Magic Cookie Bars | Seven Layer Bars

Name: Magic Cookie Bars | Seven Layer Bars
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 18
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/2 (1 stick) butter or margarine; 1 1/4 cup graham crackers crumbs (about 8-9 graham crackers crushed. Use gluten-free if needed); 1 cup chocolate chips; 1 cup butterscotch chips (use Hershey's if gluten-free); 1 cup shredded coconut*; 1 cup chopped walnuts; 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk (use Eagle for gluten-free)

September 29, 2019 by Erika 45 Comments This post contains affiliate links

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These Magic Cookie Bars with seven layers are a must-have Christmas cookie. A buttery graham cracker crust topped with chocolate and butterscotch are among other tasty ingredients, all melted together in a sweet gooey melt-in-your-mouth bar.

This magic cookie bar recipe is one of the easiest Christmas cookies you can make. You don’t even need a mixing bowl or mixer; all you have to do is layer all the ingredients in a baking pan and bake for close to half-hour. That’s it!

Seven Layer Bars are mouth-wateringly delicious with chewy chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, graham, and more. There are seven layers so seven ingredients after all! This is the original version – the recipe I grew up making with my mother every year during the holidays. I think it’s pretty similar, even the same as the Eagle Condensed Milk brand’s recipe, but I haven’t checked lately.

One of the great things about this Christmas dessert recipe is it’s easy to make your own magic cookie bar variations. If you prefer no coconut, you can simply leave it out.

I even include a gluten-free magic cookie bars recipe below (it’s SUPER easy).

Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars

Ingredients you’ll need:

butter or margarine
graham crackers crumbs (pre-crushed graham crackers are fine or you can buy graham crackers and crush them yourself in a food processor or blend.)
semi-sweet chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
shredded coconut (don’t use large or extra-fine shredded coconut- the medium-shred works just right. You can use sweetened or unsweetened.)
chopped walnuts or pecans
sweetened condensed milk (regular full-fat works the best)

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Magic Cookie Bar Variations

No coconut magic cookie bars – follow the instructions above, simply leave out the coconut
Milk chocolate – substitute milk chocolate chips for semi-sweet or use 1/2 semi-sweet and 1/2 milk chocolate chip.
Dark chocolate chips – substitute dark chocolate chips for semi-sweet.
Pretzels – subsitute pretzels for the nuts
Peanut butter chips – substitute peanut butter chips for the butterscotch
Andes Mint magic cookie bars – substitute the butterscotch chips with an des mint bits. (You can find broken up mint pieces for this purpose or simply break up the full-sized mints into smaller pieces.)
your own versions – love nuts? add more or use both walnuts and pecans. If you find butterscotch too sweet, you can substitute milk chocolate chips. This recipe is very easy to tweak.

Gluten-Free Magic Cookie Bars

To make gluten-free seven layer magic bars, you’ll need:

butter or margarine
gluten-free graham crackers. (Toss them into your food processor or blender to grind up into fine bits.)
semi-sweet chocolate chips (Nestle chocolate chips ARE gluten-free)
Hershey’s butterscotch chips (Nestle is NOT gluten-free)
shredded coconut (don’t use large or extra fine shredded coconut- the medium-shred works just right. You can use sweetened or unsweetened.)
chopped walnuts or pecans
sweetened condensed milk (Eagle brand IS gluten-free)

If you or your child are very sensitive to gluten, it’s always best to check the labels yourself as we never know when a brand may change their ingredients.

Follow the instructions for the regular magic cookie bars below to make this gluten-free version.

How to Make the Best Magic Cookie Bars

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Tip: to prevent sticking, add parchment paper to the bottom of a 9x13x2″ pan.

Melt the butter and pour it into the pan. It should just cover the bottom. My mother used to put the pan in the oven to slowly melt the butter, but I find that too slow and I just melt it in the microwave or on the stove and pour it straight into the pan.

Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs evenly over the butter. Don’t worry about it looking perfect.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips over the graham layer.

Next, sprinkle on the coconut…

…and walnuts.

Lastly, pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over everything.

Bake your magic cookie bars for 25-30 minutes until the edges are just turning golden brown.

Cool your bars completely (if you can resist waiting that long) then cut into bars.

And there you have it – quick and easy Christmas magic cookie bars!

More Delicious Christmas Cookies Recipes to Try: