Food! Christmas treats! Her great grandmother baked hundreds of cookies. There were trays and trays out around the holidays. (Italian grandmas, am I right?) Her grandmother made tons of Christmas treats and passed down the tradition of giving them to her kids. I vividly remember Christmas baking with my mom (like these amazing cut out sugar cookies). Even better, I remember my brothers, 5 and 7 years older than me as teenagers baking away at the holidays. They would put together box after box for neighbors, friends, and family filled with goodies. And they always had these Magic Bars in them. Known by many names, like Hello Dolly Bars and 7-Layer Bars, these are so easy to make. There is a reason they are a classic; these fantastic cookie bars cannot be beat. This baking dish is perfect. In addition to conducting heat well, I love that it has straight sides. I add two layers of parchment paper, one to go length wise and one to go width wise, and then at the end I can lift the bars right out of the pan to cut them. You can also freeze magic cookie bars. Here they are in order of my most favorite (but they are all delicious):
S’mores Magic Cookie Bars Milky Way Magic Bars Chocolate Covered Cherry Magic Bars Strawberries and Cream Seven Layer Bars Cookie Butter Magic Cookie Bar Recipe Robin Egg Magic Bars
As you can see, you can easily make magic bars without nuts or without coconut. There are so many different combinations. Let me know what combination you come up with!
