Making magic right in front of your eyes

Cooking Magic

By Mike Gange 

When I was 16 or 17, my mother used to make these magic cookie squares.

They were rich, delicious, sweet and seemed to appear out of no where, especially during exam times or at Christmas. The Christmas-time version always had those red or green sweetened cherries added. The edges near the baking pan would always get a bit harder but, to me, that was just taken for granted as part of the taste. When they were cooled, my mother would take them out of the pan, cut them into neat squares or diamonds, place them on a dinner plate covered with a clean Tea Towel and put them on the counter. I just helped myself. There were no portion controls if mom had already gone to bed. 

I’ve made these magic cookie squares many times for my kids. While I do tend to make them at exam times and holidays, I also make them about once a month, except in July and August when I rarely cook in the oven. In our house, I let the kids help themselves, cutting their own portion out of the pan. It is not unusual for my 17 year-old football-playing son to eat the whole 13 inch pan over a couple of days, usually sometime in the late evening when I am not there to see them disappear. 

When I make these magic cookie squares, my kids won’t eat the edges. When I come downstairs in the morning, the whole panful might be gone, except for the ½ inch ring of harder cookie squares around the outside edge of the pan.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter or Becel margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 cups Honey Maid graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups Hershey’s semisweet chocolate morsels
• ½ cup Hershey’s butterscotch morsels
• 1 1/3 cups Baker’s Angel flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• At Christmas add the extra layer of bottled cherries before the Baker’s Angel flaked coconut.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13×9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature. 

Did you notice how easy it is to include product placement? Almost everything in the recipe has a Brand name attached to it. We get so used to putting Brand names into our communications, that we just overlook product placement. It’s the same thing in our media consumption. Product placement, done successfully, will blend into the story as if it should have always been there.

And by the way, magic cookie square is a recipe owned by Eagle Brand, which is owned by Borden’s. Borden’s also owns Cracker Jacks, Elmer’s Glue and X-Acto knives. And apparently, Borden’s is owned by Smuckers.

AND NO, Borden’s did not pay me for the product mention.