My son and I are locked in a battle. He claims these are not, in fact, seven layer bars…but six layer bars, because you mix the butter and graham crackers together, creating one new substance and thus, one layer. I maintain that…well, dangit, these have always been called seven layer bars and he needs to stop it.
Either way, they’re a great summer recipe, and especially yummy after they’ve been popped in the freezer for a bit. And they’ve got peanuts and chocolate in them, which qualifies them as great protein for hikes and outdoor adventuring, yes? Yes.
Just a few notes and hints, though. If you’re going to freeze them, allow them to cool totally (I mean totally. The chocolate takes a while to go from all melty from the oven to solidifying into bars). Then cut them and then freeze them. Otherwise you end up chiseling and hacking at your frozen bars with a butter knife and no one wants that. Also, see that lovely browning sort of carmelizing on the top of the peanuts there?
That comes from broiling, at the very end, for less than a minute. Bake your bars for 25-30 min, then set your oven on “broil” and do not look away. If you’re the sort of person who shrieks, “A free minute!” and runs downstairs, throws in a load of laundry, and since you’re there, picks up the basement before checking the oven again — skip this step. They’ll be good without it. But if you can — set the oven on broil, watch the bars, and pull them out just when the coconut starts to brown and the peanuts look a little glazey. Less than one full minute. And totally worth it.
Ingredients
- 3/4 c butter
- 2 c graham cracker crumbs
- 2 c semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 c butterscotch chips
- 1 c coconut
- 1 c salted peanuts
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Melt butter in saucepan.
- Mix butter and graham cracker crumbs.
- Press graham cracker mixture into 9x13in baking pan.
- Layer chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, and peanuts over graham cracker crust.
- Pour condensed milk over layers.
- Bake at 350 for 25-30 min.
- Set oven on broil — broil for 30-60 seconds, watching the entire time.
- Cool and cut into bars.
- Store bars in refrigerator or freezer for best results. Makes 12 servings.
And you? What’s your favorite summer snack?
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Chryse Mattison says
These look delicious! The six vs. seven layer debate is a tough one and has me curious…I did a little googling (which I’m pretty sure is officially a word now) and my take is that it depends on how finely ground the graham crackers are. A graham cracker crust for something like a cheesecake or chocolate peanut butter pie I would say is incredibly finely ground and consists only of graham crackers and butter but would in fact call that a single layer, as you would any pie crust. In which case there would be six layers. BUT if the crackers and roughly broken up and added as a coarse layer to the bars I would say that’s definitely seven. ALSO, the word “layers” in the title could be a euphemism for ingredients. In which case it would in fact be seven. In any case, I will be making these. Cheers! Chryse
Hah! If you could write that up in a report with proper citations, notations and addendums and send it this way, that would be much appreciated. The debate continues!