Easy Brown Butter Magic Cookie Bars (7-Layer Bars)

These Brown butter Magic bars or seven layer bars are a real treat! Loaded, chewy, crispy and crunchy dessert bars made with chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, and pecans—all over a buttery graham cracker crust. It’s decadent dessert magic in each and every bite!

Why You Will Love These Magic Bars

• Quick and easy: Just layer everything in the pan—no mixer or fancy tools needed.
• All the textures: Each bite is sweet, crunchy, chewy, and chocolatey.
• Crowd pleasing: Kids love them so do adults - perfect for parties, family gatherings, potlucks, bake sales, and basically any time you need a super easy no-fuss dessert to satisfy any sweet tooth
• Customizable: Swap ingredients for your favorites.
• Make-ahead friendly: They store and freeze well
  
  

7-Layer Magic Bars: Why the name?

These Magic bars are also called 7-Layer Bars or Hello Dollies or Hello Dolly Bars. Magic bars, are called seven layer bars because the traditional recipe is made of seven distinct layers of ingredient:

• Melted butter
• Graham cracker crumbs
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Butterscotch chips
• Shredded coconut
• Chopped nuts (commonly walnuts or pecans)
  
  

The magic part: you layer all of these ingredients in your pan, bake it, and it turns into pure magic or (7 layers of deliciousness) a cohesive, caramely, crispy, chewy bar.

Magic Bars Recipe Ingredients

• BUTTER: Unsalted butter is what I use but for a slatier version you can use salted butter. It’s the glue that holds the graham cracker crust together.
• GRAHAM CRACKER CRUMBS: We use pre-crushed graham crackers but you can use graham crackers and crush them yourself in a food processor to make fine crumbs. You can change the flavors of the base by using different biscuits like: gingersnap cookies, chocolate wafer cookies, or even biscoff cookies
• SHREDDED COCONUT: You can use sweetened or unsweetened varieties. Medium shred size is ideal.
• CHOCOLATE CHIPS: I like to use a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips but you can also use milk chocolate chips
• BUTTERSCOTCH CHIPS: We love the flavor they add to the magic bars.
• PECANS: We love pecans in our magic bars but any nuts will work or skip if you want these nut free.
• SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK: It must be sweetened condensed milk and full-fat works the best.
  
  

Other Add Ins Or Alternatives

• Add White chocolate chips in place of some of the others
• Add Peanut butter chips in place of some of the others
• Add mini-marshmallows for a gooey bar
• Add dried fruit like cranberries, raisins, currants or dried cherries
• Add toffee bits add a bit of crunch in place of some of the nuts
• Add M&M candies or chopped up any bars of choice in place of some of the chocolate.
  
  

How To Make Magic Bars

1. Brown or melt the butter: I love to brown the butter for better flavor but it is optional. Simply melt butter if you would like skip browning it.
2. Prepare graham cracker crust: Combine the cookie crumbs with the butter then press into the bottom of prepared pan
3. Layer toppings: Start by drizzling condensed milk over crust, followed by the coconut, pecans, butterscotch chips, and all the chocolate chips.
4. Bake & Cool: Bake until lightly golden and cool completely before slicing.
   
   

Make Ahead, Storage & Freezing

• MAKE AHEAD: Make these at least a few hours in advance, as they need to cool and set before cutting. I recommend baking the day or night before and then cutting and serving the following day.
• STORAGE: I recommend cutting them into squares and storing them in an airtight container. You can store them either in the fridge for up to 1 week or at room temperature for 3-5 days. I like to store them between parchment paper layers for best results.
• FREEZING: Cool bars completely then slice, then flash freeze them on a baking sheet before transferring them to an airtight container or bag for 1-2 months. When you are ready to enjoy them, simply remove the desired number of bars from the freezer and thaw them in the fridge overnight or on the counter top.
  
  

Some of The Best Bars On The Blog:

• Easy Pecan Pie Bars
• Nutella Bars
• Apple Pie Bars
• Blueberry Pie Bars
• Creamy Pumpkin Pie Bars
• Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bars
• Apple Crumble Cheesecake Bars
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars
• Carmelitas — Easy Chocolate Caramel Oat Bars
• Easy Date Squares
• No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars