Chocolate Crumble Milky Way Bar Cookies – 🍫🍪😋 My new favorite layered bar is a chocolate cookie dough base, topped with Milky Way bars, chocolate cookie dough crumbles, and drenched with creamy sweetened condensed milk! Less than 10 minutes to make without a mixer!
Table of Contents
Cookies with Milky Way Bars
I’m so in love with my peanut butter cup cookie dough crumble bars, I made gave them a second flavor with this Milk Way bar cookies recipe! And I’m in love all over again.
Sometimes I go through dessert phases where all I want is cookies. And for weeks, I make batch after batch of cookies. Right now I’m in a gooey bar phase. I just couldn’t get the rich, gooey goodness out of my head, and these Milky Way cookie bars always hit the spot.
Soft and squishy centers with chewy edges. Dense, buttery, and full of gooey creaminess from the sweetened condensed milk. Not to mention, mini peanut butter cups in every bite!
Prep and assembly take 10 minutes, no mixer is needed, and you can stir everything together in one bowl. The fewer dishes a recipe generates, the better.
The Milky Ways provide texture and another dimension of chocolate flavor. Between the nougat in them, and the creamy, rich, sweetened condensed milk that thickens while baking, I was in gooey nougat heaven.
Supremely rich, intense, bold, dark, and perfect for impromptu chocolate cravings. So many layers of textures and flavors, all in one bite from chocolate to caramel to vanilla.
Layered bars are where it’s at. Definitely a new favorite! Make a batch for holiday parties or afternoon treats. They always disappear fast!
Ingredients in Chocolate Milky Way Bar Cookies
To make this easy recipe for candy-filled cookie bars, you’ll need:
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Unsalted butter – melt your butter before you begin
- Egg – let it come to room temperature for easy mixing
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Brewed coffee – this is optional but highly recommended! The bars won’t taste like coffee, but it does bring out the chocolate flavor. Water will also work
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour – feel free to use a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour if you need to keep these bars gluten-free
- Unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Milky Way candy bars – I like to use fun size Milky Way bars for easy chopping, but full-sized varieties also work
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make the Best Cookie Bars with Milky Ways
If you’ve ever made any kind of rich chocolate cookie, you can make these cookie bars! Here’s a quick overview of the baking process:
- Combine the melted and slightly cooled butter in a bowl with the egg, sugars, coffee, and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Add the dry ingredients, mixing just until the dough is well combined. It will be quite thick and dense!
- Reserve about 2/3 cup of dough, and turn the rest into a baking pan lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper and greased with cooking spray. Smooth it into an even layer, and sprinkle the candy bar pieces over the dough.
- Lightly crumble the reserved cookie dough on top in irregular, marble-sized chunks. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the top.
- Bake until the center is mostly set and the edges are firm, raised, and darker than the interior of the bars.
- Cool for at least 3 hours to allow the bars to set. Then, slice, serve, and enjoy!
Create picture-worthy bars
I recommend cooling your cookie bars for 1 hour on the counter and at least 2 hours in the fridge or ideally up to overnight. This ensures clean, pretty cut marks!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, just double all the ingredients, and use a 9×13 baking pan. Keep a close eye on the oven, and adjust the baking time as needed!
Not at all. If you’re not a fan, you can substitute your favorite candy bars or chocolate chips. Experiment with different varieties and combinations to make this recipe your own. It’s a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy!
Stored in an airtight container leftover bars will stay fresh for up to 1 week.
Yes! Allow the bars to cool completely. Then, wrap them with plastic wrap, transfer them to a sealable bag, and freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature when you’re ready to serve.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Milky Way Chocolate Cookie Crumble Bars
Equipment
- 1 Large, Microwave-Safe Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brewed coffee, leftover from the morning brew is fine, optional but highly recommended
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, I don’t sift
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups diced Milky Way Bars, or substitute with Snickers, Peanut Butter Cups Butterfinger, Heath, Rolos, 3 Musketeers
- about 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, just slightly more than half of one standard 14-ounce can
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute. Allow the butter to cool momentarily so you don’t scramble the egg. Add the egg, sugars, coffee (water may be substituted but coffee is highly recommended to bring out the chocolate flavor; the bars do not taste like coffee at all), vanilla, and stir or whisk vigorously to combine, about 1 minute.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, optional salt and stir until just incorporated. Dough will be quite thick and dense.
