Confession: I’ve never had or made 7 layer bars. But ever since I created the salted caramel cookie cup recipe, my friend Dawn (and her husband Rex!) have been asking me to try a cookie cup filled with 7 layer bar ingredients.
Now that I’ve tried them, I am in love with 7 layer bars. The bars are very easy to make and there are tons of recipes online for them. There are many variations of ingredients, but I made my cups with Dawn’s favorites. The cups are a little more time consuming than plain bars– but very, very fun! The cookie cup holds all the yummy ingredients together and adds a dense sweet layer to the typical bar recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 tube of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
- 1c. of finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 c. chopped pecans
- 1c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4c. butterscotch chips
- 1c. shredded coconut
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
(yep, thats 7 ingredients!)
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Using clean hands, knead together graham cracker crumbs and cookie dough until all crumbs are incorporated.
- Divide dough evenly among 12 (standard size) muffin cups.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes
- Press centers of baked cookies in, forming a cup. I use a mini tart shaper for this and it makes it SO easy- you can use the end of a wooden spoon too, if you want. The inside of the cookies might still be a little undercooked at this point — that is ok!
- Layer the remaining dry ingredients in each cookie cup, saving some coconut aside.
- Place sweetened condensed milk in a zip top bag, clip a corner and drizzle the condensed milk into each cup over and around all the ingredients. I went to each cup twice, as the liquid seeped down into all the layers there was room for more on top.
- Sprinkle top with shredded coconut and place back in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. Watch for your coconut to brown on top– that is your cue to pull them out!
- Cool completely in pan.
- Use a small knife to run around edge of each cup and pop it out of pan when cooled.
My thoughts: I love them! You could experiment with ingredient variations to this if you don’t like nuts or coconut for example. I like them as is. Since I’d never had a 7 layer bar, I was depending on Dawn and Rex to judge the taste- they give them a thumbs up! If you want gooey chocolate and coconut then this is YOUR dessert! Enjoy!
