Magic Cookie Bars

Layers of chocolate, coconut and nuts with sweetened condensed milk and graham cracker crumbs. Sounds good doesn’t it?

This is one those easy favorites anyone can make. There’s recipes all over the net and you can even buy a kit from the grocery store by Eagle Brand (they’re the ones who make sweetened condensed milk.) I definitely had graham cracker crumbs left over from my fanatical cheesecake baking a few months ago. But I was out of sweetened condensed milk. Yet strangely, I had all the ingredients to make homemade sweetened condensed milk, so that’s what I used.

I just added the graham cracker crumbs with the butter and pressed them down to form a good, solid crust. And then I just layered the sweetened condensed milk, the chocolate chips, coconut and nuts on top, and that was it.

The coconut gained even more flavor from baking and they turned into a great crunchy topping. You’ll definitely need a plate because the coconut does fall off fairly easily.

Make sure you have a house full of kids or some company so they can disappear quickly. Maybe it’s just my sweet tooth but I have a tendency to eat all the treats I make by myself. As a kid I could easily eat 3 to 4 candy bars a day. By 18, I was out on my own and rarely ate a candy bar. Nowadays I’ve moved from the candy bar to fattening treats. What could go wrong?

Printable Version

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds because they were on hand.)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13x9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.

Variations

Substitute 1 cup (6-ounces) butterscotch flavored chips* for 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and proceed as directed above.

From Eagle Brand 

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