- Reserve about 2/3 cup dough; set aside. Turn remaining dough out into prepared pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula. Evenly sprinkle the Milky Ways over the dough. Using your fingers, lightly crumble the reserved cookie dough over the top in irregular, marble-sized chunks. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the top (just eyeball slightly over half of the can as you pour slowly).
- Bake for about 27 to 30 minutes, or until center is mostly set. The sweetened condensed milk should nearly be set in all places, but possibly a little loose in the very center of the pan is okay. Edges will be firm, raised, and darker than the interior. Bars firm up more in pan as they cool; don’t overbake because you want these to stay soft and gooey, and cocoa powder is prone to turning dry.
- Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 3 hours before slicing and serving (use foil overhang to lift out). I recommend cooling for 1 hour on the counter, and at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight. This ensures clean, pretty cut marks. If you don’t care about that, bars may be consumed as soon as they are cool enough to eat; grab a spoon and dig in. Extra bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Bars may be kept gluten-free by replacing the flour with your favorite gluten-free baking blend. Take care any ingredients used are suitable for your dietary needs.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Dessert Bar Recipes:
Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars – A soft and chewy, dense, buttery cookie dough base, topped with peanut butter cups, and creamy, rich, sweetened condensed milk. A new favorite and an absolute must-make.
White and Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Chocolate Cake Bars – All the decadence of cheesecake, minus the work. Ready in less than a half hour.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars – All the taste and texture of cookies, minus the work of making individual cookies. Bar cookies are so much faster and these are soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate chunks.
Coconut Peanut Butter Magic Cake Bars – One of my favorite desserts of 2011, and similar to Seven Layer or Magic Bars, but a cake base is used instead of a graham cracker crust. Soft, dense, rich, chewy, tons of textures and flavors, and so easy.
Cookie Butter Brown Sugar Streusel Bars – Soft, chewy and moist from the cookie butter and all brown sugar dough base that’s topped with crunchy streusel bits.
Peanut Butter Cocoa Krispies Smores Bars – No need for campfires, make s’mores at home. These smores have three layers, including a cocoa-crispy cereal top layer that’s made with peanut butter.
Caramel and Chocolate Gooey Bars (GF with Vegan adaptation) – The hardest part of this recipe is unwrapping the caramels. Easy, loaded with texture from the oats, and dripping with chocolate.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Squares (No-Bake, Vegan, GF) – A fast, easy, and texture-filled bar pairing two of my favorites, chocolate and peanut butter.
Nanaimo Bars (No-Bake) – A triple layer bar that’s incredibly rich and satisfying. A chocolate-almond base, topped with a gooey middle, and finished with a layer of chocolate.
Thanks for the entries in the 24 Hours of Peanuts Cookbook and Prize Pack Giveaway and the Bestowed Healthy Care Package Delivery Giveaway
Averie, you’ve so done it again! Who can resist the milky ways… this is so delish! Seriously, putting this one on my list…weekend baking list!
These look awesome and I can’t wait to try them but I’m a little confused on the amount of condensed milk. It says 1/2 cup, a little more than half a 14oz can. Should it be 1 cup? I think that is 8oz
Just go with slightly over half of one can. It’s more than 1/2 cup, probably in between 1/2 c and 3/4 cup. Sweetened cond milk is so sticky and thick that unless I absolutely have to measure it out, I don’t. I just eyeball. It’s quite a forgiving recipe so just go with slightly more than half a can and you’ll be just fine!
Sweetened condensed milk makes everything better, and these bars have just made the top of my “to-make” list. They look incredible! Pinned
Thanks, Rachel, for the pin and hope you make them!
