INGREDIENTS
- 1½ cup graham cracker crumbs (180g)
- 1 cup chopped pecans (120g)
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted (113g)
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips plus more for sprinkling (135g)
- ¾ cup butterscotch chips (90g)
- 1⅓ cups sweetened shredded coconut (133g)
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper or lightly grease with baking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter and stir together until everything has been moistened. Pour the crumb mixture into the prepared pan and press down into an even layer using the bottom of a glass or measuring cup.
- Scatter with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, shredded coconut, and pecan pieces over the crust. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the surface while trying to get fairly good coverage. Sprinkle the top with a few more chocolate chips if desired.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until the edges and coconut flakes turn golden brown. If desired, sprinkle the top of the hot cookie bars with flaky salt. Allow to cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars or squares.
NOTES
- Line or grease the baking dish. Trust me: You do not want to deal with the mess of an unlined pan! I typically use parchment paper to line the dish, leaving some overhang so that I can easily raise the bars up and out of the dish once cooled.
- Toast the pecans. This gives the magic cookie bars an enhanced flavor, not to mention the nuts smell delicious once toasted!
- Use dulce de leche instead of condensed milk. This is perfect if you love the flavor of caramel. If you do make the switch, I recommend heating the dulce de leche slightly to make it easy to drizzle over the pan.
- Swaps for the butterscotch chips: Peanut butter chips or other types like dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or milk chocolate chips all work beautifully.
- Add more nuts. This recipe is quite forgiving, so you can basically throw in everything but the kitchen sink! I sometimes add more nuts for more texture and less sweetness. If I want even more variation, I use a combination of walnuts and pecans.
- Get creative with the crust. While a simple Graham cracker crust is a classic, feel free to use a different crumbly cookie like gingersnaps to make the crust.
- Add pretzel pieces. For my sweet-salty lovers, add pretzel pieces as one of the layers, or grind pretzels instead of graham crackers for the crust.
- For neat slices: If you try to cut these sweet treats while still warm, you will have a gooey sticky mess on your hands. The trick for neat slices is to allow the magic cookie bars to cool completely. To speed up the process, you can pop the whole baking dish into the refrigerator. Use a very sharp knife to slice them up.
- Cut them small. These loaded cookie bars are quite rich and sweet, so I like to cut them into small squares. A little goes a long way!