Magic Cookie Bars
What says "Christmas" more than cookies? Probably a lot of things. But for today, we're going to ignore all those other things and say that cookies win. This is my first cookie-baking weekend of the holiday season! I like to spread out my baking so that Evan and I get to enjoy baked treats throughout the whole month of December. This weekend, I made Magic Cookie Bars!
Magic Cookie Bars are something that most people (at least in the U.S.) are probably familiar with, even if you don't call them by that name. I think the original recipe was actually an Eagle brand recipe – the company that makes sweetened condensed milk. These are those bars made with a graham cracker crust, with chocolate chips and nuts piled on top along with sweetened condensed milk (in case you didn't already assume that). They're easy and hard to beat.
I actually make these a little differently now that I'm married and my husband doesn't like flaked coconut (WYD EVAN?!??), so I'll provide both options below for y'all to consider. The way I make these doesn't include coconut, and the original recipe does. Personally, I like the original recipe best, but I love my husband more, so here we are, sans-coconut. These bars would be fine with just chocolate chips and pecans for the topping, but personally I think it's better if you have one more flavor in there to round things out. So instead of coconut, I've taken to adding some peanut butter chips. Last year, I realized that most every form of sweet or cookie I make around the holidays has a chocolate-PB combo somehow, but it's one year later and I haven't really changed much. Whoops! Sorry if I have any readers who are allergic to nuts.
Feel free to get creative with the toppings here – Magic Bars are so simple to make that if you mess up, you really won't have wasted much time or effort. And I have a feeling that you won't mess up, because what could you put in these that wouldn't be good? For the nuts, I prefer pecans, but you could do walnuts or maybe even sliced almonds! And I like peanut butter chips best, but you could do butterscotch or white chocolate instead. My mom has even used those red-and-green colored chips in these around the holidays! Whatever your tastes, you can tweak these to fit them.
MAGIC COOKIE BARS
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
½ cup butter
1 ½ cup honey graham cracker crumbs
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)
6 - 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
3 ½ oz flaked coconut (half a standard bag)
OR 6 oz peanut butter chips
OR 6 oz butterscotch chips
OR a combination of the above
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the stick of butter in a 9x13 pan, and place in the oven until the butter has just about melted. Remove from the oven, and let the butter finish melting.
If you're starting with whole graham crackers, place one packet into a thick ziploc, and use a rolling pin to crush them. I've found that one of the three packets you get in a standard box is just the right amount for these.
Pour the graham cracker crumbs over the melted butter, and gently press down all over the pan. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the graham cracker crust as evenly as you're able. Top with the remaining ingredients (chocolate chips, nuts, and other toppings of choice). I like to use peanut butter chips for my last topping, but coconut is the traditional choice.
Very very gently, press the toppings into the sweetened condensed milk. Bake for 25 minutes, more or less. Start checking them around 20 minutes to make sure you don't overbake them! Wait until they're completely cool to cut.
Happy Eating,
Natalie