We went to a neighbor's house for the Super Bowl last night, and I was asked to bring something sweet. I took inventory of my pantry and found a can of sweetened condensed milk that needed to be used. My go-to recipe that involves sweetened condensed milk is 7-layer bars, aka magic bars. These treats are ooey, gooey, easy and tasty. They were my favorite treat as a kid - whenever my mom asked what I wanted, 7-layer bars was the answer. In my family those were extra special treats since they required exotic (coconut - hey, I lived in North Dakota) and expensive (sweetened condensed milk, coconut, two kinds of chips AND nuts!) ingredients.
Just out of curiosity, I searched my favorite recipe websites to see if there was anything else calling for sweetened condensed milk that I could make instead. Interestingly, I found a recipe on the Cook's Country website for 7-layer bars. Curious as to what they would change about the bars to improve them, I read on.
One must remember that 7-layer bars are the epitome of easy (hence their alias, magic bars). If you follow the traditional recipe, you don't even need a bowl. You melt butter straight in the baking pan in a preheated oven, then sprinkle on the other layers. On top of the butter goes a layer of graham cracker crumbs (not mixed in, just sprinkled on), chopped nuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, and finally sweetened condensed milk is poured over the whole shebang. It's baked until just starting to brown on the top, all bubbly and delicious, which takes about 25 minutes. Nothing could be easier to bake.
The Cook's Country recipe was a little (OK, a LOT) more complicated. First, they instruct you to toast the walnuts and coconut to boost their flavor. Mind you, you are to do each separately so the coconut doesn't get over-browned. Okay, that's two bowls, one to hold each ingredient after it's been toasted. Next, you use a food processor to grind up toffee bits and whole graham crackers. You melt the butter in yet another bowl, and mix in the graham cracker/toffee crumbs, and spread it on a foil-lined baking sheet. Not only do you foil the sheet, you liberally spray the foil to prevent the crust from sticking.
The crust is then baked for about 10 minutes. While the crust was baking, I noticed the bowls stacking up that I would have to wash and began to wonder if the end result was going to be worth the substantial additional effort. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. Oh, the sacrifices I make for my friends.
I chopped up the milk chocolate to put on the warm crust (yet another step, and a cutting board and knife). The chocolate gets soft and you are supposed to spread it over the crust. At least in theory. I think that my crust stayed too warm because the chocolate pulled up sections of the crust. I spread it as best I could (sorry if you get an edge piece), and proceeded with the rest of the recipe. You next sprinkle on Rice Krispies (where did that come from?), the toasted nuts, chocolate chips (sorry, but I had to add butterscotch chips. Tradition, ya' know), the toasted coconut, and finally, you pour on the sweetened condensed milk to which you have added 1 tablespoon of vanilla in yet ANOTHER bowl. Finally, the pan was placed in the oven to finish baking. Total bowl count: 4, PLUS the food processor bowl, a cutting board and knife.
And now for the verdict: they are slightly more tasty, but not so much better than the original that I think it's worth the effort. The one difference that I will repeat is adding the vanilla to the sweetened condensed milk. Only next time, I might add Kahlua. And I'll pour a little out of the can, then mix in the Kahlua, to avoid getting any additional bowls dirty. I already mix the butter with the graham crumbs to make the crust more even, and I will continue to do so. But as for the additional toasting steps, the Rice Krispies (they added nothing that I can tell), the par-baking of the crust, and the milk chocolate spreading, I won't be bothering. These are supposed to be magic, after all.
Another recipe from the Shortbreads section, this pairs a vanilla shortbread with a maple buttercream to make a sandwich cookie. The dough is very easy to put together. You pipe it into 1/2 to 3/4 inch balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Even though I tacked the parchment down with a little dough under the corners, it was a bit difficult to get these cookies to stay on the parchment. I think a regular ungreased cookie sheet would work better, and I think the cookie part of this recipe might work well to make spritz cookies. These spread a little when baked but still have quite a dome to them. 