My friend brought in magic bars to work about a week ago.  They were delectable.  For those of you who don’t know what a magic bar, it’s basically a seven layer bar that is so easy to make it’s like “magic.”  All it requires is some graham crackers, butter, condensed milk, and assorted toppings of your own choice.

Magic Bars

My friend explained to me how she made the bars, and it seemed easy enough.  Melt some butter, mix with graham crackers, pour on the condensed milk and add toppings as needed.  She suggested chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, walnuts and M&Ms.  I decided to follow suit.

I tried to make the bars last Thursday but couldn’t remember exactly how much butter or graham crackers were required.  So I quickly looked online to find a recipe for magic bars.  I found what I needed and decided to follow the instructions listed on the site.  They were a little different from my friend’s instructions, primarily when it came to the layering.  She said graham cracker, milk, toppings; the website side graham cracker, toppings, milk.

Yikes!  The bars went from magic to tragic quite quickly :(   I shouldn’t have followed the website and just gone with what my friend told me.  I didn’t know switching the layers would make such a difference.  Because the condensed milk was poured on top, not only did it make the color run off the M&Ms (which made them look pale and gross) but it also bubbled over and turned brown and slightly warty looking.  Not very attractive when serving to guests :(

The bars tasted okay, and in the end I guess that’s what matters.  But for sure I’ve learned my lesson:  to avoid tragedies, listen to Aliya Hoda in all matters :)