Page loading ... Please wait.
 
Baking & Dessert Recipes & Pictures
 
Web Joyofbaking.com

 

About Us

Substitutions

Ingredients

Glossary

Conversions

 

Home

Recipe Index

New Recipes

Valentine's Day Baking

Breakfast & Brunch

Bars & Squares

Cakes

Cookies

Pies and Tarts

Pumpkin Recipes

Cranberry Recipes

Apple Recipes

Comfort Foods

Biscotti

Quick Breads

Muffins

Scones

Shortbreads

English Tea Party

Trifles

Blueberry Recipes

Lemon Recipes

Strawberry Recipes

Christmas Baking

Christmas Candy

Christmas Cookies

Easter Baking

Thanksgiving Baking

Ice Creams & Ices

Baking History

Bibliography

Better Homes & Gardens Recipe of the Day

Magic Bars Recipe

Printer Friendly Page

Magic Bars, also known as Hello Dollys, live up to the adage that bar cookies are the easiest of all the cookies to make. This recipe, or maybe we shouldn't even call it a recipe as it is so little work, is just about layering and baking six ingredients; melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, sweetened coconut, chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, and a can of sweetened condensed milk (in that order) in a pan. No mixing, no fussing, and what's best of all is that you don't have to sacrifice flavor for lack of work. These are rich, sweet, and sticky, and since they are even better tasting after a day or two in the fridge, you may want to add this recipe to your Christmas baking repertoire or keep them in mind for the next time you need to make something for a bake sale or potluck supper.   

Sweetened condensed milk is what binds all the dry ingredients together in this recipe. This milk is made from a mixture of whole milk and sugar that has had about 60 percent of its water removed. Its consistency is thick and sticky (like honey) and it is very sweet tasting. It is most often used in baked goods and it takes on a lovely caramel flavor and color when baked. To give you a small bit of history, condensed milk was the result of Gail Borden's (1801-1874) determination to invent a milk that could be stored and distributed over long distances. At the time of its invention (1856) milk was not pasteurized so it was difficult to keep it fresh and free of germs. After Borden received a patent on his invention he starting producing condensed milk, but it wasn't until it became standard issue for the troops during the Civil War that it really gained popularity.

Finally, these bars turn into Seven Layer Magic Bars, just by adding one cup of butterscotch chips to the recipe. Layer the butterscotch chips after the chocolate chips.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Have ready a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) square baking pan. Set aside.

Melt the butter and pour it into the bottom of your pan. Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs evenly over the butter. Sprinkle the coconut over the crumbs. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the coconut. Sprinkle the nuts over the chocolate chips. Finally, drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over all the ingredients. Do not mix the ingredients together, just layer them.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the squares comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator. These bars can be frozen.

Makes about 16 - 2 inch squares.

Source:

O'Neill, Molly. 'New York Cookbook'. Workman Publishing Company, Inc. New York: 1992.

Peery, Susan Mahnke. 'The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook. A Fireside Book. New York: 1986.

Magic Bars

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups (150 grams) graham cracker crumbs

1 1/3 cups (90 grams) sweetened flaked or shredded coconut

1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup (100 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans

1 - 14 ounce (396 grams) can of sweetened condensed milk

s

 

 

Top 25 Recipes of 2008*

*Top 25 Recipes based on actual site traffic from January 1 to December 31, 2008.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Apple Crisp

3. Red Velvet Cake

4. Shortbread Cookies

4. Royal Icing

6. Sugar Cookies

7. Carrot Cake

8. Gingerbread Men

9. New York Cheesecake

10. Vanilla Cupcakes

11. Pumpkin Cheesecake

12. Pumpkin Pie

13. Pound Cake 14. Chocolate Truffles 15. Oatmeal Cookies
16. Rum Balls 17. Pavlova 18. Lemon Bars 19. Mexican Wedding Cakes 20. Ganache
21. Fruit Tart 22. Cream Scones 23. Butter Tarts 24. Yellow Butter Cake 25. Apple Pie
         

Contact Us   Privacy PolicyJoyofbaking.co.ukJoyofbaking.ca

Machine Site Translations

Arabic Chinese Dutch French German Hindu Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Norwegian Portuguese Russian Spanish Greek Swedish Finnish

Machine Translations are provided by an automated service and the accuracy of the translations are not up to the standards of human translation. Machine translations are provided for use by people with little or no English skills. We recommend that people proficient in English use the English pages rather then the machine translated pages.

Use of materials on Joyofbaking.com is entirely at the risk of the user and Joyofbaking.com, Stephanie Jaworski or Rick Jaworski will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly resulting from the use.

This website and the contents are not endorsed or sponsored by the owner of the "Joy of Cooking" series of books or its publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Content in any form may not be copied or used without written permission of Stephanie Jaworski, Joyofbaking.com.  Students and non profit educators may use content without permission with proper credit. 

A baking resource on the Internet since 1997

Copyright  1997 to 2009 Stephanie & Rick Jaworski