Magic Cookie Bars (Hello Dollies)

By Foodiewife

Magic Cookie Bars are a classic bar cookie recipe that is very easy to make. My husband knows these, from his childhood, as "Hello Dollies". You need a can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk), graham crackers, coconut and nuts. This recipe is very versatile, because you can interchange to use butterscotch chips and even add dried cranberries or raisins.

The condensed milk gives the graham cracker crust a chewy texture, and the balance of melted chocolate and coconut... sinfully good!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted, 1 stick
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14-ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
• NOTE: You can use butterscotch morsels for a different twist

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for glass dish). Coat 13x9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray, or make a parchment paper "sling"*
.
Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture.
NOTE: An offset spatula makes this easy to do.

Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork (I use the palm of my hand).

Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.* Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.

I like to make a "sling" by layering two pieces of parchment paper, which has been lightly sprayed. This helps the parchment paper to "stick" to the pan. I also leave a couple of inches of overhang. That way, it's easy to lift the baked cookie out of the pan to cool on a rack. That way I can easily cut the bars with a long knife or a bench scraper.