Brownies and bars for when cookies feel like too much commitment

Bars and brownies are the lazier sibling of cookies, and they shouldn't apologise for it. One pan, one batter, twenty-five minutes in the oven, a week of slicing. The economics are unbeatable, and the texture range - fudgy, chewy, layered - is wider than the cookie format ever pretends to be.

Underbaking is the brownie technique you'll see professionals defend and home cooks fear. A toothpick that comes out with crumbs sticking to it is a brownie that will set into the fudgy texture you actually want. Wait until the toothpick comes out clean and you've baked a chocolate cake. The instinct to keep cooking is what ruins ninety percent of home brownies.

Lining the pan with parchment is the difference between sliceable bars and wrecked ones. Two strips, crossed, with overhang on both sides - when the bars cool, you lift the whole slab out and slice on a cutting board. The pan stays clean, the bars come out perfect, and you don't lose two corners to the spatula on the way out.

Cool completely before slicing. We say this every time and people ignore it every time. A warm brownie cuts like fudgy pudding; a cooled-then-slightly-rewarmed brownie cuts like a brownie. The wait is unfair but it's the only path to the corners looking like the photo.

These eight cover the full spectrum: dark fudgy brownies, blondies with peanut butter, lemon bars with a shortbread base, cheesecake-swirled brownies. Each one slices into 12-16 portions, lasts a week in an airtight tin, and makes a kitchen smell like the kind of place you'd want to live in.