Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Pie Bars

Day 120

This is what I came home to this afternoon. No, really.

I walked through the door, feeling tired and even a little grumpy, but the aroma of cooked sugar and butter overwhelmed me. My daughter, Tate, was baking, and she had found a new recipe that she wanted to tweak. The original was for a chocolate chip pizza, which sounds amazing, but her idea was much, much better.

Photos by Taylor Fowler

Brainstorm with me here. What texture would be even more complementary to brown sugar, butter, and chocolate than a pizza crust? A pie crust. Tate decided to turn a dessert “pizza” into dessert “pie” bars. The results were incredible, and I do not exaggerate when I say that these might be my new favorite dessert bars. They are that good.

The nicest part, aside from the flavor, is how easy they are. Please make these right as someone is entering your front door tonight or tomorrow or sometime soon. They will love you forever and ever for it.

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Pie Bars

Ingredients:

2 (store bought) refrigerated pie crusts

2 sticks of butter, melted

1 box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix

1 cup chocolate chips

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

¼ cup granulated sugar

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Unroll/Spread pie crusts on large baking sheet covered in parchment paper, side by side, overlapping slightly. Press overlapping portion together to form solid sheet. Cut off any sides that fall over the baking sheet and use them to fill in the two crust circles, if desired. Bake pie crust for 5-7 minutes. Take out crust and rest on counter. If there are air bubbles, they will collapse once filling is added.

In a bowl, stir together granulated and brown sugars with a fork, breaking up any lumps. Mix

together butter and yellow cake mix (there may be lumps.) Spread mixture onto crust, leaving approximately ½ inch from the edges without batter.

You might need your hands for this, to keep the crust from breaking apart; this part is messy. 

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of batter (more or less than 1 cup, if desired; ½ cup even tastes great if you prefer the stronger brown sugar taste). Gently press chips into batter.

Sprinkle sugar topping over pizza, covering batter and chips but avoiding the lip of the pizza. You might not choose to use all of the sugar, but use as much as you can.

Bake 10-14 minutes on upper middle rack of oven (check at 9 minute mark).

If after 12 minutes the topping has not browned, switch oven to broiler for approximately 1 minute….Watch carefully.

Cool 10-15 minutes. Cut into bars (some “bars” will have rounded edges, but just embrace that imperfection). Enjoy!