Lemon Coconut Blondies

Lemon Coconut Blondies - made March 30, 2013 from Crazy for Crust

This was such a promising recipe and I'm sure it would've been great....had I not committed the cardinal baking sin of overbaking it.  Me, the Queen of Underbaking.  But I was busy doing something else and forgot about it.  It wasn't a total loss as the taste was pretty good but it would've been better if I had taken it out a few minutes earlier so the texture would've been more moist.  It's very easy to overbake blondies.  I don't advise it.  The texture was a bit dry and rather cakey.  Had I baked/underbaked it properly, it would've been moist and chewy.  But I love the lemon-coconut combination so I will have to put this on my "try again" list so I can taste what it really should've been like.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest from about 1 lemon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 cup coconut

Frosting
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon heavy cream
Extra coconut, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Cream sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Mix in lemon juice and zest. Add baking powder, salt, and flour and mix. Stir in coconut. Spread into prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes (check at 15-20 minutes!!). Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
4. To make the frosting: Melt butter and white chocolate together in microwave. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in cream to get desired consistency (I used 1 teaspoon). Spread a light coating evenly over the top of your bars and sprinkle with extra coconut.