It’s looking at recipes like this that make me wish I had no food allergies, that bars like this were calorie free and better for my health than zucchini pasta (which I do love, actually, but you get my drift) and that eating the whole pan might aid my digestion! LOL! At least I can drool over the pretty photos! :-D
Oh Michele, I know, there is way too much in here that if you have food allergies you can even work around. In 80% + of my recipes, there are substitutions one can make to keep it vegan or GF or even allergen-free based on certain allergies…but not these. Just too much going on!
This gooey bar phase is my favorite. I totally want to dive face first into this pan of milky way heaven.
The more chocolate the better! These look amazing! I go through phases too…but mine never seem to be healthy phases. ;)
Must find an occasion to make the gorgeous cookie bars.
I keep my healthy phases separate from my dessert phases :)
Averie – I just found your blog and everything looks so yummy! I can’t wait to start baking some of your goodies, but I am addicted to my kitchen scale. What weight measurement do you use for flour? I just want to get the same results! BTW, I love yoga too ;-)
Thanks!
I use King Arthur all-purpose flour (red bag) and honestly I don’t weigh it for 99% of my recipes. I maybe should, but I don’t. So I don’t know what to tell you. One cup, piled in semi-loosely, not SMOOSHED down, measuring flour how you’re supposed to with the scoop in method.
These cookie bars though, not going to matter if you’re off by 1/4 cup. HIGHLY forgiving :)
Appreciate the response. Thank you!
I get the same way when I realllllly love something–I have to try all sorts of different varieties. These look just as amazing as the peanut butter ones! Maybe a white chocolate variety in the future?? :)
50+ white chocolate recipes here…many of them are bars!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/05/white-chocolate.html
And these 3 are AMAZING
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/08/white-chocolate-vanilla-marshmallow-cake-bars.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/03/coconut-peanut-butter-magic-cake-bars.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/08/coconut-white-chocolate-chip-blondies.html
I can see why you’re in love with these bars. I am in love with them and I want to marry them and have lots and lots of Milky Way babies with them. AMAZEBALLS.
LOL :) I would marry them if I could, too!
I was never a huge Milky Way fan. I loved candy bars with nuts, caramel, and/or toffee. Oh heck, combine all 3 if you will!!
For regular eating, they’re just meh to me. But for baking, they are so squishy and so nice (unlike a Heath Bar, which I love on it’s own) but for baking, I could chip a tooth chomping down into baked-in chopped Heath bars..lol
I think the only way to choose which bar I like best is to do a taste-off!
I know…how fun would that be!
Loving these! They look so great and love the addition of condensed milk as well, definitely be making these with some of my leftover candy bars!
YAY! And please LMK how they turn out for you!
Yum, these look so good! I love ooey gooey bars also! Thanks for sharing!
Such a great a versatile bar recipe. Love it :)
I want to bring these to Big PL but they’re so messy. I think I need to think of something neater :)
OMG, I cannot wait!! Whatever you bring will be fabulous, I know it!! :)
Girl I don’t even know what to bring. I thought I had it all figured out and then…I realized I don’t want to bring anything fussy and want to bring something in a nice, sturdy pan, not some delicate layer cake. I’m supposed to bring cake. But I kind of want to bring bars :) I wonder if I’d get in trouble? lol
Goooodness gracious, this is easily one of my favorite recipes I’ve seen from you! Aren’t layered bars the best? I feel like I have been in this phase for months and never want to leave, haha. It’s just so perfect, experiencing all those amazing flavors harmonized into one ultra gooey bar. I’m adoring this Milky Way adaptation!
You had me at ‘diced Milky Way bars’. I guess my ultimate weakness must be bar cookies/squares because just scrolling down this post had me making all sorts of inappropriate noises.
inappropriate noises…LOL
It’s been than the holy Sh*t!!! that I think to myself when I see some recipes that get me particularly excited on certain blogs :)