Updated Magic 7-Layer Cookie Bar Recipe for My Mom

When I was thumbing through my Mom’s orange notebook last month, I came across an American  recipe that she absolutely adored: 7 layer cookies. One of my sisters had added it to the notebook. Maybe it was my sister Linh, who loves to bake. I remember Linh making those bars for my mom over and over. My mother loves coconut, nuts and chocolate. Over the years, she scored countless post-Halloween deals on Almond Joy bars. When I buy See’s candies for her, I make sure there are plenty of  the “dark cocoanuts”.

I’ve never made the 7 layer cookie recipe because I was put off by the versions I’d had in recent years. They tended to be so darn sweet with not much character. But after seeing the recipe in mom’s notebook and thinking about her  Mother’s Day, I wanted to update the recipe my mom’s (and my) 21st century tastes: dark chocolate over semi-sweet chocolate, a mild sweetness, and a touch of saltiness. (You could say that we're bittersweet salty people but I'll leave that judgement up to you.)

When I took a closer look at what we’d written down in the notebook, the recipe only had 6 ingredients. Where did number 7 come in? Perhaps that’s why these cookies also go by the name of “Magic Bar” – the seventh ingredient layer is invisible. It is the magic. Right.

Secondly, the recipe we wrote down in the notebook is a little wonky because our English wasn’t great in the 1970s: “¼ cube butter” didn’t sound right, especially when I compared it to the popular recipe from Eagle brand of sweetened condensed milk. A stick of butter is needed; substitute oil if you’re avoiding butter.

Digging further into the cookie’s provenance, I found that the magic 7 layer cookie bar recipe is attributed to Alecia Leigh Couch, who when she was 11 years old, sent her grandma’s recipe to one of America’s first food journalist, Clementine Paddleford. Paddleford gathered and recorded recipe from cooks all over the country. In September 1965, she published Alecia’s recipe for “Hello Dolly” cakes in her recipe swap column in This Week magazine. Eventually, the name changed but the simple deliciousness of the cookie remains.

Back to what we noted down in the mid 1970s. A bag of chocolate chips may have seemed luxurious to our refugee brains then but now, it sounded really intense to me. I opted for dark chocolate chunks sold at Whole Foods. Ditto for the graham crackers; I bought Annie’s brand which offers a wonderful nutty, whole grain flavor, much better than the Honey Maid graham crackers of my youth. (Use gluten-free graham crackers if you want to be wheat free.)

To get close to a tropical coconut flavor, I selected dried coconut from the bulk bins at Whole Foods and tinkered with it. The last time I used sweetened coconut flakes, it lacked a natural coconut flavor. In fact, it was darn cloying. Rehydrating and adding some sugar along with a touch of salt lent a Southeast Asian flair to the cookie. Finally, Old Man condensed milk, a favorite with Vietnamese people was poured over the cookie before baking. The bar cookie came together in no time. And soon, my kitchen was flooded with the familiar fragrance of our family kitchen from decades ago. They taste a zillion times better than what I remember. All the flavors are balanced so that nothing overwhelms. You can parse the ingredients.

I already sent my mom a Mother’s Day card. These are a bit fragile so I’ll freeze what I can stand to not eat and bring them to her. I think she’ll like these over the Almond Joy, See’s Candy, and our original 1970s recipe.

The orange notebook is brimming with favorite family recipes. I’ll keep this one digitally. Hope you’ll add it to your collection too.

RECIPE

Updated Magic 7-Layer Cookie Bar

Yields: 30 to 35 bars

Ingredients:

• 1 ⅓ cups (4 oz / 120 g) unsweetened dried coconut
• 6 ounces (180 g) graham crackers (8 to 10 planks)
• 1 stick  (4 oz / 120 g) unsalted butter
• ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
• 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup dark chocolate chunks
• A 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the center. Oil or spray a 9 by 13-inch baking sheet (a quarter sheet pan).
2. Put the coconut in a bowl, soak it in very very hot water to cover for 2 minutes. Drain well in a mesh strainer, pressing out excess water. Let sit to cool.
3. Break the graham crackers into small pieces, dropping them into a food processor. Run the machine to reduce them to crumbs. You should have about 1 ½ cups. Transfer to a bowl and if you want a touch of saltiness, add half of the salt.
4. Melt the butter then mix into the graham cracker crumbs. Press the most mixture into the baking sheet to even cover the bottom.
5. Reuse the bowl for the coconut. Mix the coconut with the sugar. Add the remaining salt, if you want a salty sweet hit. Distribute the coconut over the graham cracker crust. Add the chocolate. Drizzle over the condensed milk. Finish with the nuts.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a rich brown at the rim. Cool to room temperature. Freeze for 15 minutes before cutting into small squares. An offset spatula helps to remove the squares from the pan.

Do you make these? There are so many variations out there. What’s your take on it?

Related post: 

• Inside My Mom’s Book of Domesticity: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam (the orange notebook that inspired me to write cookbooks!)