Congo Squares.  The cookies of my childhood!  When I made them a few weeks ago after going at least 15 years without them, it took me right back to being 10 years old.  My mom cooked every day, but it wasn’t something she necessarily loved to do…and she didn’t like spending extra time making drop cookies, so these were our go-to treats as kids.  It’s so easy to just dump it all in a pan and bake everything at once!  Not only that, but everyone loves these.  Moist and chewy and just plain delicious!  Congo Squares are one of my all-time favorite cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup additional chocolate chips to sprinkle on top
• 1 cup nuts, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a rimmed cookie sheet.
2. Cream the butter, oil and sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.
4. Add the flour, baking powder & salt and combine.
5. Stir in chocolate chips
6. Spread into prepared cookie sheet.
7. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.  Cool & cut into squares.

Notes:

• I never add nuts because some of my kids are allergic to them.  They are great either way.
• I like a mixture of milk chocolate and semi-sweet.  You can add all one variety.
• I grease my pans with coconut oil.  I stopped using Pam a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back.
• I use an old, beat up cookie sheet…then I don’t feel bad about cutting them right in the pan.  If you don’t have a pan you want to cut, line it with parchment and then just lift the whole thing right out before cutting.

Follow me on  Pinterest  //  Facebook  //  Instagram  //  Twitter And if that wasn’t sweet enough, now’s your chance to win an ice cream maker!!  Because what better way is there to enjoy a chewy, delicious cookie than with a big scoop of rich and creamy ice cream?  We just had both of our families (my family and my husband’s) over for dinner, and for dessert we had Congo Squares topped with an assortment of homemade ice creams.  It was heavenly!  Everyone was pretty excited about it, and I can’t say that I blame them.  It was the perfect way to end a fun meal.  My brother said that we should really have family dinner more often! And since nothing screams summer like ice cream, I’ve teamed up with 7 other bloggers to give one of you this fantastic Cuisinart ice cream maker!

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Thanks for entering!  And just in case you don’t win this time, be sure to check out the No-Churn Ice Cream recipes that I’ve just posted (with more to come)!