Magic Cookie Bars Recipe (2024)

I use gluten-free pretzels (in place of Graham crackers) and almond butter (in place of regular butter) for the base, and then use sweetened condensed coconut milk (in place of regular sweetened condensed milk) to make them gluten free and vegan.

I have, and I don't like them at all. If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, try their Graham Crackers. So good. what graham crackers used to taste like.

Has anyone else noticed a change in graham crackers in recent years (Honeymaid brand)? They seem to be less flavorful, lighter in color, and when crushed less granular and more powdery. A homemade graham cracker crust used to be a thing of wonder and now it resembles (both in flavor and texture) the pre-made kind.

Try Trader Joe's Graham Crackers....much more flavorful

I started making Magic Cookie Bars over 45 years ago following the recipe printed on the back of Borden's Sweetened Condensed Milk can. It was the easiest, most delicious cookie bar. I don't remember the quantities, but basically it said to melt 1 stick of butter in 9 x 13 inch pan in preheated oven, pour in Graham cracker crumbs, pour in the milk, then nuts (any kind), chocolate chips and coconut. Bake. They easily came out of the pan when cut after cooling and never crumbled.

I have been making these for many years, following the much easier recipe of the family friend who sent them in college care packages. Forget the crust and layering. Just mix the crushed graham crackers in with the topping ingredients. Spread in a parchment lined sheet pan. The sweetness of the condensed milk is distributed throughout as it binds everything together. Best flavor made a day ahead.

I marked as cooked, but I made major substitutions- rural here and 11 miles from the nearest store. No condensed milk, so I made my own with eggs and brown sugar, from cooks dot com. No graham crackers, I'm gluten free, so I used my home made granola, pulsed in a food processor to a finer crumb, instead of graham crackers for the crust... and then I took them to a dinner with friends. They were awesome, and as I found, very flexible. This is going on my short-list of go-to cookies.

Usually these recipes call for you to drizzle the condensed milk on as the last ingredient. The milk will bake and caramelize and act as glue for the other loose ingredients that you have used on top of the graham cracker crust. This recipe adds the milk on the graham crust and then add loose ingredients on top. Can't see how that helps matters.

I agree with the other notes about adding the condensed milk at the end to hold the toppings on. I added one third of the condensed milk on top of the graham cracker layer after it came out of the oven. After adding the layers of toppings, I drizzled the remaining condensed milk all over the top and finished baking it. It came out well and the toppings held on to the bars when I sliced them.

Made these today. Everything in the layer on top of the coconut fell off as soon as I started cutting into them. I also had to cut off most of the bar along the edges, as the parchment paper would not come off of it. I pride myself on being a good baker, but these were a fail in my book. I had an instinct to use half the condensed milk on the crust and half on top of the coconut, and maybe I should have gone with that.

I have always loved the original recipe of Seven Layer Bars/Magic Cookie Bars/Hello Dollys. However I made this new version and was very disappointed. First of all they were dry and the chocolate never really melted well enough. I tried to cut them after they cooled and most of the chocolate fell off ( and I did chop up the chocolate, but apparently not enough). I'm going back to the original recipe.

I've been making a simpler version of this recipe for yrs, and before I try this one, I'd like to post the version that I and my friends make. We melt a stick of unsalted butter in a rimmed half-sheet pan, spread with 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs, a can of condensed milk, 1.5 c of dark chocolate chips, 3 oz sweetened shredded coconut, and 1.5 c of finely chopped walnuts. Tamp everything down with the back of a moistened tsp, bake for 25-30 min at 350 degrees.

how well do these freeze?

Made it with almonds and unsweetened coconut and ghiradelli chocolate chips-delish!

So, made these for a party tonight. Taking in the comments section I made just a few small changes and they were a huge hit. Added 1/3 vs 1/4 cup sugar to the crust. Used 1 1/3 cup coconut and put half of the condensed milk on the crust and the second half drizzled between toppings layers to make it stick a bit better. Perfect level of sweet. Toppings didn’t go anywhere. Huge hit and everyone loved, even my professional baker friend.

Yikes. The original graham cracker and butter only crust version is so much better. This is oddly cakey.

I made these with all ingredients from Lidl, which is pretty good considering how meager their selection is. Fantastic! I did not need so much chocolate or coconut.

Verrrrry sweet

I was curious to try this crust, but I really prefer the basic 1/2 c melted butter 1 1/2c crushed graham cracker crust.

Do NOT pour the milk on the crust. The toppings are too dry and make a big mess this way. I pour the milk as evenly as possible on top, but I’d like to try to mix the toppings and milk together sometime.

So they aren't really "magic" unless you make them with butterscotch chips! You're welcome!!!

These taste fine, but because the sweetened condensed milk is added first thing after the crust, the top layer of coconut, nuts, and chocolate that doesn’t make contact with the milk just ends up being a loose mess. They’re a disaster to eat. Definitely save part of the sweeten condensed milk to put on last, as others have said.

You could taste the baking powder in the crust which was off-putting and the egg binder made it cakey. Crust was also way too thick. I think I’ll deal with a crumbly crust in the future and skip this.

These are fantastic, but only with a few changes: 1) pour the condensed milk on top of all the chocolate and nuts, not on top of the crust. 2) use a higher graham cracker to butter ratio. After getting dry results the first time I made this (as written), I followed Claire Saffitz’s graham cracker crust recipe, which is 310 g graham cracker to 85 g butter. Pull the crust out of the oven when it’s just starting to get golden on the edges, or it will be over baked.

This was such a disappointment. Not sweet enough. Not chewy at all. Pretty hard. The topping kept on falling off. I was imagining a chewy gooey bar with the condensed milk but nope. Not the case. Could have been good with milk chocolate and like others said, put the condensed mill last to make it a glue. The graham cracker was hard and tasteless. Not doing this again

IMHO, they are not magic without butterscotch chips.

Made them, but not the best version of this treat. Agree with others: use the recipe on the can!

Yes! Cooked these for the first time for my annual holiday/cookie party. I have always made the traditional recipe and this was a little more work.I had 11 kinds of cookies and the Magic Cookie Bars were the biggest hit of the evening.I followed the recipe and instructions to a tee and they came out fine. They are more work to cut, but I really like how they held together. They will definitely be on next year’s menu.

Listen to the folks telling you to pour at least some of the condensed milk over the top! They know what they are talking about. I made the first batch as described in the recipe and spread all the condensed milk over the crust. When I cut into them almost all the top layer of nuts and chocolate and half the coconut fell off. A mess, albeit a delicious one.Then I read the notes. Always read the notes.Made again pouring a generous half of the milk over the top. They look great.

I read the comments and then looked up the "original" recipes and decided to make this EXACTLY as written. The cookies are perfect and getting very high marks wherever I share them. (I cut them into 3x3 squares to fit into gift boxes).