Hello Dollies
Chocolatey, coconutty, nutty condensed milk bars of deliciousness
Ad and Soph here!
This bake was a classic on Adam’s family walks in the Scottish hills growing up. Soggy sandwiches, a flask of tea that always tasted a bit like plastic and the remnants of coffee plus the star: squares of hello dolly.
Why they’re called hello dollies? Apparently something to do with 1960s broadway musical - but they’re also known as ‘Magic cookies' in the US, too. For some reason my mum, always ahead of the food trends (don’t get her started on how she travelled to Aberdeen to buy mascarpone to make tiramisu in the early 90s), was all over these when we were a kid so this very American bake became part of my Scottish childhood.
Soph was introduced to these whilst we were all living together and last week decided that our 4pm sweet treat stash (anyone else have this?) was looking a bit bare so knocked up a batch of these for our freezer. Coincidentally this is our top tip, once you’ve made your bake of choice, cut into portions, freeze then simply get out of the freezer 30 mins or so before you want to eat, and they taste fresh as anything.
Work wise, March has amped up and we’re in the midst of some very cool projects - we promise we’ll tell you about them soon (and explains why the newsletter is a day late.. a baking recipe for the weekend!)
We’re also catering our first wedding of the year this month which we’re super looking forward to, especially as it is back in our old haunt, Bush Hall - a fabulous venue if we do say so ourselves. Thrillingly 2025 is a year of a lot more weddings, which is our jam. We love providing a relaxed, properly delicious vibe to your big day and it means we get to work with our incredible talented team of freelancers - one of the biggest joys of being in hospitality is this family of workers you create around you!
On Monday Soph attended the LOR festival which was hugely inspiring and really opened up our perspective. Sometimes you can get so focused on the details of your everyday that you don’t think about the bigger picture. It has given us pause for thought, where do we want to take Scramble in the future? Still don’t have all the answers, but one things for sure, you’ll all be part of the journey.
Hello Dollies
Takes 30 minutes
Makes 16
125g butter, plus extra for greasing
250g digestive biscuits
150g chopped mixed nuts (ultimate lazy hack is to buy them pre chopped)
1 tin condensed milk
90g desiccated coconut
200g dark chocolate chips
Heat your oven to 180C/160C Fan. Lightly butter a roughly 20cm x 30cm (we like using a swiss roll tin here as you can cut the Hello Dollies super evenly).
Crush the digestive biscuits in your preferred way. Melt the butter in a saucepan, tip the crushed biscuits into the butter, stir to combine then spread into an even layer into your tin.
Next chop the nuts (if needed), open the condensed milk, scrape into a bowl. Add the chopped nuts, coconut and chocolate chips along with a pinch of salt, mix together then spread this filling over the top of your biscuit base, spreading into an even layer.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges are browned and the centre is just set and very slightly coloured. Leave to cool before cutting - we like to do this from the fridge, then transfer to an airtight container. Keep at room temperature for up to a week, or do as we do, and transfer to the freezer for the ultimate pick me up.
Speaking of baked goods we’ve been frequenting some more South London haunts & can confirm that the sesame soy sauce chocolate chip cookie (VG) from TOAD bakery and the cardamom/cinnamon bun & cookie from Maya’s Bakehouse are both exceptional.
Omg drooling
Very into this