Carrot Cake M & M Cookie Bars

 

I had an extra carrot cake box mix to use up a little while ago so I was trying to come up with different recipes in order to use up the box.

I made Carrot Cake Fudge and Carrot Cake Rice Krispies a little while ago but still had a little bit of the cake mix left over.

Normally I would probably have just thrown it away BUT, as it turns out, I also had some leftover Carrot Cake M & M candies to use. I decide to make this cookie bar to use up both.

Turns out this was a pretty good idea.

Who knew carrot cake mix could be so versatile?

 

 

Carrot Cake M&M Cookie Bars

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, room temp

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup carrot cake mix

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup M&Ms (I used carrot cake flavor)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 X 13 pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, carrot cake mix, and baking powder. Stir into wet ingredients until no dry ingredients remaining showing through. Stir in M&Ms and chocolate chips.

Press into prepared pan.

 

 

Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes, until top is browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

 

 

Remove from heat, let cool on wire rack. When cool, use parchment paper to remove bar from pan. Cut and serve.

 

 

You could, of course, scoop these onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake as cookies. Your cooking time will decrease significantly - more like 10 minutes.

I like making cookie bars because, well...frankly...I'm lazy and making cookies is a little repetitive sometimes.

These are very carrot cake-y but still kind of like a chocolate chip cookie.

Oddly enough, it is a good combination.

Definitely something a little bit different.

 

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