Blondies

Just when you thought I was done with the ooey, gooey bar recipes…

I’ve had this recipe for awhile… Cookie Baker Lynn's blog is one of my favorite blogs to check out. I have bookmarked a bunch of her tasty looking recipes, but this is the first that I’ve gotten around to making. The first and not the last, I might add.

Blondies… I realize that the toffee bar recipe I made last week is named a blondie. But, it’s technically not. No, it’s not really cakey or brownie-like (well, maybe it was supposed to be, I just didn’t cook it enough). This is what a real blondie is. Rich, buttery flavor with the sturdy-ness of a brownie. (I mean, isn’t a blondie just a brownie without chocolate?).

These blondies are absolutely delicious! I honestly don’t feel the need to ever try another blondie recipe again.

Again, I underbaked these… I’m beginning to think it has to do with my oddly sized 7x9 inch glass dish that I’ve been using. But, honestly.. that’s fine with me… I can always use some gooeyness with my blondies.

Make these blondies if you are in the need of a comforting sugar fix and want something other than chocolate. You won’t be disappointed.

(Recipe linked above).

Chocolate Coconut Dream Bars

Boo - Ya. Look at me. I think this is the first week ever that I've posted every day Monday-Friday. After this week, you may not see me for about a month while instead of spending time baking, I'll be spending time running my ass off to burn all these calories. Literally.

I kid, I kid. (Well, about the not baking part, at least).

Today, I bring you... another bar recipe. But, this isn't your typical bar recipe. And by typical bar recipe I mean: get a bowl out, throw a bunch of stuff in it, whiz it around with the hand mixer, plop it into a pan, and bake it. The end. Thats my typical bar recipe.

This recipe is a little more involved (not much). You make a simple crust, bake it off and then add the filling and bake it again. Easy, just requires that extra baking step. Unfortunately for me, I forgot the salt. And some of you may think... oh, big deal, she forgot the salt. But it is a big deal. It is a huge deal. When I took the first bite, I immediately realized I forgot the salt. I used to always skip salt in recipes... but, it really does make a difference. It makes the sweet flavor pop or whatever. I can't describe, just don't ever leave out the salt, ok?

At first, I wasn't too crazy about this recipe.

But, now, after eating almost the entire half batch I made... I like it. It's very chocolatey. The coconut adds some good texture and flavor. And the crust is sturdy and crunchy. But not too crunchy.

Coconut Dream Bars

Toffee Pecan Blondies

Sometimes… sometimes you just get that craving for something gooey, chocolatey and sweet. I get this craving most… when I watch Russell Crowe (dressed in 1970s attire, no less) strut his stuff as a tough, womanizing cop/attorney. So… it goes without saying… that after watching American Gangster… I was ready for some gooey, chocolatey, sweet stuff. I dunno… it probably had more to do with hormones than with Russell Crowe, but whatever.

The thing is… when I get this craving… not just any ole thing will do. No…. for this particular craving, it typically has to be in bar form. And it always has to be easy, because I’m lazy and unmotivated when I’m dealing with a craving.

This Recipe fit the bill. It took me a long time to find it. Actually, now that I think about it… I should just set up a separate tabs in my recipe collection based on these cravings… there would be a Daniel Craig tab (all things brownie-ish and substantial), an Edward Norton tab (all things creamy and decadent), and.. an Eric Bana tab (yummy salty and peanut buttery things). Okay, enough with the man tabs (but... it is an idea).

So, this recipe was very gooey (I definitely underbaked these bars) and really sweet. I added the optional chocolate chips in the recipe (of course). But, I found that the toffee bits were just kind of wasted in the recipe. I didn’t really get any flavor from them. I don’t know, maybe they melted in and contributed, but I think next time, I might swap something else out for the toffee bits. Something like butterscotch chips, or more chocolate chips.

Praline Butter Bars

About a month ago, I blogged about some extraordinary bars that my friend Steph brought me one day. They were called Praline Butter Bars and she bought them at Whole Foods. One of the first things she said to me after I took my first bite was... we've got to learn how to make these!

I was fairly sure that I could do the top layers no problem.. it was the crust that I was nervous about. It was SUPER buttery and moist. I came across a recipe for Caramel Butter Bars on a blog. The recipe was written by Jill O'Connor and is in her book: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth. I decided it was now time to attempt to copycat the Praline Butter Bars using this crust and the filling and topping from Paula Deens Low Country Bars.

