7 layer magic bars / cookies

This is one of the most popular and old fashioned american desserts. I tasted it for the very first time last year at halloween. I had taken my little one for a halloween experience at a "haunted house" place.... with my friends. The Dousman Stagecoach Inn museum was a spookily decorated little house with a fortune teller.... and the kids really enjoyed the visit. The package included some treats for the kids and that's when i came across these magical bars. I couldn't help putting 3/4 pieces in my mouth...and they were absolutely delicious. 

The old lady who made these gladly shared the recipe. It's really simple -- layer 7 ingredients one after the other and bake..... :) 

I have come to know many shortcuts and quick fix meals in USA... and this is one of the best desserts you can make which is a hit for any get together or party. People can't stop eating it ...it's bite sized and heavenly..... I made it 3-4 times and the last week, I made it for my friends' baby shower. 

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk 1 can (14oz/396 gms)
  
• Graham crackers crushed to powder -- 1 and half cups
• Unsalted butter -- 1/2 cup (melted)
• Walnuts -- 1 cup (broken to small pieces)
• Dried flaked coconut -- 1 and 1/3 cup
• Dark chocolate chips -- 1 cup
• Butterscotch chips -- 1 cup

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f.
• Line a 13 by 9 inch glass pan with parchment paper or aluminium foil.
• Melt the butter in the microwave.
• Grind the graham crackers in a food processor.

• Mix the melted butter with the graham cracker powder.

• Press down the graham cracker and butter mix firmly on the bottom of the pan.

• Pour condensed milk over the graham cracker crust.

• Spread the chocolate chips and the butterscotch chips over the condensed milk.

• Add walnuts.

• Finally, spread the coconut.

• Press everything down with a spatula.

• Bake in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes.
• Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes, then chill it in the refrigerator.
• Pull out the parchment paper, and lay it flat on a cutting board. 
• Cut into squares. 

Quantity:

• This recipe makes around 24 pieces about 1 and half inch size.

Notes:

• You can change the order of the layers ...with coconut in the middle ...and pour condensed milk in the end.
• You can use other nuts like pistachio, almonds etc.
• You can use white or milk chocolate chips or mini marshmallows.

Torcettini De St. Vincent (Sugar Crusted Twisted Cookies from Valle de Aosta)

It's that time of the month again....WE KNEAD TO BAKE TIME... :) and this time I made it to the deadline. This month's baking challenge is about Italian yeasted cookies. I had never heard of them, till +Aparna Balasubramanian announced the challenge at the beginning of this month. The recipe is quite simple and low on added sugar. The cookies are flavorful, somewhat like pretzels...crispy on the outside, and bready on the inside....

From Aparna's description:

""Torcettini are smaller versions of Torcetti (meaning small twists), and these pear/ teardrop shaped twists are made of a dough of flour, yeast and butter which are shaped and then rolled in sugar before being baked. These biscuits/ cookies are synonymous with the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d'Aosta, a small mountainous region in North-Western Italy, even though they’re well known throughout the Piedmont region as well.

This recipe is adapted from the one in Nick Malgieri’s “A Baker’s Tour”. Traditionally these biscuits/ cookies are shaped by rolling out bits of dough into “ropes” and then pinching the ends together to form a “teardrop” shape. These are shaped by crossing the rope of dough near the ends to pretty looking twists.""

I made them chocolate flavored, and covered them with orange zest flavored sugar and sprinkles.