I saw this recipe on another food blog recently and it looked so yummy. I love baking, but I'm not to a point yet where I'm creating my own recipes. I just copy from others. Maybe down the road I'll be a little braver. What intrigued me most about this recipe was that it called for cinnamon chips. I didn't even know such a thing existed! What I also liked about this is that you don't have to mix anything together. It's all layers. I did recently receive a brand new Bosch mixer as a wedding gift. Forget the fact that I got married 2 years ago. I would gladly receive anything Bosch any day. My parents had offered to get me a Bosch mixer for a wedding present, but after my husband and I got married, our first two dwellings did not have the counter or cupboard space for such a mixer. I had to move to Idaho to get that mixer. Why did I bring up the mixer? Oh yeah, because I just said that you didn't need to mix anything together. I would have gladly gotten out my new mixer to mix though.
What I did have to do was take advantage of my lil' Miss Z catching her zzzzz's to get all the ingredients ready. I'm really a fan of having everything measured out before I begin cooking/baking. That way I can just dump things in. It makes it especially easier if I've got a little girl hanging on my leg. I had to do a little grinding of nuts (pecans) and graham crackers, but everything else was a breeze.
Ingredients: butter, graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, shredded coconut, cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, chopped pecans, dried cranberries
Once lil' Miss Z did wake up, this is how she helped Mommy bake.
And then my husband came home and had fun with the graham cracker crumbs.
Melt the butter, pour it in the bottom of a 9X13 pan and then press the graham cracker crumbs on top of it. I should have pressed mine a little more firmly because they were pretty messy coming out of the pan.
Pour the sweetened condensed milk on top of that. Ya know, I've noticed that in our culture, we really only use sweetened condensed milk for baking. In other countries, they put it on fruit, shaved ice, lots of yummy things. We need to branch out.
And then you layer the cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, pecans, coconut, and cranberries.
Bake in a 350 oven for 25-30 minutes and then let it cool completely before cutting. I baked mine for 25 minutes and the only complaint I have is that the edges got real hard. I don't know how to keep that from happening. I think it's the milk seeping its way to the top. It's a beast to try to get out of the pan too. As I type this, my pan is soaking so that I can get the remnants of that crusted-on milk out.
I actually feel a tiny bit healthy eating these. Probably because of the nuts and the fruit. Sweetened condensed milk, white chocolate and butter generally don't have that effect on me.
Crana-cinna-berry bars
(from Our Best Bites)
1/2 c real butter, melted
1 and 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs (it's 10 crackers, or one whole cellophane wrapped package)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 c shredded coconut
1 c cinnamon chips
1 c white chocolate chips
1/2 c chopped pecans
1/2 c dried cranberries (try to get fresher ones - mine were a little old and the baking made them even chewier)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour butter into a 9X13" pan and spread with a spatula to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter and spread into an even layer. Press down gently, but firmly, with your fingertips. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumbs. Continue to layer each of the following: cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, and cranberries. Press down gently with fingertips over the entire pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly golden on top. Let bars cool completely before cutting.
