Magic Cookie Bars
Why I Love This Recipe
Holiday cookie season is just around the corner... so who's getting an early start baking?! I'm looking forward to all the holiday baking in store and this year will be different from previous years. How so? Well, for one, I'll be focused on gluten free baking! This weekend I did some baking with my son, Joel, and we made these Magic Cookie Bars together. These cookie bars have a graham cracker crumb cookie base, topped with a decadent mixture of chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, flaked coconut and walnuts. And yes, these were gluten free!
Honestly, I wasn't really planning on getting an early start to holiday baking this year. I just started working full time back in the corporate world this past week and I'm still adjusting. Every night this past week, I've been so exhausted after a full day of work, the 2 hour (total) commute and coming home to figure out meals, household chores and balancing being a mom and wife while keeping sane. I guess after being a stay at home/work at home mom for the past year and a half, I need to transition into this new schedule slowly. But thankfully, there are the weekends. Like this one. I got a chance to spend some quality time with my son and we had a fun time playing in the kitchen!
Ingredients You'll Need
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup peanut butter & milk chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Thoroughly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly beat flour mixture into butter mixture.
Reserve 1/4 of the dough and set aside. Press the remaining dough into greased pan until dough is uniform and flat. Top with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut and sprinkle with walnuts. Scatter the reserved dough over in clumps. Don't worry about covering the top; the chips, coconut and walnuts should peek through.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into bars and remove from pan.
