Saturday, December 12, 2009

Coconut Black Bottom Bars

Coconut Black Bottom Bars - December 11, 2009

If you like coconut, cream cheese and chocolate, this is the brownie for you. It's made like a typical cream cheese swirl brownie but you add coconut and chocolate chips to the cream cheese batter. I use mini chocolate chips for the cream cheese batter as the regular-size ones seem too big with a batter as soft as cream cheese. But I do use the normal chocolate chips for the chocolate brownie batter. Although the recipe calls for baking for 30 minutes, this actually takes up to 45-50 minutes in my oven. At 30 minutes, the toothpick comes out with raw batter on it, even close to the sides. But don't wait for the toothpick to come out clean or it'll be overbaked by then. At 45-50 minutes, it's still moist but not raw and remember the chocolate sets when it cools.



Coconut Black Bottom Bars from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson

Coconut Cream Cheese Topping
2 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Fudge Bar Cookie Batter
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons bleached cake flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
14 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
4 large eggs
1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Film the inside of a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the topping: Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl on moderately low speed until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Blend in the coconut and chocolate chips.
3. Mix the batter: Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper. In a small bowl, toss the chocolate chips with ½ teaspoon of the sifted mixture.
4. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate until smooth. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, about 15 to 20 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk until combined, about 30 seconds. Blend in the vanilla extract and melted butter-chocolate mixture. Sift the flour mixture over and stir to form a batter, mixing thoroughly until the particles of flour are absorbed, using a whisk or flat wooden paddle. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
6. Assemble and swirl the sweet: Spoon the coconut cream cheese mixture on top of the fudge batter. Carefully swirl together the cream cheese mixture and chocolate batter, using the tip of a round-edged table knife. When swirling the two mixtures, do so in careful gliding movements. Overswirling the batter will create a muddy look.
7. Bake, cool and cut the sweet into bars: Bake the sweet in the preheated oven for up to 30 minutes, or until set. Let the sweet stand in the pan on a cooling rack for 3 hours. Refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes, or until firm enough to cut. With a small, sharp knife, cut the sweet into quarters, then cut each quarter into 6 bars. Remove the bars from the baking pan, using a small offset metal spatula.
8. Refrigerate all bars not served on baking day in an airtight container.
Bake and serve within 3 days

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