Sweet loaded cookie bars

Are you as excited about Halloween as me? I love Halloween and I'm sooo glad that it's becoming increasingly popular in the UK, it's not just the trick or treating that I love either (though we're lucky to have very generous neighbours).

It's nice to be about to celebrate a seasonal holiday before Christmas takes it's toll. Regular readers of my blog will know by now that I am also a Christmas FIEND so I can start to channel some of that seasonal excitement before I start to annoy my family with talk of "How early is too early to put the tree up?".

The cookies bars I'm featuring today are made from my go to cookie recipe which makes amazingly chewy and delicious chocolate chip cookies. Seriously, if you love Millies Cookies then you'll love these. They came about as I stared blankly into my kitchen cupboards a few weeks ago and realised how many half packets of sweets and biscuits we have stashed in various jars in the house.

This recipe will be a great way to use up any leftover Halloween candy but I'd probably steer clear of adding any sugary/jelly sweeties as they'll just melt into your batter and leave some ugly coloured holes in your cookie dough - so stick to chocolatey/cookie based mix ins.


Loaded cookie bars 
Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• 100g light brown soft sugar
• 125g caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g self-raising flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 200g chocolate chips (if making plain cookies) but I added in about 6 crushed Oreos, 100g of smarties and about 60g of dark chocolate chunks.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Line 8" square tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream butter and sugars till pale and fluffy, once creamed, combine in the egg and then vanilla.
3. Sift in the flour and salt, then the chocolate chips (or other 'mix in' of your choice)
4. Spread batter into tin flattening with a spatula. The cookies will puff up quite a bit but will deflate after cooling.
5. Bake for approx 25mins or until the edges of the cookie start to brown slightly. Overbaking will create a crunchy cookie whereas underbaking slightly will result in a more chewy cookie - so bake to your preference,
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling and wait until the cookie is completely cold before cutting into squares. Makes approx 16 generous squares.