There are many variations of “magic bars” out there. This is my spin on the classic. I make these all the time, and they are a favorite of my grown kids. They keep well for a week or so in the refrigerator, but you can also cool them, and cut and freeze them for a few weeks, as long as you store them in an airtight container. I usually wrap them in Press N Seal first, then put them inside a container for good measure.
You can have fun with decorating these. I use orange and black M&Ms for Halloween or red and green M&Ms around the winter holidays. Or sometimes I skip the M&Ms and use rainbow sprinkles on top for a more summer or spring time look.
You can see in the picture below, I had multi-colored M&Ms in the house, so I went with those this time.
The quantities below fit well in a 13 x 9 pan and make about 24 pieces of yum!
Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
2 sleeves of Honey Maid Graham crackers from a 14.4 ounce package
14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1-2 cups of chocolate chips (whatever kind you like – dark, milk chocolate, white chocolate; or mix them up)
1 and 1/2 cup sweetened coconut
Toppings of choice (M&Ms, rainbow sprinkles, nuts, whatever!).
Directions:
You will need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees or 325 degrees, if you’re using a glass baking dish. Put the stick of butter in the dish, and place it in the oven while the oven begins to heat. Remove the pan when the butter is soft and almost completely melted.
Put the graham crackers in a ziploc bag to crush them. If you don’t have a rolling pin to roll over the ziploc bag, just use a bottle of any kind. Wine bottles work great for this! Sprinkle the crushed graham crackers evenly over the melted butter in the dish. Press down firmly with a spatula.
Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the graham crackers, then sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Sprinkle the coconut on top of the chocolate chips, and any additional toppings on top of the coconut. Again, press down firmly with a spatula.
Bake for 30 minutes until the bars just begin to brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting. You can store in the refrigerator or freezer, either whole or cut into pieces for easy serving later. Have lots of milk on hand to go with these!
