No matter how you layer them, these classic Magic Cookie Bars are addictive. Most often they are layered with a graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and sometimes butterscotch, or even a combination of them, coconut and nuts.
Original Magic Bar
If you Google looking for 7 Layer Bar recipes, most of what you will find are bars listing these five basic layers - though many do also add another layer of butterscotch chips - yet they all seem to count the graham crackers and butter as individual layers.
Some recipes do melt the butter, and then simply pour the graham crackers on top, rather than mixing and pressing them in, so I guess that's one way to consider them separate layers. Others layer the bars differently, adding the coconut right on top of the graham crackers, some chips and then the coconut, and pouring the sweetened condensed cream on the very top. I really don't think that the order of the layers much matters to be honest.
At any rate, this recipe is the one that I believe to be the original Magic Bar recipe, of which that 7 Layer Bar recipe was apparently birthed. Far as I know, the bars made their debut as Magic Bars on the Eagle brand condensed milk label sometime in the early 1960s, so it is another retro recipe that has been around for many years and has definitely become a holiday tradition, with a multitude of variations.
There are some vintage recipes that call for a cornflake cereal crust, apparently coming along sometime in the 70s, but there are disputes, as always, as to which actually came first, graham crackers or cornflakes. Somebody will argue both sides I assure you. The solution is real simple. Use the one you prefer! The measurement is exactly the same.
No matter the crust you choose, or how you layer them, a graham cracker and butter crust makes the first layer, topped with sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, or a mixture of butterscotch and chocolate chips, a layer of coconut, finished off with pecans, and then baked. Truly, anything after that is just lagniappe for a bar that is already just dreamy.
Everyone seems to layer these differently, so it can make for a sticky cookie bar. A layer of aluminum foil or parchment paper in the bottom of the pan is helpful.
I found that a lot of people know these Hello Dollies, a name that appears to have come from a 1965 magazine called "The Week" that featured a recipe submitted by young 11-year old Alecia Leigh Couch of Dallas, Texas, called Hello Dolly Cake, that contained these same basic five ingredients. Alecia said that the recipe was from her grandma, though it appears that an Oklahoma newspaper had earlier that same year, already published Hello dolly Cookies, with similar ingredients.1
The recipe is also known by a number of other names beside 7-Layer Bars, including 7-Layer Cookies, Chewy Delights, Chocolate Graham Squares, Graham Chips Squares, Washington Cookies, and of course, Magic Bars, and carries a multitude of variations now. Make the white chocolate variation with dried cranberries for Christmas and drizzle the top with raspberry jam.
I have tried a variety of other people's ways of making these, including using foil (it stuck), pouring the condensed milk over the top of everything instead of the crust (crust didn't set, completely changed the texture of the bars as they were too messy and gooey) and I just find that the way I originally made them to be the best way. They are rich, so serve in smaller cuts!
What variations do you love?
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