3 Generations of Southern Recipes: Hello Dolly Bars and Magic Cookie Bars

Whether you call them Hello Dolly Bars, Magic Cookie Bars or Seven Layer Cookie Bars, they are decadent, easy to prepare, and a probably a family favorite. We have eaten these for years. My mother made them, my mother in law made them, my sister in law always has them at Thanksgiving and I usually have plenty on hand during the Christmas holidays.

This Christmas, I was at my daughter's and didn't have my recipe. I looked on Eagle Brand's site and pulled up the Magic Cookie Bar recipe. I thought that it was a little different, not in the ingredients, but in the way that the layers were built. The graham cracker crumbs were mixed with the butter and then the condensed milk was poured on this layer. I suppose that is was a cleaner and more precise looking cooking, but the toppings were not moist at all. The coconut was even a little chokey. I pulled out my original 1970 Eagle Brand recipe and made them this weekend. They were as good as ever, if maybe not as pretty as the new version. Sometimes, there is just no need to "fix it if it ain't broken". That is my stand on this recipe.

When the movie "Dick" came out in 1999, my youngest daughter was intrigued. She loved the 60's outfits, the whole Watergate mystery, and the Hello Dolly sampler on the wall. If you haven't seen the movie, two teenage girls, Betsy and Arlene, become dog walkers for President Nixon. They decide to bake him some cookies, Hello Dolly bars to be exact. They notice some green stems in the walnuts, but the older brother assures them that is just from the walnut package. Of course, we discover, that it is dried out marijuana leaves and the entire White House staff becomes quite silly. Please watch this movie if you have never seen it - if just for the 60's memorabilia.

Eagle Brand Magic Cookie Bars- Hello Dolly Bars- Seven Layer Cookie Bars

Makes about 2 dozen 1 1/2 inch X 3 bars

1/2 cup (1 Stick ) Butter, melted

1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs

1 Cup Walnuts - coarsely chopped

1 cup Nestle's Semi Sweet Chocolate Morsels

3/4 cup Nestle's Butterscotch Flavored Morsels

1 1/3 cup sweetened coconut

1 15 ounce can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Pour melted butter into the bottom of a 13 X 9 X 2 inch pan. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over the melted butter.

Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over crumbs. Scatter chocolate and butterscotch morsels over nuts. Sprinkle coconut over morsels. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over all.