Foodie Friday! - No Bake Cookie Dough Bars

This week has been busy with work, errands, and getting ready for our annual Scrapping Weekend!  This is a girls only weekend.  My friend of 31 years, Linda, will be coming as always.  In addition, my daughter, Liz, is making the trip from Illinois (she wouldn't miss it) and one of our daughters-in-law,  Laura, is joining us this year for the first time!  She is a teacher so I am anxious to see what projects she will be working on!

Scrapping weekend is pretty laid back and goes something like this:

   - Michael flees the house.  

 - We rearrange the dining room so we can add another table for plenty of work space.  

- We get creative.

 - We talk a lot. 

- We giggle almost as much.

- We eat, probably more than we should.  (It's once a year.)

- We pretty much work on projects all day Saturday.   

We'll end the weekend with church on Sunday and lunch together before everyone heads home.  A few of the hubbies will be joining us on Sunday for church and dinner.    

So it's not like I have to do a lot of work to get ready for the girls' arrival. But seriously, isn't that when most of us get the best housecleaning done - when we are expecting company and the clock is ticking down?

So even though my recipes are always easy, I needed one that was really REALLY easy this week as I was short on time.  

Then I spotted these.  

And I was in love.

Be still my heart.  

My brain said, "Bingo!"

My stomach said, "We are in trouble."  

And my mind was already working on a shopping list. 

I love cookie dough.  And yes, I'm one of those people who eat cookie dough made with raw eggs. I've done it for 50 years, I've survived, and to be honest I'm not going to stop eating a spoon of cookie dough once in a while at this point in my life. But if you prefer the egg-free dough instead,  you will love this one.  Even if you really don't care about the whole egg issue, you will love this one!

I found the recipe on Pinterest and followed the link to here.

No Bake Cookie Dough Bars

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1, 14-oz, can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups chocolate chips

Topping:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper

In large mixing bowl blend butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the vanilla and mix well.  With the mixer on low, alternate adding the flour and sweetened condensed milk until both are thoroughly mixed in.  Then add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly dispersed. 

Once all ingredients are well blended put dough in the pan.  The dough will be sticky so pat evenly in pan with a lightly floured hand.  

After dough is pressed in the pan cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.  

Once the bars have chilled and are set, combine peanut butter and milk chocolate chips (or semisweet - it's all good!) in a microwave bowl.  I microwaved on high for 1 minute, stirred, and microwaved another 30 seconds or so until the mixture was smooth.    Pour over cookie dough to "frost." Refrigerate another hour.

When ready to cut, simply pick up the parchment paper and lift the bars out of the pan onto a cutting board.  I used a large knife and they cut easily but held their shape well.

This makes about 16 servings.  Cut into small bars as they are really rich!

I doubled the "frosting" because that is what my mother would have done.  I used a mixture of dark chocolate and semisweet chips for the topping. 

Refrigerate in airtight container. 

Happy chocolatechipcookiedoughgoodness Friday.

I made that word up. :)