Seven Layer Bars

The taste and texture of seven layer bars transport me back to my college years. My boyfriend (now-husband)’s grandmother sent him a tin of homemade cookies about twice a year. While she filled it with a variety of types of cookies, her seven layer bars were always the highlight. Once my boyfriend finished the cookies, he would return the tin for an eventual refill. I soon recognized this pattern, and would try to mooch a seven layer bar from my boyfriend whenever I noticed the tin had returned to his possession.

Jump to Recipe

Are they bars, or are they cookies? Either way, these are an incredibly simple dessert to make. In less than an hour, you can have a pan of sweet, melty, chocolate, wonderful squares of goodness in your own kitchen! I love making these for gatherings, as they’re unusual enough that people are excited to try them.

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and spraying your 9″ by 13″ pan with nonstick spray. Speaking from experience, if you neglect this step, the bars along the edges of your pan are going to be nearly impossible to remove.

If you want to truly have seven layers of ingredients, pour your melted butter and then your graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of your greased pan. I have found that this method can negatively impact the structural integrity of the cookies; it would be better to mix the melted butter with your graham cracker crumbs and press into the bottom of your pan.

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Next, sprinkle one cup of coconut over your graham cracker/butter base.

Cover the coconut with an even sprinkling of your chocolate and butterscotch chips.

Open one can of sweetened condensed milk and pour it in an even layer over everything in your pan. If none of your eaters are allergic, sprinkle finely chopped pecans over the entire mixture. I don’t normally like nuts in my dessert, but they are borderline essential to this recipe. They give the bars more structure and help make the texture more robust.

Now that your bars are assembled, place them in your oven and bake them at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Once your bars have baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely before attempting to slice. Although they are delicious when re-warm, they will fall completely apart if you try to cut them before they have cooled completely.