Coconut Dream Bars

It's hard to choose what my favorite chocolate bar is but a Mounds bar definitely makes the top 3. There is something about the chewy, sweet flavor of coconut with chocolate that is delicious and I am always drawn to recipes calling for the two together. This recipe has been on my to do list for about a year but since it calls for cream of coconut which is essentially sweetened condensed coconut milk and I could not find it in the literally 15 stores I looked in Israel I had to wait to make it. It all started when I got this bug in my head one week that I NEEDED to make this and spent too many hours and way too much gas in my car looking for it. I finally gave up and decided to make it when I got to America. Funny enough, I went to my parents house, opened a cabinet and what do you think was standing right there? That's right-the ever elusive can of cream of coconut. Even though the can looked like it went through something traumatic I whisked it off to the country with me so excited to finally satisfy my craving for these bars. I made the crust as per the instructions, and lovingly opened the can and BOOM-I was hit with a smell that can only be described as rancid- much like coconut covered dead animal - and had to throw out the can. Then came a new search for coconut milk that took me to 4 stores until finally I found it. What is the moral of this story? That after all that work, even if these bars were disgusting I would still eat them and serve them just for the effort that went into making them. Luckily for me and everyone I would have force fed them to they turned out great and for the next very long time I don't plan on making anything with coconut milk again. The End.

(adapted from Kitchen Adventures)

For the crust:

1/2 cup + 2 Tbl butter
2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13 pan and spray well with cooking spray. Process everything but the butter in a food processor until just chopped. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like course crumbs. Press it into the bottom of the pan and bake for about 18 minutes until golden brown. Cool.

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup cream of coconut ( Coco Lopez is a kosher brand)
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbl flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup chocolate chips

In small bowl combine coconut and cream of coconut. In a different bowl whisk the eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla and salt together and then stir in the pecans and chocolate. Spread this mixture over the crust and then dollop the coconut mixture on top spreading it so that it covers the filling (it's ok if it isn't covered perfectly.) Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown. Cool and then cut into bars.