CHOCOLATE COCONUT SQUARES

CHOCOLATE COCONUT SQUARES

These CHOCOLATE COCONUT SQUARES have a funny story on how they came to be.  It was so long ago, I really don’t remember if this book was a gift or if I bought it for myself.  It’s called The Best Ever Chocolate; beautiful pictures, which are what attracted me when I first opened it.  I remember making one recipe from it at a Christmas Cookie bake - an orange chocolate cookie - nothing great.  Since then, I had not touched the book.

About a month ago, I was looking for a good recipe to make a chocolate bar of some sort.  I came across this

CHOCOLATE COCONUT SQUARE

in the book and it looked delicious.  So I thought, what the heck, I’ll give them a try.  Little did I know that I would actually have to create the recipe myself.  You’re probably thinking … what? Yep, that’s what I thought too …. once I noticed that it didn’t say how many graham crackers to use or when to add the chocolate to the recipe.  The recipe was a mess!  I ended up changing the whole recipe and creating a new one.  This was one book author who really needed a “Beckie Miller” - the gal who Faye and I use to proof our recipes.

So ……. back to the results. You will love these chocolate bars.  I had a special request recently from my boyfriend to re-make them for the 2012 OCTO show (OCTO is an annual VW car show held in Long Beach, California).  I hear they were just as big a hit the second time around.  These bars have a wonderful creamy coconut filling with a super delicious chocolate graham cracker crust.  Not too sweet, just the right amount of sweetness. Oh and say no more, the chocolate combination of semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate is perfect.   I hope you give these CHOCOLATE COCONUT SQUARES a try at your next gathering.

Happy cooking everyone!

Ingredients

Crust:

¾ cup unsalted butter

8 oz semisweet chocolate chips

4 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used one large bar)

2 packs of graham crackers (most boxes have 3 packets)

Filling:

12 oz of evaporated milk (1 can, not sweetened condensed milk)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

½ cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

½ cup chocolate chips  (for decorating)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1.       Line a 9x13 baking dish with foil or waxed paper.  Spray the foil/waxed paper with Pam.

2.       Place graham crackers in food processor - grind till they are crumbs. Set aside. (If you don’t have a food processor, put graham crackers in a large plastic zip bag & crush with rolling pin until you have crumbs.

3.       Melt butter, and both semisweet and bittersweet chocolates in a medium size saucepan over medium heat.

4.       Once melted, add the graham cracker crumbs, stirring until combined

5.       Add the crust mixture to the bottom of the baking dish.  Press down till the bottom is completely covered.  Set aside as you work on the filling.

6.       For the filling: combine the evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl and beat with hand mixer until smooth. 

7.       Gradually add in the flour until combined. Now add the coconut, beating until the coconut is completely incorporated

8.       Pour coconut filling over the chocolate crust.

9.       Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

10.   Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is firm.

11.   Cool for about 1 hour and then refrigerate for a few hours until the chocolate chips on top have hardened.

12.   Cut into 18 squares

13.   Enjoy!