Mini Egg Bars: These festive Easter cookie bars are made with one of our favorite Easter candy, Cadbury mini eggs! These mini egg bars are an easy dessert for Easter time or any time of year!
2stickssalted butterat room temperature (2 sticks = 1 cup)
1 ¼cupslight brown sugarpacked
2largeeggs
1teaspoonvanilla extract
⅛teaspoonsalt
2 ¼cupsall purpose flour
½teaspoonbaking soda
1 ¼cupsCadbury mini eggs
½cupchocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees f.
Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Line the dish with parchment paper and butter the paper. *NOTE* Lining with parchment paper makes it easier to take the whole thing out onto a cutting board and cut those perfect squares. Do you need to do it? No, it won’t change the result of the recipe.
In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer (or the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment), mix the butter and sugar until nice and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
Add the wet ingredients- the eggs, splash of vanilla extract, and salt. Mix until they are all blended and set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients- the flour, baking soda, Cadbury eggs, and chocolate chips. Whisk together until the eggs and chocolate chips are coated with the flour and baking soda.
Mix in approximately 1/3 of the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Repeat until all the ingredients are incorporated.*NOTE* For this step, using a hand mixer is great but your dough will be very thick at the end. You could absolutely use a stand mixer as well.
Pour the dough for the cookie layer into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
If you want a really chocolatey treat you can add any remaining chocolate eggs to the top of the bar now. You could also sprinkle crushed mini eggs over the top or wait until the bars come out of the oven and add the eggs to the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 28-31 minutes or until golden brown. You will notice the edges starting to pull from the pan.
Remove from the oven and let the bars cool on a wire rack. Let it cool completely before cutting it up to serve.
If you chose to put parchment paper under your bars, use the parchment to lift the entire pan of cooled mini egg bars out onto a cutting board and cut into 24 even squares (if not, cut them right in the pan). Since we didn't use a square pan, you might find it helpful to cut a bit of the border off to help create nice straight edges.
Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Helpful tips:
When spreading the dough evenly in the bakeware before cooking, I used an offset spatula. You could as well use a butter knife or mixing spoon.
Make sure to cook in a 9x13 and not a 9x9. If doing in a 9x9 it will brown too fast, the edges will be cook, but the middle won’t.
You can store these bars in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days, or in the fridge for up to 1 week. Although we haven't tried it yet, these bars should freeze well too! Put them in an airtight, freezer safe container or bag and freeze them for up to 3 months.