Hello Dolly Bars
It was quite a week for those of us in Gen X, and for the world in general. We lost a couple of icons, first Dolly and then Tim Curry on the same day (but his family didn’t announce it till the next day out of respect for Ms Parton).
I’m not a big fan of country music, but I loved Dolly for a bunch of reasons. First off, she was only ever who she was, and she made no apologies for that. And I loved that about her. You’d never catch her out without her hair, nails, outfits and 5″ heels. That was Dolly. That was who she was.
But more than that, Dolly was a force for good in this world. She accepted everyone for who they were. She loved the gays and the theys and became a queer icon (not unlike Tim Curry). She started the Imagination Library, and sent free books to kids every month to help to engender a love reading. As a girl who loved to read as a kid and still loves to read, I think this is wonderful.
She did a lot of other great things as well, charity work, Dollywood of course, and the lady loved to eat. There’s a great quote from her about how much she loves potatoes. Same, Dolly, same.
Anyway, to pay tribute to Dolly, I thought I’d share the recipe for something called Hello Dolly Bars.
If you grew up in my house, you would have heard these referred to as Magic Bars or 7 Layer Bars. But they also go by Hello Dolly Bars. As far as I know, they aren’t named after Dolly Parton in any way, probably more related to the Hello Dolly musical, but I don’t care. This seemed like a fitting way to pay tribute.
These are delicious, a little sweet, and really easy to make. We called them Magic Bars growing up because they kind of come together like magic (the recipe probably originated from the Borden company, who made sweetened condensed milk, a key ingredient). You basically pour a bunch of stuff into a pan and then bake it and voila! Bars!
The other thing that’s great about this is how much you can customize it. I used walnuts here, but you can use any kind of nut you like. Pecans would slap. Peanuts, almonds, cashews? All valid. You can also mix up what kind of chocolate you use. Obviously chocolate chips are the easiest, but try dark chocolate, butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips for a fun spin.
It’s also really easy to veganize, as I did in my second cookbook, Vegan Baking Made Easy.
Dolly, we’ll always love you. And these bars.
Hello Dolly Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs choose vegan or gluten free if making recipe vegan or gluten free
- 1/4 cup melted butter choose vegan butter if making it vegan
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk choose sweetened condensed coconut milk if making vegan
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup chocolate (chips for chopped bars) choose vegan chocolate if making vegan
- 1/2 cup nuts walnuts or pecans
- fleur de sel
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Carefully line a 8" square pan with parchment. This is a sticky recipe.
- In a small bowl, place the graham cracker crumbs and add the melted butter to it. Mix well till the mixture is sandy.
- Press the graham cracker mix into the bottom of the pan, packing it well.
- Next, open the can of sweetened condensed milk and dump it overtop the graham cracker crust. Spread it out all over the base.
- Next, scatter the coconut over the sweetened condensed milk in an even layer.
- Next, scatter the nuts over, and finally the chocolate.
- Finish with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the top is starting to be golden.
- Remove from oven and cool completely. Allowing to cool (even putting it in the fridge) will allow you to slice it more easily. Use the parchment to remove from the pan and slice into 12 pieces.