Every year at Christmas, I make cookies to give away to my family and friends. Usually it’s on a small scale – a couple of kinds of cookies or cupcakes. This year, though, I have a lot more people to incorporate into my giving. Initially this freaked me out, because I had no idea how I’d get it all done. Then I realized this was an opportunity to have fun with the baking, and I began to see it as a challenge. So… I have decided to make 15 types of cookies/candy and 3 kinds of bread in the next 12 days. I will give away almost all of what I make to family and friends (I suspect some of it will disappear mysteriously overnight when little elves in my apartment get hungry). With any luck, the next 12 days will chronicle my attempt at making this happen – or else it’s going to document my horrible failure!

Today is Day Three of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Series, and I made 5 Layer Bars. I got the recipe from the Food Network website.

Since we’re still over a week away from Christmas, I’ve been trying to start this whole project with cookies and candies that will stay fresh over the next week.  Day One and Day Two are good examples of things I made with storage times in mind.  I used the same strategy for Day Three.  I decided after reading the recipe (below) that there wasn’t a whole lot that could go bad before Christmas in the 5 Layer Bars.

5 Layer Bars

1 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbles

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), melted

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place the graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and combine with the melted butter.  Press firmly into a 9×13 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle the butterscotch chips, coconut, pecans, and chocolate morsels over the graham cracker crumb crust.  Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the layers.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool and then cut into bars.

I chose to make these bars this year because I have always been curious about how to make them.  I have an aunt who makes them most years at Christmas, but my mom never did, so I had no experience with making them myself.

I assembled all the ingredients:

Then I mixed up the butter and graham cracker crumbs – I should stop here to tell everyone that I chose to melt my stick of butter in the microwave, and managed to make it explode EVERYWHERE – to the point where Alex asked me how to clean butter off the floor and ceiling.  I have no idea how it got out of the microwave and to those locations!  Once those ingredients were ready, I made a crust out of them in my 9X13 inch pan by pressing them down and out with my fingers until they were evenly distributed in the pan and firmly packed:

Then it was time to sprinkle the other ingredients all over the crust.  Easy and quick!

Once all the different chips and nuts were in the pan, it was time for my favorite part: drizzling the sweetened condensed milk over it all!  This part took longer than I thought it would, but I think it took so long because I did a crappy  job of opening the can.  No matter, the drizzling was oddly enjoyable to me – I think it might have made me feel creative.

Then it was into the oven, and 30 minutes later I had 5 Layer Bars!  I cut them into slightly smaller bars than I normally would have so I’d have more to give away.

Do they taste good?  No idea!  Judging by the tiny pieces that broke off as I cut them, which Alex and I ate as our “taste test,” I would say yes… but we probably won’t know for sure until we start eating them closer to Christmas.

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

© 2009, The Table Has Shoes (and Other Ambiguities). All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. 12 Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 4: Peanut Butter Cookies
2. 12 Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 9: Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. 12 Days of Christmas Cookies – Day Two: Chocolate Nut Bark
4. 12 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day One – Peppermint Bark
5. 12 Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 6: Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwiches