Hello Dolly Bars With A Chocolate Twist

Growing up we lived on a farm in rural Manitoba. Our closest neighbour lived a mile and a half away down a gravel road. Conveniently our closest neighbour was also my best friend. As teenagers she and my sister and I spent a lot of time together playing board games, badminton, croquet, lawn darts and generally entertaining ourselves as only teenage girls can.

(Just as an aside I think they started putting safety tips on lawn darts because of us. There was a minor accident involving me, my sister, a renegade lawn dart and contact with a rather fleshy part of the back of my anatomy, which surprisingly enough is capable of bleeding quite profusely. It took a few days before I was able to sit down comfortably again. But I digress)

Sometimes we had sleepovers and these generally entailed baking some sort of sticky, high calorie dessert that we’d happily polish off as we sat up talking till the wee hours of the morning. One of our favourites was Hello Dolly bars. They were so easy to make and swimming in greasy, fatty goodness!

Typically the base is made from graham wafer crumbs and butter, but I recently decided to try substituting Oreo cookie crumbs. (It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate!) Here’s the recipe for Hello Dolly bars with a chocolate twist.

Chocolate Hello Dolly Bars

¾ cup butter

1 ½ cups Oreo cookie crumbs

1 cup coconut

1 cup chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Melt the butter in an 8” x 8” pan and stir the Oreo cookie crumbs into it. Spread this mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan and pack down lightly with a fork. 

Sprinkle the coconut over the base.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the coconut.

Drizzle the can of sweetened condensed milk evenly over the chocolate chips.

Bake for 35 minutes or until nicely browned.

Enjoy!