Kinder Bueno Cookie Bars!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
These Kinder Bueno Cookie Bars are soft, gooey and packed full of everything delicious. These bars are thick, chewy, soft and incredibly easy to make, whilst packed with chunks of kinder chocolate and kinder bueno pieces.
These cookie bars are perfect for birthday parties, afternoon treats, weekend baking sessions or even bake sales as they are always easy to make and an absolute crowd pleaser.
Notes from The Patisserie
Anything that has Kinder in continues to be incredibly popular every day on my blog, and it’s easy t see why. The combination of the creamy milk chocolate iconic flavour, with hazelnut and even a crunchy wafer is delicious – especially when added to something else like a cookie.
- These bars have a soft and gooey texture with crisp golden edges for the crunch
- They are LOADED with everything kinder heaven
- Easy one-bowl recipe
- Ready in about 30 minutes
- Perfect for freezing and making ahead
Unlike individual kinder bueno cookies, these cookie bars are even easier to bake as you shove all of the cookie dough into one lined tin and bake – you can portion them to whatever size piece you want, and it’s better as it takes less time to prep whilst still delivering the same delicious texture.
Ingredient notes + tips
Packed full of Kinder Chocolate, and Kinder Bueno pieces, this is the sort of treat that people will ask for again and again without fail. If you don’t like Kinder chocolate, however, please see my many other cookie bar recipes I have available
- Butter – using an unsalted block butter or bakings spread works well – I usually melt mine in a pan on the hob, or in the microwave in short bursts
- Sugar – the standard cookie mix of light brown and also white granulated sugar for the flavour and texture, I find using caster sugar makes them have a cake-like texture
- Egg – one egg only, I use medium, but large will also work if that’s what you have
- Vanilla – an added little bit of sweetness and flavour, but it’s optional
- Flour – always use plain flour, you don’t want to use self raising. I also add cornflour to create a softer texture, but you can substitute this by using 25g more plain flour
- Raising agents – I only use bicarb in the cookie bars, you don’t want to use baking powder as this changes the texture
- Salt – the best addition in my opinion. I use chunky sea salt, not table salt as it adds flavour and brings out the sweetness
If you wanted to make these into a chocolate cookie dough, rather than a ‘plain’ one, you can add in 25g of cocoa powder, but take out 50g of the plain flour. The cocoa powder dries the cookie dough out more in comparison to the flour, so you’d have a smidge less dry ingredients.
The Kinder Chocolate
So as this is a kinder bueno themed bake, I use the kinder chocolate and the kinder bueno bars. The kinder chocolate is best for the softer more chocolate chunk style part, and the kinder bueno is just kinder bueno with that iconic wafer filling.
Folding through the Kinder Chocolate is easy as its solid, but folding in the Kinder Bueno isn’t as easy because they’re quite a bit more fragile. If you’re worried, I did it a couple of times where I put the Kinder Chocolate pieces into the cookie dough first, and then the Bueno so it wasn’t quite as solid as just the dough on its own. It’s not the end of the world if they Kinder Bueno pieces break up, but if you do it by hand it’ll be a lot safer than using a mixer for this bit
Top tips to make the perfect cookie bars
I use a stand mixer or a hand mixer when making my cookie dough as I have easy access to these, but they are not essential. You can easily make the dough by hand, just with a bit of arm power. Try not to over mix the dough as this can cause texture problems, you just want to mix until it’s just come together.
As with any recipe it is always important to use the correct size tin for a recipe, as this is what they have been tested in. Changing tin sizes can cause volume problems, overall bake problems and consistency issues. I always use a 9″ metal square tin for an even bake all around.
The cookie bars should come out a light golden once baked, and still be soft in the middle. I bake on the dot of 160ºc in my fan oven. but I have an oven thermometer to double check temperatures (and it’s a new oven). If your bars come out a dark golden, or sections on top start to catch, your oven is running too hot and you should try and lower the temperature.
FAQs
Yes, it will soften slightly due to being out of the packet and baked. If you don’t like this, I would suggest to use just kinder chocolate and then decorate after baking with bits of kinder bueno
Yes, you can swap the kinder bueno or kinder chocolate for chocolate chips, or chunks of other chocolates.
