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.
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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.
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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
Oh my gosh! All of these fabulous bars are absolutely killing me! These look so good!
Oh my goodness, these look dangerously good :) I love milky way!
Oh my goodness, count me as one of the ‘droolers’! Pining, for sure – thank you so so much for posting this on Facebook so I could find you. New follower!
Absolutely gorgeous! And I think I want one of each of the other goodies at the bottom of the post too :) Thanks for sharing at Mom On Timeout!
oh my gosh these look so good too…I would have a hard time deciding between these bars….and i would have a hard time trying to patiently wait for the 3 hours to go by….i probably should make them before I goto bed….they’d be good for breakfast right? :-)
I mean you can slice them earlier, they’ll just be messy and not as neat :)
Absolutely love the look of these! Pinned for future reference.
Thanks for the Pin!
This looks fabulous! I’d love to have you link it up with our Wednesday link party at The Hopeless Housewife.
Usually PB cups are my weakness, but I think I’d like these bars just as much as the other ones. Because: chocolate! And caramel! In. Sane. You need to do a baking with candy bars book next. :)
That would be some fun recipe testing!
“Gooey bars” is an awesome phase to be in, if you ask me! Think of all the delicious possibilities with different candies and fillings you can use. I haven’t had a Milky Way bar in over a decade – you’re making me want to run out and buy a bag so that I can make this. I wish I had read this post earlier – I made a cookie bar last week and I didn’t wait long enough for it to set. When I cut it, it was a big gooey mess, nothing like the perfect, beautiful little squares you get. Next time, I’m popping it into the fridge, cause Lord knows I can’t wait long enough to start digging in ;)
The only way to get clean cuts on gooey bars is to let them set up overnight or at least put them in the fridge. It sort of defeats the principle of them being gooey to keep them neat for the camera but I find that neat gooey bars look better than gooey gooey bars on camera. One of those weird little food nuances. I’m sure your bars tasted fabulous!
I think the gooey bar phase is the best phase to be in! I hope you stay here for a while because I’m loving these recipes!
I want to stay in it, too!
I am in love with these .. made the peanut butter ones (except I used snickers), then have just thrown these ones in the oven. the choc ones are awesome! so awesome.
a couple of notes, in case they are of use to anyone.
in the choc one you pour the condensed milk over the ingredients instead of placing them on top (or at least thats what I did). this is a definite tick. it makes it all swim together pleasingly.
i happened to add just a tinge more butter than was necessary this time (i was combining a few ends of butter, a stick of butter is strictly 113g, i had 127g. This made the dough a little more moist and subsequently, easier to squish into the pan.
snickers i find are easier to handle and don’t fall apart in the oven.
in my oven, i stuck them in for 20 minutes, only b/c last time i went for 25, and they came out a little dry. less is more when it comes to heat and the brownie family, it seems.
averie, as always, a butter and sugar bomb of pleasure.
Yes you noticed that the PB ones and the choc ones, I poured the milk over at different phases of adding the crumble pieces. I honestly don’t think it matters too much but perhaps this version has a slight advantage.
And good for you for not baking too long! If I write bake 20 to 35 minutes, or until done, people would hate me. But with a recipe like this, there can be HUGE variance with people’s ovens, ingredients they used, etc so it’s a ‘bake til done’ recipe :) And yes, less is more when it comes to heat and the brownie family! Cocoa powder dries out SO FAST. I always am super careful with taking it out, pronto! I baked the choc ones less than the others, even though I had a slightly larger mass of dough based on the ingredient amounts used.
Great comment & thanks for making these and writing about it all in detail. So appreciated!
OMG….you made them chocolatey….
O_O
LOL :)
Oh. My. Word. I can take my eyes off of these bars. Yum!
Averie, you offer so many different goodies that it’s hard to choose. Which one is your favorite?
I can’t choose a favorite but these Milky Way Bars are excellent as are the Mini PB Cup version from 2 weeks ago. I have so many that I adore. Layered bars are my fave things in the whole world I think!
I want to live with you just so I can learn how to make all these delicious bars. Girl, you have fantastic taste and baking skills :)