Hope you have chocolate chips handy!

They’re cookies. They’re brownies. They’re brookies. Whatever you want to call them - they’re good. They combine the taste of a chocolate chip cookie and with the texture of a moist brownie. The best of both worlds. Actually, they do have a name. They’re called Congo Bars.

I had them for the first time today - also the first time I have ever made them. By scratch. Oh boy. I found the recipe online when I was searching for something to bake today that was yummy, different, and included the supplies I had on hand. 

Sometimes I wonder where I’ve been and how I could have gone this long without tasting easy treats like this. What else am I missing out on?

The ingredients are pretty simple stuff. And if you follow the directions in the recipe, you combine everything by hand, but I decided to use my mixer and let it do all the work. They were yummy, but not completely the same texture as the ones in the pictures I saw from the original recipe, but either way they’re really good.

Look at that beautifully thick batter.

Spread it all out in a 13 X 9 pan and bake for about 30 minutes. CONFESSION: I baked mind in a regular square brownie pan, it took longer for them to get done, so don't experiment and just use a 13 X 9. I'm serious.

Cool and cut.

You can't really tell in this photo, especially since I don't have a big, expensive camera, but the ones in the hand-mixed recipe are a little more "cake-y-er". But only slightly. Again, this is a subtle difference, just thought I’d share.

The great thing about these bars is that you can mix in different additions if you want.

How about butterscotch or peanut butter chips?

M&M's anyone?

You could even probably cut up a few caramel candies into small pieces if you wanted a chewy surprise inside.

Customize, baby. Make them totally your own. They're easy enough so why not?

Sorry, went a little 'blur-crazy'. Whoops.

Anyways, Here’s the recipe below. If you google Congo Bars, you should find a bunch of variations to play with.

Congo Bars

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (leave this out if you use salted butter)
2/3 cup (10 tablespoons) butter, softened
1 lb. (2 1/4 cups) light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips

By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips.

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla and chocolate chips. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray, generously. In other words, just when you thought you sprayed enough, spray more.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

UPDATE: Hey guys. Reading online at comments from this recipe, some say these are amazing, some say they’re not done at 30 minutes. I’m starting to think my oven runs hotter than most. So, if the bars aren’t done at 30 minutes and the tops feel like they are getting too brown, then place a sheet of aluminum foil on top and bake a little longer. Use a toothpick to insert and check for doneness before removing from the oven. Also make sure you sifted the dry ingredients and used room temp butter, not melted. The batter should be thick like the photo above.