Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Perfect for bake sales, after school treats, and potlucks, these gluten-free chocolate chip cookie bars will be a hit with all the chocolate lovers! They’re easier and quicker to make than cookies.
So many of you have tried and love my gluten-free chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, that I thought I’d post a few adaptations of it this year. First up – gluten-free chocolate chip cookie bars!
You’ve got to make these yummy gluten-free chocolate chip cookie bars. In making these bars instead of cookies, I made a few changes. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some disappointingly dry cookie bars before. I didn’t want that to happen here, so I increased the butter so that these bars wouldn’t be dry at all. It was a good decision!
Secondly, I used two different sizes of chocolate chips. I wanted to make sure there was a bit of chocolate in every single bite! I used both regular semi-sweet morsels and mini semi-sweet morsels.
You could also mix it up by using some milk chocolate and some dark chocolate. But definitely consider including some mini ones for sure. They help make sure that you don’t get a single little bite that isn’t chocolatey!
Notes on ingredients for these gluten-free chocolate chip bars:
- Flour: tested successfully with Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Blend and Cup4Cup. Other varieties of flour that are not only rice based should work okay in these. With the two I recommended, there isn’t any grittiness. I can’t guarantee that with your favorite blend, but do feel free to try it!
- The cream cheese is a key ingredient here. Don’t skip it!
- So is the butter. Mmm, butter.
- Chocolate chips: for good chocolate chips that are easy to find at most grocery stores, I love Guittard semi-sweet chocolate baking chips. They are made in a gluten-free, and peanut-free facility. If you’d like chocolate chips that are certified gluten-free as well as top 8 free, I love and recommend Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolates available as mini chips or mega chunks.
I like sprinkling a few more chips on them for the last couple minutes of baking for that shiny, slightly melted look like you see in the pictures above. If you’d like that too, just reserve some of the chocolate chips called for in the recipe.
However, if you’re wanting to pack these up to mail to someone, I’d skip the chocolate chips on top so they aren’t so messy.
After these cool in the pan, then you can slice them up. I recommend you use a plastic knife to cut these. I recently bought this one and it works so well! This keeps you from scratching up your pan, and it slices through the bars so cleanly instead of getting gunked up.
You can slice these up as big or small as you’d like. I usually think about how many people will be eating them at whatever gathering I’m bringing them to, and slice accordingly.
These would be a fun treat to bring to share at a potluck or to mail to a loved one. Let me know if you make them and what flour you used!
If you make these and love them, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.
Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Bars Recipe:
Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
All the yummy flavor of my chewy gluten-free chocolate chip cookies in a much easier, quicker bar cookie form!
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (~282 grams) good all-purpose gluten-free flour blend
- 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum*
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 ounces cream cheese, room temp
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 egg yolks (room temp)
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup additional semi-sweet chocolate chips for topping if desired
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together gluten-free flour, xanthan gum (unless flour blend already has xanthan or guar gum), baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, place the cream cheese, then pour melted butter over it. Add brown sugar and sugar and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. (I use the paddle attachment on my mixer.)
- Add vanilla extract and egg yolks (one at a time) mixing on low-medium speed until well mixed.
- Add the flour mixture that you set aside earlier, beating on low until just combined.
- Add both sizes of chocolate chips and mix on low or by hand, just until mixed thoroughly.
- Spread into lightly greased 9x13 metal pan. Bake in preheated 350˚ oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with additional 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and return to oven for 2-3 more minutes.
- Remove from oven and place pan on cooling rack. Let cool before cutting. (Note, to save your pan from getting scratched up, I like to use a plastic knife to cut the bars.)
- You can cut these whatever size you'd like of course, anywhere from 12 big bars to 24 smaller ones. Enjoy!
Notes
*omit xanthan gum if gluten-free flour blend has xanthan or guar gum already
I hope you love these! Let me know if there’s another gluten-free bar cookie you’d like me to have a recipe for!
