Components
1 3/4 cups (honey or cinnamon*) graham cracker crumbs (about 8 graham crackers’ price)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup semi or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 levels. Butter a 9×13 inch baking pan. Put aside.
Soften butter in a small pan. Take away from warmth and stir in graham cracker crumbs till completely mixed. Press, utilizing the again of a spoon or the underside of a measuring cup into the underside of the buttered pan taking care to achieve all corners.
Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips, then the butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, coconut, and peanut over the graham cracker layer. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly excessive, and unfold with the again of a spoon or spatula till the combination is evenly coated.
Bake for 25-Half-hour till edges are golden brown and the bars look “set”.
Enable to chill on a wire rack fully earlier than slicing. This appears to take ceaselessly however resist the urge to chop them when they’re even remotely nonetheless heat. You possibly can refrigerate them earlier than slicing if you’re a clear traces fanatic. Retailer within the fridge or on a cool counter in an air-tight container. Freeze leftovers as much as 6 months if desired.
*I like honey finest however both work.
My ideas:
Bars like these have quite a lot of completely different names. 7-Layer Bars (for these, the butter is generally melted within the baking pan whereas preheating after which sprinkled with the graham cracker crumbs to type the primary and second layers), Magic Bars (I suppose as a result of it’s a bunch of layered stuff that “magically” makes a bar cookie?) and oddly, Whats up Dolly Bars after the Broadway play. I additionally heard “dream bars” from a reader commenting on my Instagram story after I was making them, upon googling they appear to be maybe a precursor to the 7-layer bar as a result of they require you to truly make a shortbread cookie vs. utilizing graham crackers which additionally sounds actually good. The recipes are all fairly comparable though can differ in what sort of chips to make use of and when to place within the sweetened condensed milk. Loads of recipes name for it on the graham cracker layer then every little thing else is plopped on prime however I opted to place it on final with the hope it might assist the coconut brown whereas nonetheless holding every little thing collectively and “defending” the chips from direct warmth.
I didn’t develop up consuming these, I believe they’re much extra of a midwest factor, the events I went to all had black bottoms, drop cookies and brownies (and birthday cake if relevant) not bar cookies however I’ve examine them so many occasions I felt like I’ve had them. I can see why they’re common, they’re quite simple and could be made with components that most individuals in all probability have available or on the very least decide up simply at any retailer. They might be so fast to make for a final minute event or weeknight deal with.
I took my inspiration from the basic again of the can recipe however actually made it my very own–a bit extra graham cracker crumbs so the pan is simpler to coat, a mixture of butterscotch and peanut butter chips, utilizing bittersweet chocolate chips as a substitute of milk, honey roasted peanuts as a substitute of walnuts and I believe essentially the most genius swap up: utilizing unsweetened shredded coconut as a substitute of sweetened flaked coconut. The bars are so candy due to all of the chips and the sweetened condensed milk, the coconut actually doesn’t must be sweetened too! I’m blissful too that unsweetened coconut is a lot simpler to search out now (Harris Teater truly had a retailer model model!), I keep in mind again after I began Coconut & Lime I needed to observe it down at well being meals shops and South Asian groceries. Coconut is of course candy and quite a lot of recipes that decision for sweetened are so candy already, they don’t really want additional sugar.
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