Adventures In Seven Layers

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Approximately a century ago, when I was working a night-shift job, I naturally kept drastically different hours from the rest of my family and friends.  This meant I was awake late at night, looking for things to do.  And I discovered that you can go see a movie that releases on a Friday “early”…by which I mean, midnight on Thursday night.  These days, it’s not at all uncommon for a highly anticipated movie to be released on a Thursday evening, but back in the olden days, going to see a new release at midnight was truly avant-garde stuff.

There were not many of us that chose the midnight shows on Thursday nights…but I did tend to see the same small group of people over and over again.  Night-shifters all, I suppose.  I never actually asked.  The theatre we liked to go to was considered fancy at the time…stadium seating, wide leather (leatherette) seats, and a much larger menu to order from than the usual popcorn/soda/candy fare that is still on offer even today.  In fact, this theatre actually had a restaurant in it…if you wanted to have a nice dinner-and-a-movie date, you could do it all in one place.  And you could order items from the restaurant to be brought to you in the theatre.  One of my favorites was their Artichoke Spinach Dip, served with grilled flatbread.  Yum!  I did figure out the recipe for that, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

In addition to the usual concession fare, they also provided baked goods: brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and something I’d not previously encountered, called a Seven Layer Bar.  All of these baked offerings were in outrageous portions.  The Seven Layer Bars had to be 4x4” in size…ridiculous.  But oh, so delicious!

I eventually went surfing on the inter-webs to figure out how to make these delightful bars myself.  There are lots of recipes and they are very similar, but I’ve tweaked mine a little and I think I finally have it perfect now.

Okay, the method, followed by the recipe:  melt butter and then mix together with your graham cracker crumbs.  Then pat into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13” pan. Sprinkle your chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and chopped nuts over the crust, then pour a whole can of sweetened condensed milk as evenly as you can over everything.  Top with some sweetened shredded coconut and bake for 25 minutes.  Do not shorten the baking time.  If the coconut looks to be getting too brown before the baking time is done, just cover the pan with foil.  Then let it cool COMPLETELY before cutting it into sixteen generous pieces.  This keeps well at room temperature for 3-4 days and in the fridge for up to a week.

A couple notes:  the recipe calls for 3 cups of graham cracker crumbs.  That’s roughly 18 crackers or 2 sleeves of crackers.  The easiest way to turn these crackers into crumbs is to break them up slightly into a ziplock bag, press as much air out as you can before closing the bag, and then use a rolling pin to roll over the crackers until they’re mostly crumbs.  I recommend using dark chocolate chips rather than milk chocolate or semi-sweet, because this dessert is already extremely sweet, so cutting down on the sweetness slightly is a good thing.  You can substitute white chocolate or peanut butter chips, if you wish, but the traditional flavor profile is butterscotch and chocolate.  You can also use different nuts, if you wish, but I think pecans give the best flavor for this particular dessert.  Oh, and I think the easiest way to chop nuts is with an old-fashioned nut chopper, like my mother had when I was growing up.

If you’ve never had these delightful treats, I hope you’ll give my recipe a try.

Seven Layer Bars

Click here for printable PDF of recipe

INGREDIENTS

3 cups graham cracker crumbs *

1 cup butter

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray 9x13” pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl, mix together the butter and the graham cracker crumbs. Press in an even layer over the bottom of your pan. Sprinkle the nuts, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips over the graham layer. Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the top of all this as evenly as possible. Top with the coconut and bake for 25 minutes. Do not shorten the baking time. If the coconut is getting too brown before the cooking time has elapsed, cover with foil. Let cool completely before cutting into 16 pieces. Keeps for up to a week in the fridge.

NOTES

* this is about two sleeves of crackers or about 18 full size crackers; easiest way to crush them is to put them in a ziplock bag and run a rolling pin over them