My brilliant friend Michal makes the traditional layered bars—called Hello Dollies or Hello Dolly Bars—with Ritz crackers instead of graham crackers. They’re a potluck and bake sale favorite since they’re easy to make by simply layering the crackers with chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, and other goodies. Bar cookies are always brilliant because you can bake them up in one tidy batch, but these bars are extra brilliant because those salty Ritz crackers add balance to an otherwise strictly sweet treat.

　　

Ingredients

Ingredients

35 Ritz crackers smashed into small crumbs, plus 8 additional crackers, crushed, divided

　　¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, melted

　　1 cup (168 g) semisweet chocolate chips

　　1 cup (168 g) peanut butter or butterscotch baking chips

　　1 cup (109 g) chopped pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts

　　1 cup (186 g) sweetened shredded dried coconut

　　6 oz. (180 ml) sweetened condensed milk

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line an 8 x 8–inch (20 x 20–cm)or 9 x 9–inch (23 x 23–cm) baking dish with parchment paper.

　　

Step 2

In a large bowl, combine the crumbs from 35 smashed crackers and melted butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips,nuts and coconut over the cracker layer. Drizzle the condensed milk over the top, trying to make it reasonably even. I use a spoon and slowly drizzle the milk, spoonful by slow spoonful. Sprinkle the remaining crushed crackers over the top of the milk.

　　

Step 3

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the coconut is golden brown and the edges are nicely toasted. Let the bars cool for at least an hour. Cut into small triangles by first cutting 9 squares, the cutting each square in half on the diagonal to get 18 triangles.Store the bars in the fridge.

　　Tip

　　You can double this recipe in a 9 x 13–inch (23 x 33–cm) pan. Sometimes it’s best to double if you don’t want a half of a can of sweetened condensed milk in your fridge. Sometimes it’s best to double if you want to share with friends.

　　From 101 Greatest Cookies on the Planet by Erin Mylroie. Copyright © September 2020 by Erin Mylroie. Excerpted by permission of Page Street Publishing Co. Buy the book from Amazon or Bookshop.