7 (6 but who's counting) Layer Bars

Living in Florida when the rest of your family lives in Ohio has it's disadvantages. One this year was that my husband couldn't get off work, so we spent this Christmas without seeing Family.

Of course, one of the major disadvantages to this is lack of Christmas cookies.

So how surprised was I when I saw that in the box filled with Christmas presents from my mom was all the trimmings to make our family's 7 layer bars!!

I was already a bit cookied out from store bought cookies I got because I was lazy, so I put the ingredients away to make another time. Now, technically is another time.

Oh my yes. Now it's definitely time to make these cookies! What you'll need is everything you see here. Delicious sweetened coconut, some sweetened condensed milk, a stick of butter (or margarine works just as well), a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, whole walnuts and graham cracker crumbs. I'll include the actual recipe down at the bottom, but for now let's just see how these babies get made!

The very first thing you're going to want to do is melt that stick of butter. I like to do it on medium in a saucepan because it doesn't pop in my microwave that way. But if you like butter poppin have at it!

Now you really are going to want to chop your nuts (yes I said chop your nuts). If you have a nut grinder/chopper that's an excellent way to do it. I do not have one of these however because who thinks of getting one until you need it? And then of course it's too late. So I chop mine by hand in little groups so that walnut doesn't get everywhere.

It's actually a pretty simple motion if you have a sharp enough knife. I also like that you can control the chop.

Aww yeah. Pretty soon you're going to have a nice bowl of chopped walnuts. Go ahead and set them aside.

Your butter should be melted by now, and maybe even to a soft boil. Go ahead and take it off the heat and set it aside. Grab your 9" x 13" and dump your graham cracker crumbs in it.

Yeah kinda like that.

Now go ahead and pour your melted butter over the graham crackers. This isn't really rocket science, just go ahead and mix it all together!

It's going to look like a bunch of crumbs. That's okay though cause that's how we want it to look. Now I don't remember where I picked up this next trick but take the flat side of a dry measuring cup and spray the bottom with a little cooking spray...

And start mashing! Spread that crust out evenly to all parts of the pan. It should look a little bit like this...

Did you know it's really hard to take a macro picture while your cat is batting at the camera strap, and the screen on the camera is so small that you can't hardly see that your picture is blurry?

Well now you do.

Here comes my favorite part!

Take some of that sweetened flake coconut and spread it on the crust. I use about 3/4 of the bag because my husband doesn't like coconut as much as I do, but you can use the whole bag if you'd like Go ahead and lightly press that down.

Now pour the entire bag of chocolate chips on top. You heard me, the entire bag!! Spread it out evenly, or if you want a certain part clump a few extra chips in it and save that piece for yourself.

I won't tell.

Now come the walnuts! Spread them out evenly as well... because here's the sweet sweet glue that holds it all together!

Awwww yeah. I love sweetened condensed milk!

Make sure to drizzle this on every corner of this, don't be afraid to get your spatula out seriously. This is going to keep everything all together so that the walnuts and chocolate chips don't go flying when you cut the bars.

Now everything should look like this. It looks like a glob of mess doesn't it? Don't worry because it's going to look like yummy yummy goodness when we're done baking it!

Since this is really the only place I use coconut and we don't have Meijer down here and I LOVE their coconut, I will wait out my 30 minutes eating a giant bowl of the remains.

Because I can. Also because my husband is at work.

OH MAN!

The whole house smells like chocolate and coconut and sweet sweet milk. And it looks so delicious. The true test now, is waiting. Waiting until it cools.

Of course, patience has never been a virtue of mine.

7 (6 but who's counting) Layer Bars

1 stick of butter

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 7 oz bag sweetened flake coconut

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup walnuts

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Chop your walnuts to the desired size. While doing so, melt the butter in a saucepan on medium.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter until all crumbs are wet. Put into bottom of a 9"x13" pan being sure to spread the crust out evenly.

Pour the coconut onto the crust, spread evenly and press gently into the crust. Pour the chocolate chips on top, also spread evenly. Top with a layer of walnuts, spread evenly and press lightly.

Pour 1 can of sweetened condensed milk over the top of the layers, making sure to get milk along the edges and in the corners. This will be the glue that holds the layers together.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool, cut into squares.