Butter Coconut Bars

Butter Coconut Bars - made September 18, 2021 from Cookies and Cups

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, melted

Coconut layer

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

4 cups sweetened, flaked coconut, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Crust: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and butter. Press evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees F. Transfer the pan to a wire rack.
3. Coconut layer: while crust is baking, in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, flour and butter until smooth. 
4. Stir in 3 cups of the coconut and spread the mixture onto the warm crust. Sprinkle the remaining cup of coconut evenly on top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until edges are lightly golden and the center is set. Cool bars completely before cutting.

At first glance, this had all the hallmarks of what I like in a bar cookie: butter crust, coconut filling. Plus I've had great success with past recipes from Cookies and Cups.

So I was a little surprised that I didn't like these as much as I expected. I followed the recipe exactly, including the baking time of the bottom crust  but I think that's where I went wrong. My oven tends to run on the cool side so I should've baked the crust longer. I think that would've given it a more crisp texture rather than a dense, underbaked one.

The coconut layer wasn't as sweet as I would've expected, considering the sweetened condensed milk. It was still good and nicely chewy but neither the butter flavor or the sweetness of the coconut came through very well.

The other place where I messed up is I didn't read the directions properly. You're supposed to only fold 3 cups of the coconut into the filling then sprinkle the 4th cup over the filling as topping. That would've toasted the coconut garnish and likely provided more flavor and texture contrast. I clarified the ingredients slightly to make it more obvious in case you're like me and tend to skim the directions. "Divided" should be the tip-off that you don't add all 4 cups into the filling layer. Oops.