This Hello Dolly Bars recipe (also known as Magic Cookie Bars) is a delicious, family favorite dessert to make and share during the holidays with a buttery graham cracker crust topped with pecans, chocolate chips, coconut and sweetened, condensed milk.
These Hello Dolly Bars are a family favorite at our house especially around the holidays. We make multiple batches to share with friends and family and to freeze and enjoy later.
There are many different names for this recipe. You may have heard of these called hello dolly cookies, hello dolly squares, hello dollies cookies, magic cookie bars, seven-layer bars, or coconut dream bars.
If you want to know some history of how these treats got their Hello Dolly name, the best research was done by Barry Popik, who studies the history of words and is a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary of American Regional English, Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Yale Book of Quotations and Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Check out Barry’s post on Hello Dolly Squares (Hello Dolly Bars; Hello Dolly Cookies; Hello Dolly Cake; Hello Dollies).
There are many different Hello Dolly Bar recipes out there, but I think this recipe makes the best Hello Dolly Bars for a few reasons.
First, many are made in a 9″ x 9″ baking dish, which makes the bars a little too thick in my opinion, because they are really sweet.
Second, many of those recipes have you cut them into 9 squares, which are a little too large with too many calories. I mean, I have been known to eat one of these with my coffee in the morning and I don’t need a full breakfast of calories to have an amazing snack with my coffee!
Third, some recipes use walnuts instead of pecans. I’m okay with that, so if you prefer walnuts, then just switch them out in this recipe. Speaking of which, if you want a Vegan Hello Dolly Bars recipe, then click this link for my Vegan Magic Cookie Bars.
Fourth, some of the recipes call for including a cup of butterscotch chips. I’m not a huge fan of butterscotch flavor and I don’t think you have to make this simple recipe more complicated since it is so delicious as it is!
Okay, so now on to this Easy Hello Dolly recipe.
How to Make Hello Dolly Bars
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Assemble the ingredients.
Line a 9” x 13” glass baking dish with parchment paper that overhangs the edge of the dish. Butter the parchment paper.
Crush the graham crackers in a large food storage bag. This can be done by hand or with a rolling pin, just be careful not to puncture the bag. Or you can use graham cracker crumbs if your store carries them.
Measure out 2 cups of the graham cracker crumbs and put them into the 9” x 13” glass baking dish. Add the melted butter to the dish.
Mix well.
Press it down evenly with your hands.
The graham crackers should be well patted down as shown below.
Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly across the top of the graham crackers.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly across the top.
Sprinkle the coconut evenly across the top.
Pour a small stream of the sweetened, condensed milk over the top in a grid pattern so that the milk is evenly distributed across the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and stop baking when the coconut on the edges is golden brown.
Allow to cool for an hour before cutting and serving. Cut the bars into a 4 x 6 grid to yield 24 hello dolly bars. If you want larger or smaller bars, then cut to your liking.
The parchment paper allows you to easily remove all of them at one time from the baking dish to be ready to put on a serving dish.
These make great gifts and are good to bring to Christmas cookie exchange parties.
Store the bars in an airtight container with wax paper between the bars to keep them from sticking together.
You can store them unrefrigerated for five days, in the refrigerator for a week or freeze them for later.
Hello Dolly Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups crushed graham crackers
- 10 Tbsp. salted butter - melted
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups sweetened coconut flakes
- 1 – 14 oz. can sweetened - condensed milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a 9” x 13” glass baking dish with parchment paper that overhangs the edge of the dish. Butter the parchment paper.
- Crush the graham crackers in a large food storage bag. This can be done by hand or with a rolling pin, just be careful not to puncture the bag. Or you can use graham cracker crumbs if your store carries them. Measure out 2 cups of the crumbs and pour them into the 9” x 13” glass baking dish.
- Add the melted butter to the dish and mix well. Then press it down evenly with your hands.
- Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly across the top of the graham crackers.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly across the top.
- Sprinkle the coconut evenly across the top.
- Pour a small stream of the sweetened, condensed milk over the top in a grid pattern so that the milk is evenly distributed across the top.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and stop baking when the coconut on the edges is golden brown.
- Allow to cool for an hour before cutting and serving.
- Cut the bars into a 4 x 6 grid to yield 24 hello dolly bars. If you want larger or smaller bars, then cut to your liking.
- Store the bars in an airtight container with wax paper between the bars to keep them from sticking together. You can store them unrefrigerated for five days, in the refrigerator for a week or freeze them for later.
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