These awesome Dude Food Magic Bars are so EASY to make. Dump a bunch of delicious ingredients like bacon, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pretzels and potato chips in a pan and bake it … must I go on!?
This coming Sunday is Father’s Day, to which I say, psssh. In my house we’re celebrating Father’s Week. If you’re not familiar with this made-up custom, Father’s Week is a magical week when Jason gets a new gift every single day leading up to Father’s Day. This sounds super fancy and over-the-top, until I tell you that for his first gift I gave him a loofah.* All you other fathers out there can stop being jealous now.
*In my defense, it was a nice loofah. And seriously, he wanted a new one one. Just ask him.
If you’re a fella who’s not lucky enough to have a new loofah—a nice loofah—or an entire week devoted to giving you presents, let me be the one to give you the greatest gift of all: Dude Food Magic Bars.
Traditional Magic Bars, aka Hello Dolly Bars, aka Seven Layer Bars, are already pretty dude food-y. They’re sweet and gooey and can be made by dumping a bunch of ingredients in a pan and baking it, which I believe is the official Baking Methodology of dudes everywhere. I think Magic Bars are one of the few desserts Jason has ever attempted to make on his own. And maybe he accidentally used rancid nonstick cooking spray, and maybe it took three attempts before they were edible, but dang it—he succeeded. For my baking-challenged husband, that’s a minor miracle.
Instead of the usual Magic Bar suspects (grahams, coconut, walnuts, etc) these bars are packed with the manliest of ingredients. The bottom crust is made with crushed pretzels, then they’re layered with crispy bacon, dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, and crushed potato chips, then finally they’re drenched in salted caramel sauce.
It’s like eating a giant stereotype, and it is awesome.
Now before we go further, I have to say that obviously these are not just for fathers, and they’re not just for menfolk either. I know plenty of women who would love to go to town on a gooey cookie bar packed with salty chips and pretzels, and to them, I say: welcome. Pull up a chair and grab a bib. These bars are equal opportunity deliciousness.
Assembling the bars couldn’t be easier. Once the pretzel crust is packed into the pan, it’s a simple matter of layering all of the ingredients on top of one another, pouring on the caramel sauce, and giving it a quick bake in the oven.
In case you’re looking for a close-up of the caramel-soaked bars, I’ve got you covered:
After he tasted them, Jason suggested I top the finished bars with a pinch of crumbled potato chips. The other chips, the ones that are baked into the bars, become caramelized and lose their heavy crunch, so sprinkling the bars with fresh chips before serving is like the trashy equivalent of giving your dessert a pinch of fleur de sel—the salt and the crunch really make the flavors in the bars pop.
And of course, of course you can customize these with your favorite ingredients. Any sort of nuts would be a great addition. Maybe some chopped candy bars? Your favorite cookies? A dash of cayenne, for heat, or a splash of alcohol in the caramel? Bring it on. Father’s Week isn’t just about nice loofahs and Hallmark cards with jokes about duct tape, you know. It’s also about cramming all of your favorite junk foods into one incredible bar.
The final bars are a riot of opposites: sweet and salty, gooey and crunchy, all kinds of complex flavors made from guilty pleasure ingredients. One thing they’re not is photogenic, but hey: It’s dude food. It doesn’t have to look pretty, it just has to taste awesome. High five.
More Cookie Bars You’ll Love
- Salted Honey Walnut Bars
- Twix Kat Candy Bars
- Cookies and Cream Oreo Bars
- The Best Coconut Brownies
- Seven Layer Bars
Golf Ball Truffles and Putting Green Brownies
Chocolate Mustache Pops
Dude Food Magic Bars
Ingredients
- 8 strips bacon
- 5 oz small pretzel twists, (about 4 cups, measured before they are crumbs)
- 4 oz unsalted butter, melted
- 3 TBSP granulated sugar
- 6 oz dark chocolate chips, (1 cup)
- 6 oz peanut butter chips, (1 cup)
- 3.75 oz ruffled potato chips, (1 cup), crushed from about 2 cups uncrushed chips
- 14 oz thick salted caramel sauce, (1 ¼ cup), store-bought or homemade
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350* F. Line a 9×9-inch pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- Fry the bacon until it is crisp, turning often so it cooks evenly. Once crispy, remove the bacon from the pan and place it on a paper towel-lined plate to cool. Once cool, chop into small pieces.
