Coconut-caramel Candy Bars

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 24
• 1/2 cup 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
• 3/4 cup chopped chocolate (bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips)
• 1 cup caramel (from a block, or unwrapped candies)
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut (toasted)

Recipe

• 1 preheat the oven to 350°f lightly grease a 9" x 13" or 11" x 11" pan.
• 2 to make the crust: in a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg.
• 3 mix in the flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 1/2 cups of the coconut.
• 4 spread the mixture in the prepared pan.
• 5 bake for 30 minutes.
• 6 remove the bars from the oven, and sprinkle with the chocolate.
• 7 allow the chocolate to soften for about 5 minutes, then spread it evenly atop the bars.
• 8 melt the caramel over low heat, or in the microwave, until it's pourable.
• 9 drizzle it over the bars, and sprinkle the reserved coconut over the top.
• 10 loosen the edges of the crust with a knife, then set aside to cool completely before cutting and serving.
• 11 note: 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!