Mike's Choc. Chip Bar Recipe

Steps

1. 1

   Hand held elec mixer. I use one of these because it is easier to keep the dough in play while mixing. A spat and a full size stand mixer is fine too.

2. 2

   Industrial sized wooden spoon

3. 3

   Spatula

4. 4

   the shallow brownie pan: Wearever Cushion Aire Insulated Bakeware Manitowoc, WI 15.5 x 10.5 x 1.12

5. 5

   Aluminum foil: Before preheating the oven, line the bottom of the oven for the first batch, just in case the dough cooks over out of the pan.

6. 6

   This is how I go about it. Pick your own methods to accomplish similar results. -- Morning of or day before, unwrap the butter and leave it to stand and reach room temp, covered in a dish. Use a small bowl that can be used in the microwave, cover with cellophane wrap. -- Measure the flour into a 3 lb coffee can, add in the baking soda and salt. Put the cover on the can and holding the cover and bottom with the can horizontal, swirl the can to spin/mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Set the can aside for later. (Keeps from getting flour dust all over from trying to stir the ingredients together.) -- If the butter is frozen or cold, carefully, using a setting like 10% power on the microwave, heat the butter 15 sec at a time to find the amount of heat needed to soften the butter. -- In a large mixing bowl, put the; 2 sticks of room temperature or softened butter 2 lbs of light brown sugar 3 tablespoons of vanilla 2 teaspoons of mint 1 cup of peanut butter or Nutella

7. 7

   Using an electric mixer, blend until well mixed -- Open the dozen extra large eggs and dump into a separate bowl. Do not crack the eggs directly into the large mixing bowl. Open the eggs into a separate bowl to avoid losing the sugar/butter mixed so far due to a spoilt 15 cent egg. -- To the large mixing bowl, add in about half of the 12 extra large eggs and continue mixing. Increase the mixer speed after the ingredients have combined. Mix at the highest possible speed so the ingredients become like a meringue. This mix becomes quite large in volume and is why a large mixing bowl is necessary. -- I use an industrial sized wooden spoon to blend in the flour. I've never tried using a dough hook on a stand type electric mixer but no reason that would not work. Gradually add in the flour from the coffee can to the large mixing bowl, mixing with the wooden spoon. This goes pretty well due to the meringue-like consistency of the previous ingredients. If, as the last of the flour mix is added, the stirring with the wood spoon becomes difficult, add in about a tablespoon of milk or water to loosen the mixture. There is no need to work hard stirring the mix. -- Using the wood spoon, add in the chips. -- For ease of serving, line the baking pan with parchment paper. Spoon the mix from the bowl into the baking pan, it will flow to level on it's own while baking, no need to level the dough out in the pan. What should happen is, the dough will bake first along the pan perimeter, preventing dough which may rise in the middle from spilling from the pan while baking. The oven rack must be level or dough will spill from the pan. -- For the first batch, to be certain the pan is not overfilled with dough, fill a separate 9 by 11 pan, and keep in the fridge to bake later. -- Bake for 60 minutes. The pan should look brown on top, if the dough is loose when bumping the pan, more baking time is needed. When the center behaves like a stiff pudding, it is done. The pan will "finish" baking for another hour or two after being removed from the oven as it "cools". -- Baked for the correct time, the bars are soft in the middle after having stood to cool for a couple hours, the bars are better served a day later. -- Consisting of mostly butter, sugar and chocolate, the temperature and time require some experimenting to get a good result. This is a large mass of dough and it will continue to bake internally while sitting out to cool. So the key is to remove from the oven at the point in time the pan will finish baking while standing.

8. 8

   Variations;

9. 9

   Use 2 cups (4 sticks) of butter and no peanut butter. The color of the bars will be lighter and no peanut butter flavor.

10. 10

    Use half white sugar and half brown sugar instead of all brown sugar

11. 11

    Use nuts, a mix of different flavored chips, toffee or?