Nordy Bars {Nordstrom Magic Bar Recipe}
You’ll love this homemade version of the famous Nordy Bars recipe from Nordstrom. This easy magic bar combines chocolate chips, butterscotch, and marshmallows into a delicious cookie bar that is perfect for a crowd.
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My mom was never much of a cook. With a full-time job, two kids, and a disability that made standing a challenge, much of the food in my house was 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.
What Are Nordy Bars?
Nordy Bars are a dessert bar that was (still are?) served at the cafe at the Seattle clothing chain Nordstroms. It is a cross between a loaded brownie and a magic bar.
There are many origin stories for how the Nordy Bar recipe came to 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, or my Nana’s Almond Roca recipe, 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 chips and chocolate chips
- Brown sugar (related: How to Make Brown Sugar)
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract (related: Vanilla Extract Recipe)
- 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.
- Melt the butter, brown sugar, and butterscotch chips on low heat. Too high of heat and you’ll curdle/scramble the eggs when they’re added.
- Butterscotch chips do not melt easily and will 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
- Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
- Instant Pot Hot Chocolate
- Peppermint Bark Graham Cracker Recipe
- Chocolate Pretzel Bark
- Addicting Strawberry Chocolate Bark
- Fudgy Adzuki Bean Brownies
Nordy Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter {1 stick}
- 1 package butterscotch chip {12 oz}
- 1/2 cup brown sugar {packed}
- 2 eggs, beaten {room temperature}
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 package chocolate chips {12 oz}
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
- 1 cup chopped nuts {optional}
Equipment
Instructions
- 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, baking powder, and salt. Stir. Set aside.
- Add the beaten eggs to the cooled 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 (optional) 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.
Notes
These were amazing– gooey, chewy, chocolatey, and oh-so-easy. Love that you can just pop them in the freezer and save a few for a rainy day. (Theoretically speaking. We ate our batch in 2 days.)
Haha, I’ve heard they freeze very well but we’ve never actually experienced it ourselves. 🙂
So glad you enjoyed them!
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.