These crunchy squash chips are tasty, snackable treats that are eco-friendly since they use vegetable waste. When the oven is already hot, prepare them after or before roasting your squash flesh. Serve alongside chilled, creamy dips, such as buttermilk ranch dip.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 24 bars |
Ingredients
- ½ cup margarine, melted
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup butterscotch chips
- 1 ½ cups flaked coconut
- 1 ⅓ cups sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Pour melted margarine into a 9×13-inch pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs evenly over top. Place chopped nuts over crumbs, then scatter with chocolate and butterscotch chips. Add flaked coconut, then pour condensed milk evenly over top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned on top, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into 24 bars.
- Walnuts aren’t the only nut you can use; try any of your other favorites like pecans, peanuts, or cashews.
- You can cut larger or smaller bars if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 223 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 24 g |
| Cholesterol | 6 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 66 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
So easy and so delicious! They won’t last. I like using peanut butter chips with the chocolate ones.
It was a hit for the holiday treat boxes! I also added cooking spray on the bottom edge of the glass 9X13 pan and 1 extra TBS of butter for the melted butter base. Otherwise, followed recipe. It did not stick to the sides. So easy to make.
The woman who gave this recipe 3* is wrong about having to mix the graham crackers and butter together. The “magic” part of magic bars is that you do not have to mix anything, and the sweetened condescensed milk binds all of the ingredients into a dense and rich bite of deliciousness! Quick and easy. If she had tried the recipe without mixing them, she would have found what all of the other 5* reviews discovered- they hold together perfectly. I’ve been doing it for 50 years. Go make magic, lol.
An amazing easy bar Only thing I did different was used one bag of chocolate chips and one bag of butterscotch chips instead of the three-quarter cup and extra nuts
I love these bars, I’ve made versions of them since childhood. Used the suggestion to mix the graham crackers and butter and press into bottom of pan before layering the rest of the ingredients. Just because of our taste, my son and I use Heath chips instead of butterscotch chips and macadamia nuts instead of walnuts or pecans. Got raves from the bunch!!
I describe this one as a meatloaf dessert bar. I looked in my pantry and found half used bags of chips (I had a partial Ghirardelli melting wafers, some white chocolate chips and toffee chips), whichever nuts were handy, chocolate sweetened condensed milk that I was uncertain how to use, and presto…a great dessert! There were conflicting sets of directions regarding the order they should be layered. I went with the one that said put on the milk last. Next time I’ll follow original directions and put it on top of the graham cracker crust. The way I did it wasn’t particularly attractive.
I remember this recipe from my childhood. I am glad to have found it to make it with my children. I may have over-baked it slightly (25 min) because the edges were quite hard. Overall, the bars were enjoyed by all.
These are great, but I tried making them with a substitution suggested by my sister, Sheryl, and they were absolute perfection! My husband called them “Burnt Squares” because of their appearance, but nobody could dispute the amazing taste! Just replace the Graham crumbs with an equal amount of Oreo crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup of white sugar. Delicious!
Brought these into work, made them per the recipe with a little extra butterscotch chips. Everyone loved them and people were asking for the recipe! 10/10 would make again!
5 stars for taste ad ease. Am wondering if I could decrease the amount of butter used. It is really greasy.
Love this recipe. Pouring the sweetened condensed milk on top keeps the bar together.
I have made these countless times and everyone always gobbles them up. I usually hand out at Christmas as a little something when meeting up with friends. As soon as they see a little box or bag of something the first reaction is I was hoping you were bringing those! If they didn’t dive in by the end of lunch, dinner or drinks I wouldn’t believe they meant it. The recipe is great as is, but I have modified it over the years so if these changes help others great. If not, you can not go wrong the way it is. I add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon to the graham cracker crumbs. I up that to 1 3/4 -2 cups as well, so a little more butter is needed. I melt the butter and stir into the crumbs, and then press it evenly and firmly into the buttered glass pan with a flat bottomed glass. I premix the chips, coconut and walnuts. I also add 1 cup of peanut butter chips to the mix. I then press that evenly on top of the graham crackers, and finally top with the condensed milk. Pouring the milk on last helps hold it all together. I usually try and cut into fairly small pieces as it is pretty rich. I let cool rover night or chill in the fridge if i need to cut quickly. Thats it! Enjoy!
Love this recipe! I have made it many times. Using for my cookie exchange this year.
Great Recipe, made great treats for the kids to pass out to the neighborhood over the holidays.
Tasty, but my cracker crumbs ended up as loose and dry at the bottom of the pan. For the pan size, I’d double the amount of margarine, and maybe mix it directly into the crumbs to make a paste.
Everyone ate some and enjoyed it very much
Because I’m gluten free, I use Glutino’s brand chocolate chip cookies (10 to be exact) and crush in food processor instead of graham crackers. I scale back a little on the chocolate chips because there are chips in the cookies. My preference of nuts are pecans and I add toffee bits. So yummy!! Thank you for a great recipe I can make, eat, and share. No one knows they are gluten free they’re so good.
So simple, so good! Everyone loves these, and they take, like, 5 minutes to throw together and always turn out great. It almost feels like cheating the pay-off I get for the amount of effort expended. Recipe ratios are perfect. No adjustment needed.
I’ve made this three times in one week as it’s Christmas time. Then I wondered if a tipster/commenter had a suggestion for preventing it from crumbling. Someone said this isn’t the original-prob true. She said to layer it differently to hold it together. So I tried her tip aka the original version. Well she’s right on both accounts…HOWEVER it surely doesn’t taste as good as this version. The reason this magic bars 2 recipe is outstanding is because you get the same effect and the coconut isn’t turned into a hard candy substance. It’s also not as pretty as this version. So please do layers the nuts first then chips then coconut then milk.
Cut these into small pieces because they are very sweet—but oh so good. I made them exactly as written and they turned out great, but I have a couple of tips: be careful of over cooking, it makes them hard to cut & get out of the pan. Place the pan in the frig to cool them completely before you cut, otherwise you’ll have a big mess.
Amazing! I read some of the other comments and made a few adjustments. I melted the butter and mixed the graham cracker crumbs in a separate bowl . I pressed the mixture into a 9×13 glass greased pan. I used one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk. I followed all other directions. I baked for 27 minutes. They were perfect!