Coconut Pecan Bars
A melt-in-your-mouth cookie bar, reminescent of pecan pie and shortbread, and of course the caramel filling!
“Romance Cookies”, they were called. How fitting as they were served at my wedding reception! And they were romantically delicious with a tender, buttery shortbread crust topped with a frangipane filling mixed with coconut and pecans.
Frangipane - now that sounds like an elegant, difficult concoction to create named after a beautiful tropical flower (actually frangipani.) But not so. It’s a quick and easy filling of beaten butter, sugar and eggs - poured over a cooled crust and baked. Now we all can do that, right! The result is a sweet filling similar in texture to the filling in pecan pie which results in a delicate crackly top.
For decades now, the cookie bar has reigned supreme and generally consists of a shortbread crust with some sort of topping that is often baked, such as the ever popular lemon bar, magic bar cookies, oatmeal with chocolate chips, raspberry almond bars and endless others. It’s a great concept. Faster and easier to make than individual cookies, just bake in a baking pan, cool and cut into bars or squares.
These Coconut Pecan bars include just that - coconut and pecans in the frangipane filling, The beauty of bar cookies is that they are so portable and neat. No goopy messes involved. This one is a great choice for picnics, cook-outs, bake sales, for “romantic” snacks for those you love or even for weddings!
Coconut Pecan Bars (Romance Cookies)
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash of salt
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut
-In a food processor, combine butter, 1 cup flour and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar together until mixture starts to clump together. Press into bottom of an 8 X 8 baking pan or round 10-inch pie plate. Bake 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from oven and set aside.
-In a medium mixing bowl beat eggs until smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons flour, baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and mix until well blended. Stir in coconut and pecans. Spread mixture over pre-cooked crust and return to oven and bake another 25 minutes.
-Remove from oven and let cool completely. This will take several hours. Once they are completely cool, cut them into 1 1/2-inch squares.
Press dough into bottom of baking dish and pre-bake as you mix the topping ingredients.
Pour the egg and coconut mixture over the pre-baked crust then return to oven.
A buttery short crust is topped with the caramel, coconut and pecan filling.
Mmmmm - a delicious, buttery cookie with all the right tastes!
PERSNICKETY NOTES:
**Let the bars cool completely until they are absolutely at room temperature throughout to make cutting easier. Allow at least 2 hours. Or you can set them outside on a cool day to help them cool down faster. If you cut them before that point, they will not have the clean sharp edges we want in a bar cookie.
**Walnuts can be substituted if desired for the pecans, though the sweeter and tender texture of pecans are a great choice. Almonds are also an option and are actually more commonly used in a frangipane filling.
