• 1¼ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
• ⅓ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ⅓ cup white granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of granola, crushed into smaller pieces (I used Bear Naked Sea Salt Caramel Apple Granola and pulsed it a few times in my Vitamix);
  
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Separately, mix together butter, sugars, vanilla and egg. Add the flour mixture slowly; I used a hand mixer. Blend in granola and chocolate chips.

Press into square baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 14 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

 

Wouldn't you like to see these sweet treats on your holiday cookie platter?

Check out all the fantastic bloggers participating in this Freaky Friday event: A Dish Of Daily Life || An Affair from the Heart || Cooking on a Budget || Full Belly Sisters || LeMoine Family Kitchen || Pic-Nic || The Foodie Affair || Who Needs A Cape || Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen || Life Currents || Big Rigs 'n' Little Cookies || Christine It ||

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