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cookie Cookies & Bars

Hello Dollies

Amy's family recipe, written on a card in her recipe tin, made exactly as the card reads. Five layers, no bowl, no mixer, nothing to stir. Melted butter goes into the pan first, then graham crumbs on top of it, then chocolate, coconut and walnuts, then a whole can of sweetened condensed milk poured over everything. The name is a coincidence worth knowing: Hello Dolly bars were named in 1965 after the Broadway musical by an 11-year-old in Dallas, not after Dolly Parton.

Total time
35 min
Serves
8
Difficulty
Easy
play_circle Watch episode 285
Hello Dollies
As seen on Episode 285

The preparation

7 steps, about 35 minutes start to finish.

  1. 01

    1. Heat the oven to 350F. Use a glass 8x8x2 pan (a 5x7x2 works too, the card lists both). Nothing gets lined, nothing gets greased, and there is no parchment anywhere in this recipe.

  2. 02

    2. Pour the melted butter into the pan first. It will pool. That is correct and it is the whole method. Do not mix it with anything.

  3. 03

    3. Scatter the graham crumbs evenly over the butter. Do not stir them in and do not press them down. They sit on top and drink the butter as it bakes.

  4. 04

    4. LAYER, AND DO NOT STIR. Chocolate chips, then coconut, then walnuts. Even and edge to edge, one cup each, in that order.

  5. 05

    5. POUR: open the condensed milk and pour it slowly back and forth over the whole surface, getting all the way to the corners. Do not stir and do not press.

  6. 06

    6. BAKE: 30 minutes at 350F. The top will be golden, the coconut toasted at the edges, and the whole pan bubbling around the sides.

  7. 07

    7. COOL COMPLETELY, then cut into squares. At least two hours on the counter, or one hour on the counter and one in the fridge.

lightbulb The chef's notes

“The cooling is the only rule that matters and it is the rule everybody breaks. Warm bars taste exactly the same and fall apart completely, so if you are making these for anybody but yourself, build in the two hours. One cup of butter to one cup of crumbs is a lot of butter by modern recipe standards and it is supposed to be. That is what makes the bottom rich and candy-like instead of a dry pressed crust, and it is why this version does not ask you to press anything. The one thing not to swap is the sweetened condensed milk, because that is the entire structural engineering of the bar.”

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