Seven Layer Bars

There are many variations in 7 layer bars, but this is the one my family has been making for as long as I can remember.  There are seven sweet layers piled on top of each other and then baked into caramel bar goodness.  Again this is a relatively simple bar to assemble and bake.  I think the challenge comes into play when trying to wrench the bars out of the pan since the caramel has successfully secured the bars to the edges.  These bars also freeze well, so you can enjoy them for weeks to come if you already have too many sweets in the house for the Christmas season.  You can also vary the ingredients if desired by changing up the nut to a walnut, peanut, hazelnut or almond.  The chips you can change for a peanut butter, cinnamon, or white chocolate chip.  Really, the possibilities for other combinations are endless.  However, in the spirit of Christmas past, this is how my family has made these bars, and to bring back sweet memories this is how I made them again this year.

Seven Layer Bars

1/4 pound butter

1 1/4 cups honey graham crackers, crushed

1 cup coconut, flaked

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Melt the butter in a 9x12 inch pan.  Once melted remove and coat the bottom of the pan.  Pour the graham crackers in making sure to cover the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle the coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and pecans over the crust.  Finally, drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the entire mixture.  Bake for 30 minutes or until everything has come together and the sweetened condensed milk is starting to look caramel colored.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting and removing the bars.

O'Henry Bars

This is one of my favorites to make and to eat.  The combination of oats, peanut butter and chocolate makes me sign.  This is also a bar which freezes nicely.  I used to eat these only frozen, but sometimes the oatmeal crust would separate from the peanut butter chocolate topping which would cause quite the dilemma...do I eat the chocolate only, but then what to do with the equally delicious crust?  Eat that along side or separately?  Not a terrible dilemma to have of course! 

These bars are many of the ones you can whip up pretty fast, so if they get eaten quickly you don't have anything to fear in just making more!  Plus, the chocolate peanut butter top is hard to resist!

O'Henry Bars

4 cups oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 white sugar

1 cup of butter, melted

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix melted butter with the 4 cups of oatmeal, brown and white sugar.  Mix until well incorporated and pat into a greased 9x13 inch cake pan.  Bake this layer for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  While the oatmeal layer is cooling, make the chocolate peanut butter topping.  Melt in a saucepan the chocolate chips and the peanut butter.  Stir continuously so that chocolate does not burn.  As soon as the chocolate chips are almost melted remove from heat and continue stirring until smooth.  Pour this mixture over the oatmeal layer.  Let cool to room temperature.  Once cooled, place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate in order to be able to cut into pieces.

Christmas is coming....and so are Christmas cookies and bars

Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought I would take some time this year to bake up some Christmas cookies.  So in my pursuits of Christmas cookie and bar baking, I am going to have a Christmas cookie week of posts.  I will include cookies and bars I have been baking up for years.  These recipes are ones my grandma's, my mom and my aunt would bake and they are the ones I still turn to to remember Christmas past.  Since we don't have family nearby to share our Christmas cookies with, this year I am delivering them to coworkers and students to eat themselves into a lovely sugar coma.  So stay tuned, I am preparing the recipes and photos and soon I will post a bunch!