Coconut-Caramel Candy Bars
Chocolate, caramel, and coconut—what a sweet song these sing together! This recipe comes from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion.
Crust
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups toasted shredded sweetened coconut
Toppings
3/4 cup chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips
1 cup (10 ounces) caramel, from a block, or unwrapped candies
1/2 cup toasted shredded sweetened coconut
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" or 11" x 11" pan.
To make the crust: In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg. Mix in the flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 1/2 cups of the coconut. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the bars from the oven, and sprinkle with the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to soften for about 5 minutes, then spread it evenly atop the bars.
Melt the caramel over low heat, or in the microwave, until it's pourable. Drizzle it over the bars, and sprinkle the reserved coconut over the top. Loosen the edges of the crust with a knife, then set aside to cool completely before cutting and serving.
Reviews
03/28/2009
This cookie bar is very good. It tastes like the somoa Girl Scout cookie. I dont know what the difference between this and the Grand Prize Coconut Caramel bar is. Their ingredients are very similar. The only problem is I would check the crust before the thirty minutes, I usually do but left it in for full 30 minutes and they were a little hard. I plan to make today and cook less time. They do taste exactly like you are eating a Girl Scout "Somoa) Cookie. Very tasty and easy recipe. I made my own caramel sauce and might suggest using half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate for the future, otherwise delish!!
04/03/2009
These are tasty, but I found the bottom "cookie" to be quite hard, same as the other reviewer. It wasn't burnt, just really, really hard. I'm wondering if baking for a much shorter period of time or reducing the amount of sugar would help it soften up a bit. I removed 3 Tbs of the brown sugar from the recipe already (my standard cookie tweek for baking at 4500ft). Any thoughts from the King Arthur bakers? I'd like a crisp crust, but this goes too far! I got a jar of caramel from a local candy shop that makes fabulous caramel apples and used a cup. I must say I'd forgotten how delicious toasted coconut is until making this recipe! Great flavor combination! The hard crust is the only reason I'm docking it 2 stars.
At altitude, I think you will also need to adjust oven temperature and baking time. You will find the details on our High Altitude page: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008/high-altitude-baking.html
Call us if you need assistance. Frank from KAF.
04/27/2009
OK, I made these again with, um, a few changes to the crust. Added 1/4c butter, reduced b. sugar to 1c, added 1/4c corn syrup, added 3/4c processes oats (whirled 1c oats in food processor until med-fine). The rest of the ingredients were as written. I baked it in a jelly roll pan so that it would be thinner for 16min. This pan was a little too big for my modified recipe and the dough was hard to spread evenly, so I would go back to the 9x13 pan and bake a couple minutes longer next time. Loved it! The cookie base was easy to cut warm, but could still be cut once cooled. The base was firm but not difficult to bite. It had a slight toffee-like quality that I loved. Unfortunately I can't say which changes were most important but love the end result and will make again!
07/14/2009
I don't know what went wrong. I have never had a King Arthur Flour recipe fail on me. I read the blog and I was very careful not to overbake the crust. It was fine. But when the carmel on the cookies cooled, It was so hard I cound not cut up the bars. I literally couldn't get a knife through it. I was baking these for a 4th of July celebration. I threw the entire pan away.
I ended up making the Dream Bars!! Fabulous!! Now that's what I expect from a King Arthur Flour recipe.
Patti - I am so sorry we disappointed you! And on our nation's birthday! I am unsure as to why the caramel became so hard and inedible. Please call our Bakers' Hotline, 1-802-649-3717. Elisabeth @ KAF
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