Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars

Chocolate orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations and what better way to enjoy it than in a gooey and delicious cookie bar?! These Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars really are as good as they look.

What is a cookie bar?

A cookie bar is basically one large, thick cookie that is baked in a tin. Instead of separating the dough into individual cookies, it is baked as one and then cut into bars.

Cookie bars are perfect if you favour a thick, soft cookie. They are also quicker and easier to make due to not having to form cookie balls.

I used my favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to create these delicious Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars.

Chocolate orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations

Chocolate orange is one of my favourite types of chocolate and flavour combinations in general. I’m not a massive fan of fruit and chocolate, but orange and chocolate is the exception.

Orange and chocolate go so well together whether that is in the form of a cake like my Chocolate Orange Tray Bake or treats like Chocolate Orange Rocky Road. I can definitely see more chocolate orange recipes in the future too!

Do you prefer a soft or crisp cookie?

I love cookies – especially soft cookies. For me crisp cookies are a waste of a cookie.

You need the soft squidginess in a cookie. Which is why these Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars are so good! They have all the delicious softness of what makes a great cookie in my opinion.

Plus they are thicker than a standard cookie – who wouldn’t want an extra thick cookie?!

Delicious and simple to make

Apart from their delicious softness, these Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars are also really easy to make.

Don’t get me wrong, cookies aren’t difficult to make, but they take a little bit of time to portion up. And I also usually have to cook them in batches.

With these, you just tip all of the batter into the tin with no faffing at all – perfect!

Time saving steps like this is great for when the sweet cravings strike and you want delicious cookies with minimal effort.

Which type of chocolate orange is best to use?

I remember not too long ago you could only buy Terry’s chocolate oranges. Over the last few years the number or chocolate orange products has increased dramatically.

You can now buy Terry’s Milk Chocolate Orange Mini’s and Terry’s Chocolate Orange Milk Tablet and all sorts of other treats.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange and Cadbury Twirl Orange chocolate bar are some of Cadbury’s new treats. There is also Galaxy smooth orange as well as Galaxy vegan smooth orange bars.

It really doesn’t matter what type or chocolate orange you use for these cookie bars. Especially as most of it is going to get chopped up.

How to decorate these cookie bars

You can choose to decorate these cookie bars with some chocolate orange segments or even leave it plain if you prefer.

I like to decorate them with Terry’s Milk Chocolate Orange Mini’s as this means each cookie bar gets its own little chocolate orange slice. This saves arguments over who has a chocolate orange slice and who doesn’t.

You could use standard Terry’s Chocolate Orange segments if you prefer; or even cut up any form of chocolate orange into chunks and sprinkle this over the top.

How long do these cookies take to bake?

As I have mentioned, I like a soft centred cookie so I recommend baking these for twenty minutes. This means you get the gooey centre and the chewy goodness around the outside.

If however you like a firmer cookie, bake these for an extra five minutes.

Remember that they will firm up slightly as they cool so don’t panic if they look slightly too gooey. I leave them in the tin to cool slightly before transferring them to a wire rack so they’re easier to move.

How many cookie bars does this recipe make?

I like to cut them into sixteen squares because I think this is the perfect size.

If you were making them for a party or a dessert platter, you could cut them a little smaller.

You could also cut them larger which would work well if you were serving it as a dessert. One of these served warm with a scoop of ice cream would be delicious!

How long do these bars keep for?

I’m not too sure you will have to worry about how long they will last because they will get eaten very quickly!

However they will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container. They might become slightly less soft by day four but they will still be very tasty.

You can heat them in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to revive them slightly and bring them back to their gooeyness if you would like. 

If you would like them to keep for longer I would recommend freezing them.

Can you freeze these Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars?

You can freeze them either before or after they are baked. If you are freezing the bars before they are baked, put them in the freezer in the tin.

Once they have become solid, take the frozen dough out of the tin and wrap it really well and return to the freezer.

When you want to bake the bars, put them back in the same tin. Bake them for ten minutes longer than the recipe says.

If you want to freeze the bars after they are baked, I would wrap them individually. This means you can take out as many as you need, as and when you need them.

Defrost them for around an hour and they should be perfect to eat.

Do you have to use chocolate orange?

No, you can use whatever chocolate you like! Get creative and use what you fancy.

I have recipes for Maltesers Cookie Bars and Guylian Cookie Bars and I have no doubt in my mind that I will have more recipes coming in the future!

You could also keep the cookie bars really simple and just use chocolate chips – milk, white or dark chocolate would work well.

Other recipes you might like

• Chocolate Orange Tray Bake 
• Chocolate Orange Rocky Road
• Vegan Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake
• Maltesers Cookie Bars
• Guylian Cookie Bars (Praline Seashell Chocolates)

 

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