I decided to put all this together this weekend and see if I could get close to the original Praline Butter Bars. And I was very pleasantly surprised when this first experiment pretty much nailed the recipe. The only difference is the filling and topping are reversed. In the original Praline Butter Bars... the white is the filling and its thicker, while the praline part is a thinner topping. But, I don't really mind it being reversed.

The picture was taken with the bar sitting out at room temperature for awhile. Normally the white topping is firmer.

These were great and I don't really think I'm going to need to experiment anymore with them.

Praline Butter Bars

For the crust:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

For the filling:
12 tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup coconut, optional
2 cups graham cracker crumbs

For the topping:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp butter, softened
3 tbsp milk

Spray a 13x9 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.

To prepare the crust:
Preheat oven to 325.
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Using an electric mixer mix at medium speed and beat together till creamy. Add the vanilla and salt and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter mixture adn beat on low speed until smooth and soft.

Press the dough evenly in the bottom of the pan and slide into the oven for 20-25 minutes. Until dough is soft, but lightly puffed. It doesn't need to change color. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To prepare the filling:
Measure your nuts, graham cracker crumbs and coconut (if using) and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat and add sugar. Beat the egg with the milk together in a prep bowl and then pour into the dissolved sugar and butter mixture. Stirring constantly (to keep the eggs from scrambling), turn the heat up a little and stir until mixture comes to a bowl. Remove from heat and add the graham cracker, nuts, and coconut. Stir to combine and pour and spread over the crust.

To prepare the topping:
Beat all ingredients together and spread over the filling.

Chill the bars and allow them to set up before cutting into squares.

Recipe adapted from Jill O'Connor Caramel Butter Bars and Paula Deen's Low Country Bars.

Surfer Bars

I love love love a good bar cookie. Soft and chewy, sweet and easy to make. And these bars did not disappoint. I've had this recipe printed out for awhile now, but I never had mini marshmellows on hand, so I wasn't able to make them. Luckily, last weekend when I was in the grocery store, I actually remembered these bars and picked up a bag.

These bars are delicious. I'm not sure why they are called surfer bars, I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't because they are so high in calories that only surfers will burn the calories, but I have a sneaking suspicion that that could be the case. Eek.

I didn't have butterscotch chips on hand, so I actually used peanut butter chips instead and they came out beautifully. I will definitely be making these cookies again. But, hopefully when I do, there will be other people around to help me eat them.

Surfer Bars

S'mores Bars

So, I’ve been eyeing this recipe for awhile now. I saw it a long time ago on Anna's Blog and I printed the recipe awaiting the perfect time to whip these up.

Unfortunately, it took about 6 months for the perfect time to roll around. I made them Thursday night to take to the Bachelorette Weekend honoring my friend Leigh. Who doesn’t love s’mores?

A funny story about this recipe from this weekend... Everyone who knows me… knows about my blogs. But, most of the girls that were at the bachelorette weekend, I either didn’t know at all, or just barely knew. So, on Saturday night, when I passed my camera over to a couple of the girls so they could review the pics from the weekend, I didn’t even think about the 40+ pictures of the s’mores bars that I had taken Friday morning that were still on my camera. That is until I noticed them surfing through the pics and then looking at each other funny, giggling and whispering to each other.

Crap, I thought. Now, they are going to think I have some weird food fetish or something. So, I tried to yell over the loud music at the bar… “I HAVE A BAKING BLOG, THOSE PICTURES ARE FOR MY BLOG, I’M NOT INTO FOOD PORNOGRAPHY.” Which, I think probably made me sound even weirder.

Whatever. They were excellent and the perfect pot luck crowd pleaser. They will definitely be made again.

Here’s the recipe . I doubled it to make a 9x13 inch pan.

I do have one suggestion. Line your baking dish with parchment paper or quick release foil, so that you can remove the bars by the parchment paper or foil and then cut them into squares. Also, I refrigerated the bars overnight before I cut them.

So much easier than building a campfire.

Caramel Oatmeal Chewies

I've had this recipe for a long time. But it called for an ingredient that I never have and never remember to buy: Caramel ice cream topping. Fortunately, I had some leftover from the caramel cake caramel cake I made the weekend before, so I was in business.

