These 3 Layer Bars are the premium cookies of our Christmas repertoire. They’re everyone’s favorite, and they’re extremely sweet, rich and chocolaty. My mom likes to tell the story of the time she made these for a Christmas party at our house when we were kids. One of the guests was Jack, my mom’s uncle and the owner of a bakery in Duluth. He asked for the recipe and my mom wrote it down and gave it to him without even thinking. When the bars showed up under the glass display case at the bakery, she thought she should get something as the owner of the recipe. Jack just laughed and reminded her that she gave the recipe away. But that was many years ago, and the bakery was passed down to a younger generation who ran it for a while before closing it down because it running a bakery is just so much work. But we still eat these 3 Layer Bars every Christmas. I usually make two pans worth, one for us, and one to give away.
At International Night at the high school a few years back, one of the kids brought 3 Layer Bars, but labeled them Nanaimo Bars from Canada. I looked it up, and sure enough these bars that we’ve been making for years are actually famous in Canada. I grew up in Minnesota, so I guess the recipe leaked over the border. The original recipe doesn’t call for baking the crust. I added that step because otherwise we’d be eating raw eggs. These bars take a little time, mostly spent in the refrigerator between layers, so plan ahead and start them early. You’ll be the hit of the desert table.
3 Layer Bars
Ingredients
Layer 1
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Layer 2
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla pudding mix
- 3 tablespoons milk
Layer 3
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Mix all layer 1 ingredients together in a medium sized bowl then press into a 9x13 baking dish to form a bottom crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Cool layer 1 in the refrigerator while you mix up layer 2. Carefully spread the thick vanilla frosting over the bottom layer. Cool the first two assembled layers in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, until the vanilla layer is hard and cold.
- For the third layer, melt the chocolate chips in a 2 cup glass measuring cup in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. Spread the melted chocolate over the vanilla layer, working quickly before the chocolate hardens.
- Cool again in the refrigerator to finish hardening the top layer of chocolate. These bars are easiest to cut at room temperature.
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