It’s tough to follow yesterday’s post. Obviously bar cookies aren’t in the same league as Bakerella…bless her cake-ball heart! There is however something to say for a scrumptious treat which is cute in an under-stated sort of way and only takes 10 minutes of prep time.

I love the bar cookie for its simplicity and versatility. There are so many different bar cookie recipes. Furthermore, each and every one can be cut into the shape of whatever fit your needs. Today I needed hearts.

I could have just as easily needed flowers, however.

(Not the most terrific flower, but you get the point.)

Today’s bar cookie began as a basic 7-layer cookie I found on RecipeZaar - using butter, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, condensed milk and coconut.  Hmmm. That’s just 6 layers. Technically only five since you mix the butter and graham cracker crumbs. Oh wait, chopped walnuts too.

One of the commenters mentioned replacing Devil’s  Food Cake Mix for the cracker crumbs. Not only deliciously clever, but amazingly fortuitious since I have no graham crackers. So I began by mixing 1 1/2 cups of melted butter with one chocolate cake mix and spread it on the bottom of a cake pan.

Next, I sprinkled what looked like a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, a partial bag of butterscotch chips (about 1/3 cup) and a good measure of toffee chips - t0 make up for the shortage of butterscotch and add a real 7th layer. I think it’s disingenuous to count the butter and cake mix as seperate layers. Oh yeah, again..I forgot the chopped walnuts.

I covered all that with a layer of condensed milk. Then I realized I had no coconut. Not even a mini Mounds bar.  I’d like to think I invented a new dessert in that moment. The answer was so simple, howeve, I’m confident I’m not the first to try it. I put the bars in the oven - sans coconut- at 350 for 15 minutes. I then removed the pan, covered the concoction in a layer of mini-marshmallows (but you already knew that) and returned it to the oven to  finish baking for 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

At this point you have to consider your options. You can either allow them to cool for 58 seconds then eat the warm gooey yumminess straight out of the pan as we did the first half of the pan. Or, you can wait for what seems like a year for the bars to cool completely and then cut them into fun shapes. If fun for you is a rectangle I won’t judge.