Now, you read this recipe and you think... what's not to love? Caramel, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chips? I mean, that's like the holy trinity of baking goodness, right? (Actually, I could probably think of about 15 other triple combinations that could vy for the holy trinity, but we won't get into that now). They came together pretty easily and I was excited to taste them. But, honestly, they weren't that spectacular. I didn't really think that they had much of a flavor at all. Bland and almost generic. They kind of taste like a cookie you'd get from the bakery of a big chain grocery store. You know what I'm talking about?

I have a feeling that maybe I used the wrong caramel. I used the squirtable caramel, not the kind that comes in a jar. Maybe there is a difference there. I'm sure that real caramel would have worked better, but, I honestly probably won't try this again to find out.

On a side note, my mom really liked them. So, I don't know... maybe I'm just too picky.

Savannah Cheesecake Squares

Yup, another Paula Deen recipe. I know, I should be cut off, but she makes such yummy, easy desserts! It's hard to say no!

This is what I made for Christmas at my Grandma's House. It's always an issue to figure out what to make to take there. Obviously, I want to take pictures and blog about the dessert. And that's fairly easy to do when you're only making 4-5 people wait on you (like in my immediate family gatherings) to take 31 pictures of your dessert, but when you've got 25+ people gearing up to hit the dessert line, it's a little harder to snap so many photos. So, I got smart this time. I decided to make a bar cookie. That way, I could cut them out, take pictures of them at home and then transport them to grandma's. Perfect!

These are good. Not WOW good. But, good. I opted to eat other things on the dessert table... pecan pie, white chocolate covered peanut butter cracker sandwiches (mmmmm.. I gotta make those), brownies. But, I did eat one of these while I was cutting them and plating them and they are good, rich cheesecake bars. I think they need a little more pizazz. Like some chocolate chips or nuts or fruit or something. But good for times when you just need something basic and creamy.

I did get a few compliments on them though... and they were even competing against a whole other cheesecake on the buffet line!

Savannah Cheesecake Squares

(What makes these "savannah" cheesecake squares instead of just regular cheesecake squares, I have no idea. I guess Savannah just sounds better).

RazMaTazz Bars

Sometimes… things just don’t go the way you hoped they would.

This weekend, I tried to get a head start on baking for my parents big Christmas party.

80+ people = lots of preparation.

Preliminarily, my mom and I decided to make Wanda's Rich & Dark Brownies , Hidden Kisses (a paula deen cookie recipe that I’ve made before), and we wanted a fruit cookie, so we first decided to try Raspberry Bars (also called RazMaTazz Bars).

So, Friday afternoon, after helping my mom to put up the main Christmas tree in the house, I decided to give the RazMaTazz Bars a try.

They came together fairly easily… raspberry jam and white chocolate, how can you go wrong, right??

Well… you can overcook them.

And it’s not that I wasn’t watching them, because I was! I was checking them like every 5 minutes, but I didn’t really know how they were supposed to look on top. And so, they were way overcooked. Not burned. But dry and overcooked. Also, I felt like they weren’t sufficiently raspberry enough. I doubled the recipe and made them in a 13x 9 pan.

They were okay, but I’m not sure that they would wow me, even if they weren’t overcooked. But, I think I’ve decided to give them another try. Because, they would look really festive and a bar cookie is so much easier to make for a party.

More cooking failures from this weekend to come…

RazMaTazz Bars Recipe

Paula Deen's Brown Sugar Chewies

If I was stranded on a deserted island but I could have a shipment of candy bars magically float onto the island every week, with the catch that it would have to be the same candy bar for eternity.. I would have no problems choosing my candy bar.

Snickers.

I often flirt with other candy bars… almond joys, reese cups, m&ms, skor…. But I always end up with my trust snickers bar. It’s the nougat, I think. Oh and the caramel, and don’t forget the peanuts!

When I was a kid, I had a particular way of eating every candy bar. I deconstructed them. Always. So, with a snickers bar, I’d eat all the chocolate off, then the nougat and lastly I’d eat the chewy peanuts with caramel. It wasn’t until I was about 19 when, for whatever reason, I ate the snickers regular and I thought to myself….. hmmm.. who knew the layers tasted better all together than they do separately (I guess everyone probably knew this)??? It was like I’d discovered a whole new candy bar.

