Halfway Cookies
Halfway Cookies
In case you have never heard of them, Halfway Cookies are a bar cookie in three layers. The bottom layer is rich, buttery cookie dough. The middle layer is chocolate chips. And the top layer is brown sugar meringue. They are sweet, incredibly rich, and my all-time favorite cookie.Recipe courtesy of West of the Loop
Prep Time
20
minutes
Cook Time
20
minutes
Servings
24
servings
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 and ½ cups brown sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounce semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a jelly roll or half sheet pan.
- Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
- In a standing mixer, cream the butter with the granulated sugar and ½ cup of the brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolks one at a time and the vanilla extract and incorporate into the batter.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients.
- The resulting batter will be stiffer than a typical cookie dough. (If the dough is sticky, you can spray your fingers with a little bit of nonstick cooking spray or dust them with flour.)
- Press the dough onto the greased jelly roll pan.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the dough in the pan and press into the dough slightly.
- If possible, place pan in the freezer while you make the meringue.
- In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Gradually, one tablespoon at a time, add the remaining cup of brown sugar to the egg whites and beat until the meringue is glossy and holds soft peaks. (It won't be as stiff as a meringue made with superfine sugar, and that is OK.)
- Spread the resulting meringue over the top of dough and chocolate chips.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares.