#23: Magic Bars

In honor of the new, and LAST (*tear*) Harry Potter movie coming out this week, I wanted to make a cookie bar that my mom used to make for Christmas every year- MAGIC BARS! Although I usually hear this bar being called six-layer bars, the name was INCREDIBLY fitting for said events, PLUS the taste is truly magical, no joke. I have made this bar before using a pre-packaged bake set sold by those condensed milk people, but I was determined to find a homemade version. And luckily for you, I did.

#23: Magic Bars (as found in the Wild Strawberry Lodge Seafood and Dessert Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

3 cups graham cracker crumbs

28 ounces sweetened condensed milk

2 cups butterscotch chips

2 cups chocolate chips

2 2/3 cups coconut

2 cups pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line pan with tin foil. 

      - Problem #1 I had with this recipe, NO TIN FOIL. Remind me to buy Stephen tin foil sometime.

2. Place butter in pan and melt in oven. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over melted butter. Mix and pat down evenly.

     - Problem #2, I had no idea what size pan to use, so I used the only pan the boys had, a 9x13 baking pan, which worked out fine.

     - Problem #3, Okay, this recipe calls for WAY too much butter, and too few cups of graham cracker crumbs. Seriously, the bottom of the pan was SWIMMING with butter. I think PART of the problem might've been that instead of buying pre-crushed crumbs, I tried to crush my own with some graham crackers Stephen and I had left over from a smores night we had had. Bad move. I am IMPATIENT, so I didn't crush for quite as long as I probably should have. Needless to say, I had some pretty large crumbs sitting at the bottom of the pan, which allowed the butter to seep up into the bars. Lesson learned. Patience is a virtue.

3.Pour milk evenly over crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients listed in order. Press down firmly with fork. Bake for 25 minutes.

     - Problem #4, 25 minutes? More like 45. Seriously. I thought the middle of the bars would NEVER bake properly. Plus, when I took the bars out of the oven, they were first of all, stuck to the sides of the pan, second of all, way too gooey in the middle. We popped the entire pan into the freezer to let the bars set, and the results were DELICIOUS the next afternoon, although maybe a little hard to slice.

Lesson learned- buy tin foil. But these babies are awesome. Gone in a day (thank you IT boys for taking them off my hands so they don't go straight to my thighs!) LIKE MAGIC! 

Are you checking out those layers?

 Evidently I got one of Stephen's coworkers to like coconut and pecans with these bars. His conversion is complete.

You can't imagine the amount of effort that went into trying to get these bars OUT of the pan. Insane.