Nordy Bars {Nordstrom Magic Bar Recipe}
A homemade version of the famous Nordy Bars recipe from Nordstrom. This easy magic bar recipe combines chocolate chips, butterscotch, and marshmallows into a delicious cookie bar that is perfect for a crowd.
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Each parent has a signature thing. Something kids will always identify with the family. Something that is “theirs”. My Nana had her Almond Roca Recipe. My dad has his smoked salmon.
My mom was never much of a cook. With full-time jobs, two kids, and disabilities that made walking a challenge, much of the food my parents served was frozen and from Costco.
But any work potluck or big family event meant that my mom would make Nordy Bars. Nordy Bars were all hers.
Three days before my mom passed away, I had to have a hard conversation with her about what she wanted her memorial to be like. She wanted a celebration of life and that the only food to be served would be chocolate.
What Are Nordy Bars?
Nordy Bars are a dessert bar that was (still are?) served at the cafe at the Seattle clothing chain Nordstroms. There are many origin stories for how the Nordy Bar recipe came into the general public.
All I know is that the recipe lived on a 3×5 index card in my mom’s ratty avocado green Tupperware recipe box in her tidy handwriting.
What Ingredients Are in Nordy Bars?
Just like Aunt Barbara’s Old Fashioned Fudge, there is nothing nutritionally redeeming about these Nordstrom Cookie Bars. Just go with it and eat them in moderation.
These bars are rocking:
- Butter
- Butterscotch and chocolate chips
- Brown sugar (related: How to Make Brown Sugar)
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract (related: Vanilla Extract Recipe)
- Whole Wheat Pastry Flour + vital wheat gluten (but you can use all-purpose flour)
- Marshmallows (related: Healthy Marshmallows)
- Walnuts (optional)
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes:
- Don’t skip the step of lining the baking dish with parchment paper. These bars are ooey gooey and rudely will stick to anything other than parchment after cooling.
- If you use white flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, there is no need to add the vital wheat gluten.
- Melt the butter, brown sugar, and butterscotch chips on low heat. My first attempt involved too high of heat and I scrambled the eggs when I added them. Still ate them. 🙂
- Butterscotch does not melt well and may require some stirring and patience on your part.
More Dessert Recipes Like This:
- Fudgy Gluten-Free Chocolate Brownies
- Strawberry Truffles {Dark Chocolate Truffles}
- Mocha Frosting
- Peppermint Bark Graham Cracker Recipe
- Chocolate Pretzel Bark
- Addicting Strawberry Chocolate Bark
- Fudgy Adzuki Bean Brownies
Making this recipe or others?
Post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #sustainablecooks. I can't wait to see your take on it!
A homemade version of the famous Nordy Bar recipe from Nordstrom. This easy recipe combines chocolate chips, butterscotch, and marshmallows into a cookie bar.
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 package butterscotch chip (12 oz)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs, beaten room temperature
- 2 tsps pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 package chocolate chips (12 oz)
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
- 1 cup chopped nuts
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add butterscotch chips, brown sugar, and stir until melted. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine flour, vital wheat gluten, baking powder, and salt. Stir. Set aside.
Add the eggs to the butter mixture and stir to combine.
Add the flour to the butter mixture, and stir until combined. Add in the vanilla. Set aside until completely cool.
Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan, and lay parchment in, allowing some to hang over the sides.
When the butter and flour mixture has cooled, stir in chocolate chips, marshmallows, and chopped nuts. Spread in the baking pan.
Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 28 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before cutting into squares.
If you use white flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, there is no need to add the vital wheat gluten.
Please make sure to melt the butter, brown sugar, and butterscotch chips on low heat. My first attempt involved too high of heat and I scrambled the eggs when I added them.
Butterscotch does not melt well and may require some stirring and patience on your part.
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It is so odd…we also live in the Pacific NW and have a nearly identical recipe we call “Butterscotch Combos”–they don’t have nuts, and a few of the ingredient amounts are slightly different, but otherwise they’re the same. My mom doesn’t remember exactly where or who she got the recipe from, but now I have a feeling a family member may have taken it from Nordy’s!
I always leave the nuts out – blech!! I wonder if the recipe is the same and somewhere along the way the names got changed. It would be a fun research project!
We loved this recipe so much! Thank you (and your mom) for sharing this recipe.
My kids each ate 3 before I had to cut them off and send them to bed.
10yo: “This is my favorite dessert of all time!”
8yo: “Tell your friend Sarah thank you! These are the best!”
Haha, you’re welcome kiddos! So glad you all liked them, and I’m so happy my mom’s one true recipe is getting out into the world. 🙂
I made these last night as part of our New Years Eve celebration spread, after an awesome friend brought me the ingredients to make them. I had a bit of anxiety while making them as the butterscotch was, as you noted, a bit of a dick to melt. As I pressed the cooled (and shockingly orange) batter into the pan I wondered what all the fuss was about and thought I couldn’t possibly enjoy them. Well. I formally apologize to the Nordy Bar for doubting them. Holy crap are these ever good! So good that when I came downstairs from putting my son to bed our guests had already devoured half the pan. I ate five (okay, six) and then gave the remainder away because it was the only way I could stop eating them. So. Damn. Good.
They truly are an intense orange when you bake them. Almost nuclear.
The Nordy Bars accept your apology and are thrilled you and the scavengers you are related to enjoyed them so much.
I just made these, they are amazing!
I made these tonight and they were so good! Rich, chewy, decadent and a huge hit with everyone. Thanks to you and your Mom!
Can’t go wrong with this one!
butterscotch is just the best thing ever and mixing it with these other things…heaven
I love this.
I think this may be the sweetest post I have ever read.