- Put the pretzels in a food processor and process them until they are fine crumbs. Combine the pretzel crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a bowl and toss until the pretzels are moistening and the mixture has the texture of wet sand. Press it onto the bottom of the foil-lined pan in an even layer.
- Sprinkle the chopped bacon on top of the pretzels in an even layer, then add the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and crushed potato chips. Pour the salted caramel sauce evenly over the entire pan.
- Bake the bars at 350 for 26-30 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling on the sides. If they are not bubbling initially, keep cooking them until you see bubbles appearing around the edges of the pan.
- Let them cool on a wire rack for several hours, until they’re room temperature. To serve, lift the bars from the pan using the foil as handles, and cut into small squares. (They are easiest to cut when they are cold, but they taste best at room temperature.) If desired, sprinkle with a pinch of crushed potato chips just before serving.
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
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Four ounces of butter… Is that one stick?
Yep, four ounces is one stick!
Made these over the weekend and they were fantastic!! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome, Wes! So glad you enjoyed them!
Liz – I’m so excited to make these for our girls quilting day tomorrow! I say NAY to “Dude Food” this is categorically “Goddess Goodies”!
Goddess Goodies, I love it!! These are quilting fuel for sure. Please let me know how you like them!
I think these are plenty photogenic! Love the bacon and potato chips! Pinning now….
I can’t say they aren’t photogenic! They look ooey-gooey goody! And they had my mouth watering. No kidding!
These look amazing! Could the recipe be doubled and made in a 9×13 pan, or is it best to just do two separate batches? My boyfriend’s birthday is tomorrow and we’re expecting a large group- I KNOW everyone will want a bite 🙂
Hi Claire! You can definitely double it for a 9×13. You’ll probably want to adjust the baking time–my guess is it will take a little longer to cook. I can’t say exactly how long, but I’d just keep an eye on it and check every few minutes after 20 until it’s golden brown and bubbling. Happy birthday to your boyfriend!! Hope you guys love them. 🙂
I just made these today and OMG. First I love the sweet and salty combo and well bacon makes everything better. I just let them cool a bit before trying a piece and the first few chews you are trying to figure it all out but then you are in Heaven with the mixture of flavors and textures. This is delish! I am tempted to next time put a sprinkle of sea salt on the top. Great recipe to feed not just the dudes but the chicks too.
Hi Kristen, So glad you loved them! Agreed that a sprinkle of salt on top would be perfect–now you have me wanting to make them again. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Wow years later after this post I find this recipe! Quick question ….. I’m making this tomorrow for Father’s Day and I’m going to triple the batch (wish me luck) because I don’t have the right pan- so my question is can I use regular Hershey caramel topping? They did not have the sauce or salted?????
Probably? I’ve never tried it with that brand. If you have sweetened condensed milk that’s a fine substitute too! Let me know how it goes!
I want to make these too, but I’m confused about the sweetened condensed milk. Do you pour it over the bars ‘uncooked’? I’m used to making my own dulce de leche by boiling the can of condensed milk in my pressure cooker, but I’m unclear on whether to cook it beforehand or use it in its natural state on these yummy sounding bars.
Taste so good. I love the all of the flavor combinations.
But I ran into an issue. My pretzel base crumbled when I cut into it.
Does anyone have an idea as to what I may have done wrong?
Hi Amber! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the bars. As far as the crust, I’d recommend making sure the pretzel crumbs are as fine as possible (a food processor can help with this if you’ve got one) and add additional butter if your crumbs need it, until it holds together when pressed into a ball. It could be that you just needed a bit more butter to make it “stick.” 🙂