Christmas Magic Bars are gooey and rich with their OREO crust, caramel center, and loads of red and green M&M Candies, Holiday Chocolate Chips, Toffee, Pretzels, and Peanuts. They are so easy to make and to take along with you to a holiday party.
Originally posted on December 22, 2013.
If you have ten minutes, you have more than enough time to prepare a pan of these Christmas Magic Bars. Sounds good, right?
If you haven't discovered the wonders of magic bars (a.k.a. 7 layer bars or gooey bars) now is the time. You simply top a crust of cookie or cake with sweetened condensed milk then sprinkle on your favorite toppings and let the magic happen as the magic bars bake in the oven.
The sweetened condensed milk caramelizes while baking and turns into a gooey soft caramel that holds the bars together.
The beauty of magic bar recipes is that you can play around with all the other ingredients.
To make these Christmas Magic Bars I used OREO Cookies for the crust then topped it with toffee bits, peanuts, pretzels, holiday chocolate chips and Christmas M&M's. This is absolutely one of my favorite combinations.
To give you an idea of how you can change things up when making homemade magic bars check out these other recipes I've created:
- S'mores Magic Bars for the 4th of July (Topped with marshmallows and chocolate these s'mores bars are so gooey and yummy. To make them for Christmas simply use red and green M&M's instead of red, white, and blue candies.)
- Chocolate Caramel and Peanut Halloween Magic Bars (Once again use red and green M&M's to make this recipe for Christmas.)
- Candy Corn Magic Bars (Red, white, and green Reindeer Corn can be swapped out for the traditional orange, yellow, and white candies.)
- Orange and Black OREO Magic Bars (These are topped with orange-colored white chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips which is perfect for Halloween but for Christmas, you can use red, green, and white chips if you can find them or swap out the orange chips for white chips and add some red and green holiday sprinkles on top.)
So many possibilities!
While these bars were sitting on my counter cooling, some friends stopped by the house. I was thrilled to see how their eyes got big with excitement when they saw the dessert and they were elated when I offered them one.
What happened next had me in stitches.
Each woman began to, um, let see, how to put this delicately, make noises that should have come from behind closed doors. That's the sign of a great dessert.
How to make Christmas Magic Bars
(see the new video tutorial below)
- Crush OREO Cookies into fine crumbs.
- I like to use a food processor because it makes this job so easy but you can place your cookies into a large zip-top bag and wack at the cookies using a meat mallet, the back of a pan, or a rolling pin.
- Be sure you get your cookies crushed up into small pieces.
- Mix the crushed OREO Cookies with melted butter.
- Once again, I use the food processor. I just drizzle the melted butter in through the feed tube with the processor still running. The butter blends with the cookies and quickly comes together.
- If you don't use the food processor you can add the butter to your zip-top bag and knead it into the cookies or you can pour the crumbs into a bowl and stir in the butter.
- Press the cookie mixture into an even layer in a 9x13 baking pan.
- For easy removal, I like to line my pan with non-stick tin foil. That way once the magic bars are baked I simply lift the bars out using the tin foil.
- Then I can peel off the foil and cut the bars.
- Sprinkle on your toppings including toffee bits, peanuts, and pretzels.
- Pour the entire can of sweetened condensed milk over top and spread evenly.
- Top with broken pieces of red cream-filled Oreos cookies, ½ cup of the red and green M&M's and ½ of the bag of Holiday morsels.
- Bake for 25-27 minutes until the sweetened condensed milk has caramelized.
- The sweetened condensed milk will start to bubble around the edges but may not be completely caramelized in the center of the pan.
- You can cover the edges with some tin foil and allow the center to continue to bake.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle on the remaining red and green M&M's and Holiday Chocolate Morsels.
- I like to sprinkle these on at the end of the baking cycle because the candies that have been in the oven the whole time will begin cracking and the chocolate chips will have browned and the new ones will be bright and colorful.
- Return to oven for about 3 minutes just to allow the chocolate chips enough time to soften so they will stick to the bars.
- Remove the pan from the oven, and tap it on the counter a few times. This will help secure all the M&M's.
- Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan. This can take a few hours.
- Then cut the bars into squares.
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Christmas Magic Bars Video Tutorial:
NOTES:
- The M&M's tend to crack as they bake and the red and green chocolate chips can turn a bit brown so that's why I like to add some at the last minute. The fresh candies look really pretty on top. Be sure to press them down using a spatula or spoon.
- You can also place a cookie sheet on the baking rack above your pan of Christmas Magic Bars while in the oven. The cookie sheet will shield the bars from getting too brown on top.
- Allow the Christmas Magic Bars to cool completely before cutting.
- The edges will get a bit crunchier than the inside bars.