These cookie bars are designed to stay slightly softer but you can bake them for longer for a better texture if that is what you prefer
This sounds like your oven is on too high a heat setting, or the wrong oven setting – it’s worth lowering the oven temp by at least 20ºc to see if that helps, or covering the top with foil
Kinder Bueno Cookie Bars!
Ingredients
- 115 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 135 g light brown sugar
- 55 g granulated sugar
- 1 medium egg (or large)
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
- 275 g plain flour
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 100-250 g Kinder chocolate (chopped)
- 100-250 g Kinder Bueno bars (chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 190ºc/170ºc fan, and line a 9×9 inch square tin with parchment paper
- Melt the unsalted butter until liquid, and add to a bowl.
- Add in the light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix the mixture together for a couple of minutes to break the sugar granules down
- Add in the egg and vanilla and mix again until they're combined.
- Add the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cornflour and mix again
- Add in the chopped Kinder chocolate, and chopped Kinder Bueno, and fold through. Reserve some for the top if you want .
- Push the mixture into the 9×9 inch tin, and add on the last few bits of Kinder goodness.
- Bake the cookie bars in the oven for 17-22 minutes. I usually do 19 minutes so they stay reasonably gooey.
- Once baked, leave to cool in the tin and set
Notes
- I use this 9″ square tin
- These will freeze for 3+ months
- These cookie bars will last for 4-5+ days at room temperature
Storage + Freezing
These cookie bars are delicious on the day of baking, but they will easily last for 4-5+ days at room temperature. If it’s super hot, you can keep them in the fridge.
These bars will also freeze once baked for 3+ months – you can either freeze the whole slice, or portion and then freeze.
Does this recipe work when you fill it with other chocolate by any chance as I don’t have kinder? Also… whenever I try and bake cookie bars the edges go really brown and it looks under baked in the middle, any suggestions on how I get them all to bake evenly please?? Xxx
Yes you can use other chocolates – I have a variety of flavours on my blog that you can look at to give an idea! and this sounds like your oven is too hot – maybe lower the temp by 10-20c and see if that helps by baking for a little longer instead!
Hay Jane!
I’m dying to make these ones for a very long time now
I live in Israel and unfortunately I couldn’t find light brown sugar in here 🙁
Do you have a suggestion what can I change it for?
I would use all white granulated!
Hi I’ve just put these in the oven and forgot to add the bicarbonate will it make much difference? X
It will change the texture and end result slightly, but should still be tasty! x
Hey, I have a 30×20 rectangular tin, what baking time would you recommend? Thanks! X
Hiya! It might be about the same – the tin is slightly bigger but also a different shape so I’m not certain!
First time making cookie bars and these were absolutely delicious! I’ve already made more cookie bars because they were so good haha
Hi Jane, I’m going to try these for the first time. I have a 10″ X 9″ square tin, I know its only an inch but wanted to check if this would be suitable and will I need to change the cooking time? Thanks! X
It should be okay for that size tin, but may take slightly less time as it will be thinner!
I tried this and it was amaaazing but my tins are slightly bigger 9×13 inch and so it was a little thin, any advice on how to alter the recipe to get a thicker cookie bar with this size tin? Thanks in advance I love your recipes
I would use 1.5x the recipe! x
Hi how would the baking time and oven temp change when using a 12 x 8 tin please?
Thank you,
Sophie
The temp should be the same – timings will increase but not too much longer, maybe 4-5 minutes?
hello, is corn flour granulated or refined?
In the UK we just have cornflour – it’s known as cornstarch in the US for example and is a fine powder just like regular flour.. I’ve never heard of it as granulated or refined!
I made these last night and they were amazing!
Hi Jane,
So I did this recipe earlier today but my tin was slightly smaller than you recommended so it was a little undercooked (still edible mind😁). Is this because I used a smaller tin?
I did put them in for a bit longer and covered them in foil towards the end but when cutting them some bits looked a little raw.
They do taste amazing though! Xx
Yes it will be – the volume difference between tins can vary greatly so it will take longer to bake!
Hi
I baked these exactly as your recipe states and like your other recipes I’ve tried, they turned out bloody delicious. Do you have any tips on being able to cut them into neat squares please? Mine cut super roughly around the edges. Would love for them to look sharp like yours
I use a large sharp knife – for example the tray is 9″ square, and I use a 10″ knife so it cuts straight down!