I set up a random number generator to pick the order of most of the recipes I’ll make (with the exception of the holiday cookies….and I might change the order if I don’t have time to refrigerate the dough for certain recipes).

First up was the Chocolate Chip Bars on page 71.

I was maybe a little disappointed that the first recipe was very similar to chocolate chip cookies, which I make frequently. However, it was also an easy introduction to other recipes in the book.

The ingredients were fairly basic — things that I already had in the house. The batter came together very quickly. Though, it was much thicker than I was expecting. There wasn’t much shortening, which made it a little hard to mix the shortening (butter in my case) and sugar.

These were in the oven in about 10 minutes after I started. The baking time said 30-35 minutes, but there was no information about how to tell if they were done. I had them in for just 30 minutes, since the edges had browned; however, they probably could have had a few more minutes.

I cut the bars while they were still warm, as suggested by the recipe, but found they were so gooey that it was difficult to make clean cuts.

Despite looking a little messy, they were quite yummy, as attested to by my spouse, my guests, and (of course) me.

Bottom line: These were simple, tasty bars similar to chocolate chip cookies but more gooey. While I might make these again, I’m probably more likely to make traditional chocolate chip cookies instead.