why are they called hello dolly bars

The Hello Dolly name is a reference to the Broadway musical “Hello, Dolly!” which was a popular musical when these bars were created in the mid-1960s. The bars are assembled in seven layers, and they are incredibly delicious.

Epicurious turned up nothing under the “Hello Dolly”- or “Seven Layer Bar”- names. (And here’s what I think the Web-savvy kids call a “white whine”: Epicurious has hands down THE most annoying online ads. If you run your cursor over one of those damn things, these horrible things pop up and it takes WAY TOO LONG to make them go away.) The Food Network has a recipe for Magic Cookie Bars sans explanation..and, apropos of nothing, I find it sort of hilarious that it lists Warm White Bean and Roasted Garlic Dip as a similar recipe.

As noted, I’m back. So…I did some research…and, basically, I came up with nothing. There are lots of hits for “Hello Dolly Bars,” on blogs…including variations on the recipe — some with butterscotch chips, for example — and several of those blogs question where the name came from (they’re known as Seven Layer Bars and Magic Cookie Bars, too…)…but no one has an explanation. (One of them — which I can’t find now — said that they will become a sticky nightmare in the pan if you don’t use wax paper…which was good to read as I was thinking about skipping the pan-lining step next time…)

It’s been SO LONG since I’ve seen Hello, Dolly that I don’t really remember the plot…and I am tempted to add it to my Netflix queue now. (Maybe this is a sign from the universe that I should watch it again and I will rediscover something in it that will change my life forever.) According to Wikipedia, it’s about a meddlesome matchmaker…so maybe Hello Dolly bars are sort of like Rachael Ray’s You Won’t Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Pasta in that they are so good, you’ll trap yourself a man? Or maybe one of the early bakers really liked to listen to Louis Armstrong while baking? (I don’t think there are any clues in the lyrics…) Or maybe Carol Channing or Barbra Streisand just really like them a lot? Those are my best guesses.

I thought maybe one of my cookbooks would have something…but, alas. There’s nothing in the Joy of Cooking. (I wish I had the Cookie Bible…but, sadly, I only have the Cake and Pie and Pastry versions of the Good Word.) And I *thought* I saw something somewhere about Hello Dolly bars as a Southern thing…but Paula Deen doesn’t have anything either.

According to a little internet research, the dessert floated around local newspapers and small magazines nebulously before the 1960s, called even more names, such as Graham Chip Squares, Chocolate Graham Squares, Washington Cookies, Chewy Delights, and Seven-Layer Cookies. Then, in 1964, the Broadway Musical Hello! Dolly opened on Broadway. A year later, The Week magazine featured a recipe for a Hello Dolly cake, submitted by 11-year-old Alecia Leigh Couch of Dallas, Texas. (She, like me, learned the recipe from her grandmother.) That same year, the Ada, Oklahoma Evening News also published a recipe for Hello Dolly cookies. Both the cake and the cookies featured that crucial combo of condensed milk, graham crackers, and coconut.

There’s a dinner scene in Hello! Dolly, but as far as I can tell from watching too many YouTube clips of local theater productions, it features no real reference to a dessert of this nature. The bottom line seems relatively simple. The recipe really took off in popularity in the 1960s, a time that coincided with the popularity of the Broadway musical, and thus their names became linked. Hello! Dolly was the longest running musical on Broadway for a while, and the cookie has its own enduring legacy: a place on grandmas’ cookie trays the country over. The recipe, under the name Magic Cookie Bars, has even appeared on the back of the Eagle Brand condensed milk can.

A Hello Dolly by any other name would taste as sweet as any dessert that’s doused with an entire can of sweetened condensed milk. And the Hello Dolly does have many other names. The bar cookie, composed of layers of graham cracker, coconut, chocolate, butterscotch, and nuts, appears on many American holiday cookie trays, but you can find the same recipe under the name Seven Layer Bars, Magic Bars, and Coconut Dream Bars these days.

And all of this comes with so little effort. Making Hello Dolly Bars involves not much more than opening bags of delicious stuff and spreading and pressing and sprinkling them into a square cake pan before baking. This also means that unlike most baking, the recipe is endlessly riffable. In fact, no two Hello Dolly recipes ever appear the same, really. Some omit the butterscotch, some omit the nuts. Some call for a specific kind of nut, while others say you can use whatever. (I prefer pecans because they enhance the toffee notes, for what it’s worth.) It’s the quintessential recipe scribbled on a notecard, translated and altered by generations to suit their tastes. The “best” name to call it and the “best” way to make it are inevitably just…whatever your family did.

Forgive me as I reveal a slice of my cloying (literally) Rockwellian childhood Christmas memories: At my grandmother’s house at Christmas, you were never more than five feet away from a tray of cookies. And that’s cookies, plural. Sugar cookies and cowboy cookies and Russian tea cakes and those little chocolate-covered peanut clusters. My grandma’s house had cookies everywhere during the holidays—little trays of them laid out all over the house, like some delightfully evil Sephora mascara cross-merchandising scheme, enticing you to eat them even if you were just on your way to do laundry. My favorite fixture of the bountiful holiday cookie spread were always the Hello Dolly bars.

How to Make DELICIOUS Hello Dolly Bars | 7 Ingredient Recipe | South’s Best Recipes

FAQ

What are Hello dollies made of?

How many calories are in Hello Dolly bars?

Why are they called Hello Dolly bars?

These bars go by a few different names, including magic bars, coconut dream bars, seven-layer cookies, and of course, Hello Dolly Bars. Recipes for these bars began to pop up in the 1960s, both on the back of the Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, as well as submissions in various publications.

Who invented ‘Hello Dolly’ bars?

Rather, 11-year-old Dallas native Alecia Couch submitted it to Paddleford in 1965. The Broadway musical, Hello Dolly, was all the rage during that time, hence the name. Other monikers include 7-layer bars, magic bars, magic cookie bars, and coconut dream bars.

Why are layered cookie bars called Hello Dolly?

They were thought to be named after Hello Dolly, the popular Tony winning Broadway musical that debuted in 1964. Even though these bars were around before the musical made their debut, the name Hello Dolly stuck! There are so many different variations of ingredients for these layered cookie bars that have evolved over the years.

Are Hello Dolly bars decadent?

Also called 7-layer bars and magic bars, Hello Dolly start with a standard (but scrumptious) crumbly crust. Over that, you’ll add a bunch of sweet toppings bound together by sweetened condensed. milk. Seriously, the word decadent is an understatement. They’re so exquisite, you’ll think they’ll require great baking skills, but the opposite is true.