Sniff Sniff - smells like...sabotage?

So along with a bunch of other wonderful goodies, Peter included these great chocolate chip cookie bars in a Christmas package last month. They were sooooo good! So I had him send me the recipe, and it turns out it's right off the back of the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips!

Craving more of these treats, I made up a batch after getting home today. If I didn't trust Peter, and if he hadn't sent a scanned copy of the recipe (I've seen also found it on their web site), I would've thought he'd sabotaged me! Mine look NOTHING like the treats he sent. To get them so they weren't gooey raw (and a toothpick pulled out clean), I had to bake them til the maximum time listed on the package - 30 minutes. And in doing that, they turned out very dark on top.

Now the recipe Peter sent called specifically for dark brown sugar (and I was a little concerned, but figured hey, good excuse to use some up - it's not called for in many recipes), whereas the recipe on Ghirardelli's site just lists brown sugar - no specification about light or dark.

So Peter - what's your secret? Only light brown sugar? Let them come out underdone because they'll keep cooking? User a lighter weight metal pan (this is the heavy duty Wilton-brand one Brett got me for Christmas - a REALLY nice match to another one he gave me awhile back). Did you use fairy magic? Well? What is it!? Is this like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where a certain secret ingredient was left out of a recipe passed down from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law? Could it be...SABOTAGE!?!?