Easy-To-Make Bars

These are magic bars stripped down to their simplest form. Melted margarine and crushed soda crackers make the base, then you just layer on coconut, chocolate chips, and chopped nuts before pouring sweetened condensed milk over everything and baking for 20 minutes.

No mixing bowl. No measuring precision. No waiting for dough to chill. Spread, layer, pour, bake. The sweetened condensed milk is the magic ingredient. It seeps through all the layers, caramelizes in the oven, and binds everything into chewy, gooey, candy-like bars.

Using crushed soda crackers instead of the traditional graham cracker base gives these a slightly saltier, more neutral crust that lets the chocolate and coconut flavors come through stronger.

Kitchen Tips

• Press the cracker base firmly. Loose crumbs mean the bars fall apart when cut. Pack it down with the back of a spoon or the bottom of a measuring cup.
• Pour the condensed milk evenly over the entire surface. Dry spots won’t hold together and will crumble when you try to cut clean bars.
• Cool completely in the pan before cutting. The condensed milk layer is molten when hot and needs to firm up. Cutting early gets you a mess instead of bars.
• Line the pan with parchment for easy removal. Lift the whole slab out, cut on a board, and save yourself from scraping stuck-on caramel.

Variations

• Butterscotch version: Replace the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips for a caramel-on-caramel flavor.
• S’mores bars: Use graham crackers instead of soda crackers and add a handful of mini marshmallows on top before baking.