Christmas Magic Bars
- 30 Original Oreo Cookies crushed into fine crumbs
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 14 ounces (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup Heath toffee bits
- ⅓ cup salted and roasted peanuts
- ½ cup pretzels broken into small pieces
- 16 Winter Oreo Cookies with Red Vanilla Filling broken into small pieces
- 1 cup red and green M&M's
- 1 bag Nestle Holiday Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels with Red and Green Morsels
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Line a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick aluminum foil.
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Mix crushed Original Oreo Cookies with melted butter.
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Press into and even layer in the 9x13 baking pan.
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Sprinkle on toffee bits, peanuts, and pretzels.
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Pour sweetened condensed milk over top and spread evenly.
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Add the pieces of red cream filled Oreos cookies, ½ cup of the red and green M&M's and ½ of the bag of Holiday morsels.
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Bake for 25-27 minutes until the sweetened condensed milk has caramelized. Remove from oven and sprinkle on the remaining red and green M&M's and Holiday Chocolate Morsels.
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Return to oven for 3 minutes.
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Remove pan from oven, and tap it on the counter a few times. This will help secure all the M&M's.
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Cool completely.
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Peel off foil. Cut into 24-30 squares.
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Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Be sure to check out all my fun Christmas Recipes!
More Magic Bar Recipes
from Hungry Happenings
Sweet and Salty Candy Corn and Peanut Magic Bars for Halloween or Fal
Caramel, Chocolate and Peanut Butter Halloween Magic Bars
More Easy Last Minute Christmas Sweets
Nutter Butter Polar Bear Cookies
Chocolate Gingerbread Truffles
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Candy Bars
Almond M&M and Mike and Ike Candy Christmas Lights
- Irresistible Sweets with Dixie Crystals® - July 13, 2024
- How to make peanut butter? - February 15, 2024
- OREO Penguins - December 20, 2023
Stephanie Markey says
Have you ever froze them after baking?
Beth says
Yes, Stephanie, I have frozen them. They freeze well, but the M&M's will sometimes speckle (get white spots on them) if not wrapped well or thawed too quickly. I found it best to wrap them well in wax paper, then overwrap them in tin foil and place them in a zip-top bag or airtight container. Before you plan to serve them set them on the counter and let them come to room temperature for several hours (at least 4 hours or overnight) until thawed. Then, open the packaging and place them on your serving tray. This helps with the condensation issue that causes the speckles on the M&M's. They taste great once thawed.
ColleenB.~TX. says
My, how this recipe has changed over the years. I still use the original recipe from my Borden recipe booklet.
Back in 1981 if you sent in a couple labels from Borden Sweetened condensed milk, they would in turn send you the recipe booklet. Price on the booklet was $1.00 if you didn't send in 2 labels off the cans.
Great little booklet and has been well used through the years.
Anyway, Thank You for a new version of the recipe. I printed it out and will probably be making them soon
Beth says
The original recipe is delicious! I love that you can use the simple concept to make lots of different flavor variations. I hope you enjoy this one!
Betty says
Omg. I love magic cookie bars and make them every year for cookie exchange. I love your version and I look forward to making them in the coming weeks. Thank you for sharing.
Beth says
These are my mom's favorite Christmas cookie. I hope you enjoy them as much as she does each year.
Karen @ Sugartown Sweets says
These look so yummy and festive! Beth, I couldn't tell for sure if the content of the post is from present day or 2013. So if you are under the weather with no tree up or gifts wrapped, i'll be praying you are well soon! If not, MERRY CHRISTMAS, and thanks for another season filled with your amazing treats!
Beth says
LOL! Yep, the story is from 2013, but sadly I am sick once again. I think I work too hard during the holidays and almost always end up getting sick. I am fighting off a cold and hope it goes away soon. Thanks for thinking of me. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Courtenay says
can you freeze these??
Beth says
Yes, I do it all the time.
Anonymous says
Great recipe!
I'm not sure the Winter Oreos are available this year in this area - do they taste like normal oreos to just substitute those in?
beth says
Yes, actually they just have red colored filing, but otherwise are exactly the same flavor as regular Oreos.
karenb says
Beth, I just got home from the store with the ingredients to make these and noticed the "Printable form" of the Christmas Magic Bars does not include the Pretzels in the ingredients. I'm glad I read your entire post and bought the pretzels!! These look amazing-my family can't wait to try them!!!
beth says
Oh, thanks for letting me know. I just started doing the printable recipes this week and forgot to update it after I realized I had left the pretzels out of the ingredients list on the blog post. I fixed the blog post before publishing it, but I didn't even think to go back and fix the printable file. Gotta be better about that!
Brenda @ SweetSimpleStuff says
I do believe that you have taken everything I love and put it in one bar!!! Pssst ... I know why they are called last minute magic bars .... it would be like magic, if they last longer than a minute 😉
The Partiologist says
I LOVE 7-layer bars and your Christmas adaptation! Just hand your family their gift in a shopping bag along with one of these bars and they won't even know the gift was not wrapped! 🙂