So, my love for snickers means I bought about 13 pounds of snickers when I was buying up all the Halloween candy and then realized… umm.. there really isn’t much you can do with snickers besides eat them (which, I’ve done plenty of in past weeks).

After the success of the congo bars… I was still craving something rich and gooey and bar-like. So, I tried this recipe from Paula Deen.

And these hit the spot pretty well, although I think I prefer the congo bar recipe. (maybe I should have added 3 times the butter to this recipe, too). I chopped up a ton of snickers bars and added them to the batter before I poured it in the dish and I think that the caramel from the snickers got a little burned, because there was a strange dark molasses-y type of flavor to these. But they were good, but they weren’t congo bars. Which reminds me.. I need to try congo bars with the right measurements, don’t I? Hmmm..

Congo Bars

I failed algebra 2 my junior year of high school. To be fair, out of the 32 people in that class… 17 of us failed. (Sad that I still remember that stat, huh? Obviously, It’s an important detail to remember… it wasn’t just me!). It wasn’t that I skipped class or didn’t do my homework, it’s that I just couldn’t grasp the material in the way that Ms. Merritt taught it (me and 17 other folks, remember?). It was a big deal. It’s the only class I’ve ever failed and it messed my schedule up for the next year… I would have to take algebra 2 again and not take Latin 4. This was not an option. So I opted to take algebra 2 in night school across town. And I aced it that time around. Me and the dropouts, druggies, and new mothers. That’s a whole OTHER story.

It’s not that I’m not good at math. It’s that I’m not good at math tests. At least, this is what I’ve always told myself (and my teachers). But, I ended up graduating high school and then college and have made it as an accountant for a few years now, so I guess my math isn’t all that bad. But last night, I found myself struggling, feeling as math retarded as I did back in high school.

I found this recipe for congo bars and they sounded delicious. I was in the mood for something really sweet and a bar cookie was the answer. Since I’m only cooking for me these days, I always halve my recipes. Well, I start to get the ingredients out and imagine my horror when I read the first three ingredients and their measurements:

2/3 cup of Butter
1 lb of Brown Sugar
3 eggs

I looked at the wrapper of my butter stick, expecting to see how many tablespoons make up 2/3 cup. But the only measurement on it was.. ½ cup= 8 tbsps. Ok, ok, I can do this… I started to think about the fractions involved… 1 cup of butter is 16 tbsps. So, 2/3 cup of butter would be… 12? No. 14? No. Wait… 2/3 cup is how many tbsps? It’s like my brain registered that I was doing math and then immediately clocked out for lunch and said… you’re on your own this time. So, I pulled out a pen and started doing the division. 16 divided by 3 is about 5.3…. so, I needed about 10.6 tbsps of butter for the whole recipe, so I need 5.3 tbsps for a half recipe. Sounds easy, right? Well, it took me about 15 minutes to figure this out. (seriously).

Okay, okay, confession time… Honestly… I didn’t pull the pen out and try to figure this out on paper. I actually tried to do this in my head (big mistake) and ended up somehow thinking that 12 tbsps was what I needed and threw that into my pot. Only now, as I type this, am I realizing that I added 7 tbsps too many. (No wonder it took it like 20 extra minutes to cook and it’s still very gooey!).

The brown sugar, luckily wasn’t as hard… I knew that 1 lb is 16 oz and half of that is 8 oz which is a cup. Woo hoo. (I was very proud of myself for figuring that out). And for the eggs.. I just went ahead and used 2.

So, aside from the fact that I had to cook these like 20 minutes longer than it said (duh), these cookies are awesome. They are really sweet and gooey (maybe adding 7 extra tbsps of butter is a good thing) and really easy for people that can do simple math.

I skipped the chocolate chips and the walnuts and opted to use my Halloween M&Ms and Reese Pieces.

Lesson learned… keep a calculator in your kitchen.

Low Country Bars

Ok, usually, I can make a batch of cookies and get away with eating 2-3 of them before I’m sick of them. (When I say 2-3, I’m of course not including the additional 2-3 cookies worth of cookie dough that I’ve scarfed down as well…but those calories don’t count… cause it’s raw, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought).

But these cookies… these simple, sugary bits of goodness are like crack. They should actually be called Crack Cookies. Because once you taste them you know you are headed towards an all day sugar headache.

I’ve made them twice before… once as a test run and then again for my friend April’s Bridal Shower. And each time, I ate so many that I actually went into a diabetic coma and woke up 4 days later with the icing crusted around my finger tips and my name on the pancreas donor waiting list. It’s bad. Very Bad. They are really sweet though, some people might think they are too sweet. (As if anything could ever be too sweet. Hmph).

What I’m saying folks… is that these cookies should come with a warning label. Proceed with caution…

This is another recipe from Paula Deen. God Bless Her.

I don’t like the way she wrote the instructions for this recipe, so I’ve changed them to make it easier to follow:

Low Country Bars (or as I like to call them Sugar High Bars).

Filling:
1 14.4 ounce box of Graham Crackers *You wont use whole box
¾ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup pecan pieces
½ cup milk
1 egg

Topping:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3 tablespoons milk

First, line the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking dish with graham crackers (I usually use 7 whole graham crackers for both the top and bottom.

Crush one cup worth of graham crackers into crumbs and place in a bowl, add pecans and coconut to bowl and set aside.

Measure your ½ cup of milk into a bowl and crack egg into the bowl and gently mix together; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add sugar. Stirring constantly (so as not to scramble the egg) add the milk and egg mixture to the pan and bring all to a bowl while you stir constantly. This takes about 10 minutes, because you want to start out a lowish heat and then work your way up (again, so as not to scramble the egg… you could also temper the egg mixture before you add it in, if you like, but I usually don’t).

Once boiling, take off the heat and add the pecans, graham crackers and coconut. Stir to mix well, then pour over the graham crackers in the pan and spread evenly. Top with another layer of graham crackers.

Prepare your icing: Combine all icing ingredients and stir well. You want it to be thick but spreadable. Add extra milk if you need to thin it out. Pour on top and smooth over the whole pan. Chill and cut and serve.

They taste great both chilled and at room temperature, but for storing you need to keep them in the fridge.

Whatchamacallit (basically, a scotcheroo)

I left work last night at 6:30 and didn't get home till around 7:30. There were two accidents on my way home. This is a pretty stressful time at work. October 15th is our second biggest tax filing deadline (well, maybe third... March 15, might be the second). Monday night when I get home from work, I'll be a happy camper.

So, last night, I was craving something sweet, but it had to be something easy. So, I opted to make Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats. As I was stirring the sugar on the stovetop, I started to think about a butterscotch and chocolate topping that I saw for one of the peanut butter rice krispie treats recipes... and so I decided to melt some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to pour on top, sort of like an icing (but better). I ate a couple last night while they were still gooey and warm (YUM), and then also again this morning, after they had firmed up. They remind me so much of a whatchamacallit candy bar, that I've decided to change the name. I'm calling them whatchamacallits.

These are so freaking simple, take about 10 minutes and are so delicious.

Whatchamacallits

This is half batch, I put in an 8x8 square pan.

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Measure out the rice krispies in a large bowl, set aside.

Combine brown sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat till mixture begins to bubble on top.

Take off heat and stir in peanut butter.

Add mixture to the rice krispies and stir until all the krispies are coated, then pour into an 8x8 greased dish. Smooth over with spatula and press down kind of firmly into pan. Set aside.

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together in the microwave slowly until melted. (Make sure you check on it every few seconds, to keep it from burning). Stir chips together well and then pour onto the rice krispies and spread over like icing.

It will take the icing awhile to set up, but it eventually did (overnight).

Enjoy.

Butter Pecan Turtle Bars

So, this is the last of the recipes from the baking date! And it is yummy!! And fairly simple, actually.

I kept calling these cookies, toffee cookies. And I think that would actually be a better name for them, because they are crunchy like toffee... not caramel-y gooey like turtles are.

I found this recipe here and was pleasantly surprised when my bars came out looking almost exactly like theirs! Woo Hoo. Usually my creations turn out looking like the poor, forgotten step child of the originals.

I will definitely be making these again. They hit the sweet tooth trifecta... chocolatey, crunchy yet soft crust, and buttery nut goodness.

M&M Dream Bars

I absolutely love candy bars. All candy bars. It's the experience. It's the shiny wrappers and picking one from from a rack of 10s of them... trying to decide if I'm in the mood for a snickers bar, m&ms (and if so... peanut, regular or peanut butter), reese peanut butter cups, whatchamacallit, and the list goes on and on...

I've been searching for a recipe for m&m cookies. I always got the feeling that the actual cookie part was different than just making chocolate chip cookies and using m&ms instead. Although, now, after some research, I think thats exactly how you make them. But, in my search for a specific m&m cookie recipe, I found this recipe for m&m dream bars.

They are delicious! Addictive, in fact. They are pretty crumbly on top, which makes them very messy to eat, but worth the mess. Trust me.
The only thing I hate are blue m&ms. There is something so non-appetizing about bright blue m&ms.

Also: April, if you are reading this.... I'm going to save you some grief here cause I know you won't read the recipe all the way through... You have to reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crust to use on the top at the end!

Lemon Bars (that aren't lemon-y).

I really enjoy the tart flavor of lemon and lime. My mom used to make my grandma a lemon bundt cake every year with a lemon glaze for her birthday. YUM. It was a favorite of mine.

So, the other day, I was browsing some lemon bar recipes and came across this one. It had good reviews, so I decided to give it a try last night. I didn't want to make a whole recipe, and the measurements seemed easily divisible, so I decided to halve the recipe. I think that's a mistake. Since there isn't an exact pan that is half the size of a 13x9 inch pan... I was forced to use an 8 inch square pan. I ended up with bars with a very thick (but yummy) crust and then a very thin layer of lemon topping. So thin, that I overcooked it. A lot. They are pretty tasty though, but they have a very light lemon flavor. I would almost call these sugar biscuits or something. I wouldn't even mention that they had lemon in them.

I'll definitely try the recipe again, but I'll try it whole. But, that makes me think... surely someone makes a pan that is exactly half the volume of a 13x9 inch pan. I'll look into it and if not.. then maybe I will!

Fudge Scotch Bars

This recipe should be indexed under: Delicious Cookie for When you Are Drunk and Lazy. I made these while on vacation... I chose them because they were super simple and because they required few ingredients. Ergo: Great bars to make on vacation.

The recipe calls for a 9" square pan. Which I didn't have, so I think they would be even better (hard to imagine) if they were made in the proper pan, because they would be thicker. I made them in a medium sized cookie sheet. They still turned out delicious and everyone loved them.

Would make a great potluck dessert.

Basically, all you need to know is... semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, walnuts, graham cracker crumbs, and sweetened condensed milk. That's it. All that is in it. I will make these a lot more, without different variations.

Fudge Scotch Bars

Double Delicious Bars... or, as I like to call them.. Naked Magic Cookie Bars.

On Monday, I met up with a friend of mine who was driving through Nashville on a road trip. He was making his way from North Carolina to Texas, so he would still have about 10 hours left on his trip after he left Nashville. I decided that this was an excellent opportunity to make some cookies. 1. Because its nice to give a friend cookies while they are in the middle of a road trip and 2. Because this means that I won’t end up eating them all. (Well, it means that I’ll only end up eating 2/3 of the cookies).

So, Friday afternoon I started thinking about what cookies I wanted to try. They had to be fairly basic cookies, as, I’m not sure if my friend likes nuts, coconut, fruits, etc… and they had to be sturdy as they would be in a Ziploc bag in a car for 10 hours. So, I decided on the previously blogged butterfinger cookies (luckily, he liked butterfingers). And I decided on these cookies that I originally saw on Bake or Break.

Anytime I see a bar cookie recipe with a graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk and toppings, I always think… Magic Cookie Bars.

I prefer magic cookies bars, because I love nuts and coconut, but, for people who don’t like nuts and coconut, these are a great bar cookie alternative. Yum.

Double Delicious Cookie Bars
Courtesy of: Eagle Brand Milk

1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
½ cup butter
1 14 oz can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used ¾ cup)
½ cup peanut butter chips (I used ¾ cup)

Preheat oven to 350 (325 if using glass dish). Line a 13x9 inch pan completely with heavy duty aluminum foil (makes for easy cutting and cleanup later).

In a small bowl combine graham crackers and butter; mix well.

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture and then evenly spread remaining ingredients over the sweetened condensed milk. Press down firmly with a fork.

Cook in oven for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned, but chips will not be completely melted. (I overcooked mine a little and they still turned out yummy). Cool. (I put mine in the freezer for a bit to firm them up. Lift up the edges of the aluminum to remove from pan. Cut into bars. Lift off aluminum foil.

Makes 2-3 dozen bars.