Baking for Santa

I finally have a working oven, as of 5:00 pm on the 23^rd.  And that means I got to bake cookies for Santa in time for Christmas!

So where are the photos?  Well, in the chaos inspired by our kitchen reno, the cable for my camera has gone missing.  And as much as I love my readers, I’m not willing to brave Boxing Day madness to buy a new one.  You’ll see a photo of these squares on our cute Santa plate as soon as the crowds dissipate, or the old cable turns up.  (Note:  I found my cable, so now you can see the squares, and the new oven!)

In the meantime, let me tell you about Hello Dollies.  Probably every one of you has this recipe in some form. These squares are so easy that even people who never bake can master them.  I remember making Hello Dollies in university for a bunch of grateful friends – and those were the days when spaghetti and tomato sauce from a tin were haute cuisine.  I’m sure my friends were surprised as well as grateful.

It was the ease of these squares that made them a perfect choice for Christmas Eve baking.  I’m still getting used to my new oven, so I needed a recipe that wasn’t going to fail if I didn’t get the oven temperature or timing quite right.  And on a busy day before Christmas, it had to be as quick as possible.

New oven, decoratively offset by (temporary) plywood counters

It seems like this recipe has been around forever, but my mom said she first got it about forty years ago from my Grandma Bustin.  In this variation, I used chocolate crumbs rather than graham wafer crumbs.  I left out the pecans because my kids aren’t big on nuts, and they tell me Santa isn’t either.   So I upped the amount of the other add-ons and they were terrific.

Why are they called Hello Dollies?  Maybe there’s a clue in the song lyrics.  They’re lookin’ swell, and when you take your first bite you’ll feel the room swayin’.   Thanks to Grandma Bustin for passing along a recipe that still tastes great, forty years later!

Hello Dollies

(adapted from Grandma Bustin’s recipe)

½ cup butter, melted

1 ¾ cups oreo cookie crumbs

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

1-15 oz tin sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom of a 9” x 13” pan with parchment paper.  Mix melted butter and crumbs, and pat in the bottom of the pan.  Pour the other ingredients on top in order, finishing with the condensed milk.  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.