The 12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza

This wonderful event is the brain child of Andrea of Andreas Recipes. How I got asked to be involved with this incredible group is beyond me but all the thanks goes to Kelly of Sass & Veracity. There are 7 of us that have decided to do The 12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza. We will be choosing, baking, tasting, blogging and sharing with you a cookie a day for the next 12 days of December.

These cookies are coming from Gourmet's Favorite Cookie Recipes: 1941-2008. They’ve published a lot of cookie recipes in their 68-year history, many of them around the winter holidays. This season they decided to choose the very best from each year.

These are my partners in crime. We will all be choosing different cookies and surprising each other. How fun is that???? Be sure to check out their selections for the day!

Jerry - Cooking...by the seat of my Pants
Sandy -At the Baker's Bench
Courtney - Coco Cooks
Kelly - Sass & Veracity
Claire - The Barefoot Kitchen
Andrea - Andreas Recipes


Day 7 of the 12 Days of Cookies features Coconut Bars!

When Miss Hope Austin wrote in to request a recipe for cookies “made with coconut and sprinkled with powdered sugar that have cake-like bottoms and chewy tops,” Gourmet’s cooks responded with these very easy coconut bars. Studded with chopped walnuts and shredded coconut, they are like blondies with a tropical flair. Lining the pan with parchment or wax paper makes them easier to remove.- Gourmet

Coconut Bars - October 1953 (link to the recipe as it was originally printed)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1- 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sifted flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut (tossed with 2 Tbsp flour)
pinch of salt
powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

• Cream butter and gradually add 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and beat until smooth.
  
• Stir in flour and spread the batter in the bottom of an 8 " square pan. (this is when I knew it was going bad for me...see photo below!)
  
• Bake in a 375° oven for 20 minutes.
• Beat eggs and the remaining 1 cup of brown sugar until smooth. Stir in vanilla, chopped walnuts and coconut (coconut tossed with flour) and a pinch of salt
• Spread the batter over the baked crust and bake for another 20 minutes.
• Allow to cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into bars
• Makes 24 cookies

So this is when I knew it was going poorly...they called for the bottom to be spread into the pan. No way that this was going to be spread.

Even once I got this all pressed into the pan and it was cooking, the timing was way off. I think I only cooked it about 15 minutes. Poured the topping on and cooked for another 15.

I only just now realized that I could have made my life easier by lining the pan with parchment and it says in the italics part of the description. What is with these recipes????

Cutting it was next to impossible. I had to wait until T. got home to cut it. He finally just lifted the whole thing out of the pan and cut it with the huge knife!!!

Would I make this again? Maybe. I think there are a lot of things that could be done better but overall everyone liked these. There was a yummy gooey layer between the crust and the top that was wonderful. Nice and sweet. my oldest daughter thought it was honey! Even T. who "hates" coconut was munching away on them!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com