Magic Cookie Bar Recipe | Life, Love and Sugar

Typically known as Seven Layer Bars (or Hi there Dolly Bars), this dessert has been round ceaselessly, and for a superb purpose. Made with seven of the very best dessert substances on the market, these magic cookie bars all the time make me consider that lyric from The Sound of Music, “These are a number of of my favourite issues.” The chocolate. The butterscotch. The pecans. The coconut! And the sweetened condensed milk holding all of it collectively? It’s nearly too good to be true! Plus, you get that basic graham cracker crust on the underside. So good.

Dessert bars like these and my Frosted Sugar Cookies Bars are so fast to fly off the dessert desk, they usually’re tremendous straightforward to throw collectively. Performed in below an hour (except for cooling time), they’re the right resolution for that last-minute candy tooth.

Why I Love This Magic Cookie Bar Recipe

Let me depend the methods! Listed here are a number of the greatest issues about this gloriously easy dessert bar recipe:

• A little bit little bit of every little thing. This recipe takes seven easy, well-loved substances and throws them collectively. The graham cracker crust out of your favourite cheesecake, the chocolate chips out of your favourite cookie, the coconut from these macaroons you crave…plus some. All of it in a single superior dessert!
• SO straightforward (and fast). Apart from mixing collectively the butter and graham cracker crumbs, all you must do for this recipe is layer the substances on prime of one another and bake. It doesn’t get a lot simpler! Plus, it solely takes 40 minutes (plus cooling time).
• Customizable. It’s tremendous straightforward to swap out most of the substances in these bars for an alternate that higher fits your style buds. Take a look at the submit under titled “Variation Concepts” for inspiration.

What You’ll Want

You’ll solely want seven substances for this magic cookie bar recipe, and right here they’re. Take a look on the recipe card under for actual measurements.

• Graham cracker crumbs – I like to recommend utilizing graham crackers and processing them into crumbs quite than utilizing store-bought crumbs, which may lack taste.
• Unsalted butter – Salted butter can also be an choice. It’ll break up the sweetness of this decadent dessert a bit. Unsalted is the extra basic alternative, although.
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – Milk chocolate or darkish chocolate chips will work simply as effectively.
• Butterscotch chips – Not a butterscotch individual? Strive white chocolate chips or peanut butter chips!
• Chopped pecans – I like the candy buttery taste of pecans, however you could possibly strive chopped macadamia nuts or chopped walnuts as an alternative.
• Shredded coconut – I favor sweetened shredded coconut right here, however unsweetened would even be high quality.
• Sweetened condensed milk – The sweetened condensed milk actually holds these bars collectively. Keep in mind that it’s not the identical as evaporated milk! Learn these labels!

Find out how to Make Magic Cookie Bars

Right here’s a fundamental overview of how one can make this magic cookie bar recipe. You’ll want to scroll to the recipe card under for extra detailed directions.

• Prep. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper (depart some overhang).

• Make the crust. Combine collectively the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter, after which press the combination into the underside of the pan.
• Layer. Sprinkle the chocolate and butterscotch chips over the crust, adopted by the nuts and coconut.

• Bake. Drizzle with sweetened condensed milk and bake for 25-Half-hour.
• Cool. Cool utterly, take away from the pan, and reduce into squares.

Suggestions for Success

This recipe is just about so simple as it will get. That being stated, I do have some suggestions that’ll show you how to get the outcomes you’re searching for:

• A be aware on parchment paper. I extremely suggest leaving just a little overhang on the parchment paper you employ to line the pan. When the bars are completed baking, you should use that overhang to raise them out of the pan. Really easy!
• Even distribution. Make certain to rigorously distribute every ingredient (layer) excessive of the dessert. You need a few of every little thing in every chew.
• Add condensed milk final. Some individuals add the sweetened condensed milk first, then the toppings. Others do as I do and add the toppings then the milk. When you may go both means, the toppings keep in place higher in the event you add the milk final.
• Cool utterly. Enable the bars to chill utterly earlier than lifting them from the pan and chopping them into squares. If they’re too heat/melty, you’ll find yourself with a multitude.

Variation Concepts

This recipe is uber-flexible, with numerous substitutions for each layer out there to you. Listed here are some concepts:

• Strive a special crust. As a substitute of a graham cracker crust, contemplate a Nilla wafer crust or an Oreo crust.
• Totally different chips. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, however you could possibly simply swap one or the opposite for white chocolate chips, darkish chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and even peanut butter chips!
• Nut swap. I’ll generally use macadamia nuts as an alternative of pecans right here. They go so effectively with the shredded coconut!

Find out how to Retailer

• Storage. Seal the bars in an hermetic container and retailer them within the fridge for as much as 1 week. You possibly can additionally retailer them at room temperature for a number of days (as much as 5).
• Freezer. Retailer the leftover bars in an hermetic, freezer-safe container. In any other case, wrap particular person bars in a double layer of plastic wrap. Both means, they’ll hold within the freezer for as much as 3 months. Enable the magic cookie bars to thaw within the fridge earlier than having fun with.

Extra Cookie Bar Recipes

Cookie bars have all the time been a success in my home. To me, they’re simpler than cookies and simply as satisfying. Listed here are another favorites so that you can strive: