This weekend brought a host of holiday fairs to the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. Our little church was one of the many churches that rolled out the baked goods and homemade gifts. Every household does its part to contribute to the long bake table at the church fair. These chewy, sweet cookies bars were bagged up and offered along with a loaf of cranberry nut bread and a big round boule of herbed bread. I baked all day on Friday!
These bars, though, were full of fun memories. Sprout Sara baked them the first time she entered a Girl Scout Holiday Bake-Off and won herself a blue ribbon for them. That was one proud Daisy Scout! I wonder if she kept all that stuff from her Scouting days? It's probably tucked in a box somewhere ... oh, the memories!
Anyway, these cookie bars resemble a granola bar, but they're much more crumbly-crusted and sweet from the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk that 'glues' everything together in sweet sedimentary layers. Yum! Perfect with a big glass of milk!
Welcome to cookie season! Let the baking begin!
Magic Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
½ c. salted butter ( a stick)
1 ½ c. graham cracker crumbs
1- 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
6 oz. dark or milk chocolate chips
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 ½ c. sweetened grated coconut
Making the Cookie Bars:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 °F.
- Place the butter, cut into chunks in the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and melt it in the oven.
- Remove the pan when the butter has melted and sprinkle in the graham cracker crumbs. Toss with a fork to make a buttered crumble crust.
- Press the crust down firmly with a flat-bottomed glass or some other press.
- Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the crust, coming close to the pan edges but not touching them.
- Now, sprinkle the coconut, chocolate chips and walnuts over top the sticky milk, distributing everything evenly.
- press down gently to get the milk to glue everything in place.
- Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until the coconut and nut topping begins to get golden brown.
- Remove and cool completely before cutting into bars.
- Store tightly covered to keep the bars moist.
oooh, that condensed milk is just so wonderful isn't it? Like childhood memories wrapped into a cookie bar. These are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI still do have my Girl Scout stuff, of course! Actually I think it's in a box at your house, hahaha! I promise it will be relocated soon... just as soon as we get out of our shoe-box apartment that is already packed to the gills! I seriously don't think we can fit anything else in there!!
ReplyDeleteYum! These cookie bars look wonderful! Easy to make, too. Once I get though Thanksgiving, the cookie-making frenzy will begin.
ReplyDelete