There’s one BIG problem with this recipe… it makes too many bars!! LOL
This is the best recipe! Thank you!
can you freeze these?
Do all the ingredients need to be room temp just like as in your choc. chip cookie recipe?
Just made these with the kiddos. We used krusteaz cup4cup. This was our first try at gluten free anything and they are so good. Not a crumb left. A keeper!
I haven’t tried these yet as they are still cooling but when I pulled them out of the oven they were like jello… I am a bit nervous it’s not cooked on the inside. I’m new to the GF world and in need of a cookie fix. Hopefully it sinks a little and doesn’t jiggle as much when I finally cut into them. ????
SUCCESS! This is literally the best gf cc cookie i have ever made!!! I’ve been in search of a GF CC cookie that tastes authentically like a chocolate chip cookie made with the regular ingredients! I used chia for eggs and Bod’s Red Mill GF flour. I can not tell the difference between these cookies and the traditional version. My daughter will be so excited!! I hated leaving her out of the fun of eating traditional cookies. Thanks for this recipe!! Best ever!!
These are excellent! A definite new family favorite! They are very rich and full of chocolate. We love the crispy edges and soft middle. Fantastic!
Thanks so much for your comment Sissa. I’m so glad your family can enjoy these too! Happy baking!
I just made these with my son tonight. They were super tasty, but I found them very oily. At first I was afraid that I had mis-measured, but I double checked, and I used all the right quantities. Is that just the way these are? I really want to make them again, but I’m considering using half the amount of butter, or finding a different liquid to substitute for some of the butter. My husband and my kids LOVED them, though!
Hmm, I haven’t felt like mine were oily, but if you feel like they’re too buttery, then feel free to cut the butter down! I wouldn’t cut in half but maybe try again with 4 Tbsp. less?
Have made these 3 times now. Always turn out great! Not at all gritty. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you Liza for taking the time to comment. I’m so glad you enjoy them!! Happy Baking!
Love this, made it quite a few times! I used egg replacer and omitted the white sugar, and it was perfect for us. Thanks for the recipe!
These are phenomenal! I used the Namaste flour cup for cup and they’re really tasty.
I used Namaste four and they came out dry…… shoot I wonder why mine were dry….
I used Bob’s Red Mill GF 1 to 1 flour and these cookie bars came out beautiful and tasty!
Fantastic! So glad I found this recipe!
My son requested a “chocolate chip cookie cake” for his 6th birthday party. I found this recipe via Pinterest, and could not have been more pleased. This is seriously one of the most delicious things I’ve ever baked. My Celiac husband says they’re dangerous. I think I agree. We’ll have to only make these when we have people to share with!
Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
and btw, my hubby who is non gluten free liked them…of course i didn’t tell him…these are going to my mom-in-law’s for mother’s day tomorrow. i used half butter and half butter flavored crisco. they are yum-e!
so because these have cream cheese…how do you store them? lol…not that they will last long but…
These were amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
So good. I didn’t gave xanthum gum and used my own flour blend. The cream cheese is what made’
This sounds great but was wondering if can substitute eggs and white sugar?
Quick question. For your Chocolate Cookies you refrigerated the dough for a min of 4 hours. Curious as to why you don’t do it for this recipe? I’m concerned this will come out gritty if I don’t give the dough time to sit. Thanks!! Have really enjoyed all your recipes!!
I had to put the bars into the refrigerator in the Pyrex cooking casserole dish ready to bake the next morning.
I had to bake them another 10 minutes at least as they didn’t look cooked and when I cut out a corner piece itjere was liquid in the bottom. My heart sank. But as it cooled the liquid was absorbed and they were a hit!
I will try again soon with less sugar! They were too sweet for me. Otherwise they were great!
Do you have a suggestion for a substitute for the cream cheese for those of us that need non-dairy recipes?
I used 2% fage Greek yogurt.
@Shannon, I just tried with a ripe banana and 2tbsp of apple sauce, it was pretty good! Banana makes things bond together and apple sauce adds to the smushy feeling 🙂