high-bar baking

I’m not above bribery. I’d said it before, and I will continue to say it until it no longer serves me. Gifting people baked goods preemptively or post-emptively for doing things you’d rather not do is, in fact, not a crime. 

Or at least I hope not.

We did a patch release at work on Friday for some things I’d been working on with my coworker/boss. Yes, don’t even get me started about the atrocities of releasing on a Friday evening. Banks, am I right? 

I’d been keeping half an eye on it, and everything seemed mostly fine. Checkouts were slated to happen in the morning anyway. I thought I was safe and proceeded to go about my Friday evening. Later, deep into my regularly scheduled line dancing activities, I see a notice that something’s gone wrong. I’m conflicted; do I have to rush home? Luckily, my coworker is a true champ and was already all over it. These cookies bars are her reward/payback/bribe for letting me finish my Friday night in relative peace.

She, like me, is a true aficionado of the salty dessert. She just wants more salt. And I am all too happy to provide it. I pulled a trick from my crinkle cookies and used coarse sea salt in the place of the regular salt called for. And since I knew they were just for her, I threw some flaky Maldon salt onto the top before I baked them. 

They always seem to take a little longer than I expect them to, so don’t be afraid to keep them in the oven. But, if something happens and they come out a little early, I’ve eaten and served them at every stage of cookie dough lava and have been fine. They’re kind of delicious no matter what. 

I keep these super casual and do use chocolate chips. It’s one of the few recipes I won’t chop nice chocolate for, and I don’t regret it at all. It’s important to know the threshold for what you need to make yourself happy. In this case, the Costco (or Walmart! There was an emergency Christmas run this year that I’m still working my way through) chips are perfectly adequate. 

Stay salty, folks.