My maternal grandmother, Gramie Watson, gave me the recipe for coconut bar cookies, which rapidly became a popular item at the kids’ schools, as well as at church and other places where it was tried.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 26 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 36 mins |
| Servings: | 30 |
| Yield: | 30 bar cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 (12 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups shredded sweetened coconut
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, butter, brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt together in a bowl using a pastry blender until crumbly. Pat crust mixture into a 9×13-inch baking pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust and return to the hot oven until chips are softened, about 1 minute. Remove from oven and gently spread softened chocolate over the crust. Leave oven on.
- Beat eggs in a bowl until light and frothy; add shredded coconut, 2 tablespoons flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spread egg mixture over the chocolate-covered crust.
- Bake in the hot oven until light golden and center is set, 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely, at least 1 hour. Cut into 1×3-inch bars.
- Substitute milk chocolate chips for semisweet ones, if desired.
- Do not overbake in Step 3, or the chocolate chips will harden and become unspreadable.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 141 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 18 g |
| Cholesterol | 21 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 86 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These were very good! The only change I made was to melt the chocolate chips with 1/4 cup half and half to make that layer softer (after reading other reviews). The next time I make them, I am going to double the coconut layer as we LOVE coconut!
I made the recipe as written except I used unsweetened coconut. I ended up having to throw the whole pan out. The crust is very very thin and almost like damp sand when placed in the pan. (and I even sift my flour always). I would suggest if you are making these, to melt the chocolate first and then spread instead of that extra minute in the oven. The crust was a very dark brown by the time they were done and tasted like pie crust. I would also suggest you not use unsweetened coconut. the topping barely covered the top, and was too chewy. I’ve gone over this recipe to make sure I didn’t mis-measure but the topping was very dry, the chocolate hardens, and the crust is very thin and not sweet at all.
These are very good and sweet. I made two changes though. I spread a layer of raspberry preserves on the crust. Then melted the morsels in the microwave just enough to be able to spread them over the raspberry layer. I used the preserves because I wanted to finish up the jar and I do love chocolate and rasberries together.
Scumptious!! The butter brown sugar crust is crispy and then the chocolate and toasted coconut. MMmm! It don’t know if it will help, but I had a tinsey bit of evaporated milk left in the frig and mixed it with the chocolate before melting it. I was wondering too, if I could just melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and then spread them on the crust? But yes! I can see these being very dangerous to have close at hand!!!!!
OH. MY. GOODNESS. These are divine! Rich, chewy, just the right amount of coconut. Definitely cut them into small pieces, as they are quite decadent! I halved the recipe and made it in an 8×8 pan. I was a little worried while making these because the topping was watery, difficult to spread over the chocolate, and it didn’t seem like there’d be enough to cover the whole thing. But it baked up nice, with a few peaks of chocolate here and there. I also added a pinch of sugar to the topping as my coconut was unsweetened. Oh, and I used dark chocolate chips and I would definitely recommend using them! Thanks for the recipe! (Also the chocolate does harden once they are cool. I wouldn’t keep them in the fridge or you might lose a tooth! I’m wondering if adding a little cream to the chocolate would keep it a little softer? Still delicious though!)