Coconut Lemon Bars
May 16, 2012 in bars
A few weeks ago I spent an entire weekend going through every cookbook I own and inputting each recipe that I wanted to make into a spreadsheet. I have some amazing cookbooks but I very rarely open them since recipes are so easily accessible on the internet these days. When I want to make something, I search Pinterest and bam, it spits out 50 different recipes of whatever it was that I wanted to make. So my cookbooks have been crazy neglected and I want that to change!
By day 2 of that little project I was pretty sick of going through recipes and started including recipes based solely on their name. Like these guys. They were called Lemon Bars and I added them to my spreadsheet because I love traditional lemon bars – the shortbread crust, a thick layer of lemon curd, and then a dusting of powdered sugar. I love those.
These are not those obviously.
Lemon Bars is probably the last thing I would have called these. They have a shortbread-esque crust but it’s made with brown sugar. Then – and this is going to sound completely crazy – you cover it with what basically amounts to German chocolate frosting (you know, the coconut pecan stuff), and then you bake it. And then finally the lemon comes into play when you glaze them hot out of the oven.
When these bars went into the oven I thought “Omg, this is one of the biggest disasters I’ve had in awhile” because they were so ugly. And then I said it again when they came out of the oven. But they are so tasty – I can’t even explain it. Coconut and lemon are perfect together anyway but for some reason it’s fantastic with the buttery crust and the slight crunch of the pecans.
You should make these. You’re going to call me nasty names as you’re making them but I promise you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.
(Also, can we talk about how cah-razy is it that I’m posting recipes from FOUR years ago down below?! Even crazier to think that it would be 5 years ago if I’d stuck with the same URL! I need a new hobby… Kidding!)
Four years ago: Cinnabon Knock-offs
from Blue Ribbon Recipes
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275F. Line a 9×13-inch bakng pan with parchment or spray with non-stick spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat flour, butter, and brown sugar until combined. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven.
- Increase oven temperature to 350F.
- In another medium mixing bowl, beat together eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift in flour and baking powde; beat until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in pecans and coconut.
- Pour the filling over the crust. Bake for 20 minutes or until set.
- Whisk together powdered sugar, melted butter, and lemon juice.
- Drizzle glaze on the bars as soon as they come out of the oven.
- Cool the bars completely before cutting.
These sound so delicious! I love a good punch of lemon once and a while :)
Like you, i have many cookbooks but end up looking much more on the internet if i’m looking for a recipe or idea!!! Anyway i should try the same, maybe attaching a post-it on the pages i like… Well… I’ ll see …in any case now i have one more recipe that go on my pc recipe folder… These bars… They sound and looks delicious!!!!
I go through spurts where I forget about my books and rely online and to my blogging friends and then are the days I am sick of online recipes and pull out the books lol. I’ll never stop buying them for that reason :)
Wow, I love the new look. Did I totally miss this in one of your posts? I put recipes in spreadsheets, too, and feel so nerdy about it, but it’s so useful. I’m right there with you on cookbook neglect, too. I keep meaning to get them out, then I get someone’s blog post for something delicious and I get sidetracked again.
Thanks! I never really announced the new look because I’m not sure I’m done with it yet. I can’t decide what I want – too many options! :)
I know the feeling, my wife is addicted to cookbooks, we must have close to 100. Every time that start browsing through some books, I end up finding about 50 new recipes that I want to make that day.
I tend to neglect my cookbooks too (except the Cook’s Illustrated ones, they’re my faves). I started a similar spreadsheet project with magazines a few months but didn’t get very far :) These bars are so intriguing, I wonder if they’d turn out ok without the pecans. I’m not a fan of nuts in general. Guess there’s only one way to find out!
I hope you’re feeling better. These bars do look tasty, though.
These look great! And recipes from 4 years ago? Wow!
I probably need to do to the same and figure out which dishes i need to do and when..that’d probably help me reduce my paper in the house. i love that you chose this, it’s very tropical and coconut and lemon sounds like they’d be amazing together! ps: love the new layout :)
Thank you! :)
Any variation on a lemon bar makes me happy! Add coconut and I’m ecstatic, so I’ve got to give these a try. I give you so much credit for making that cookbook spreadsheet. I’ve said I was going to do that for years, and even started ripping out and sorting magazine recipes last year, but I always get totally overwhelmed (or bored) and give up. Now I just have file folders full of magazine pages cluttering up my cookbook shelf!
these sounds crazy good
Finally a lemon bar recipe that is not a “lemon bar” recipe! I am going to try it like…now!!! I’m not a big fun of lemon curd (I know this is like swearing in the food-blogoshpere – and I am a little bit embarrassed) but I love, love glazed treats! As for the spreadsheet…I did that too!!! and then graduated to an actual recipe indexing program which is really super quick with multiple ingredient searches!
Thank you for the nice change in lemon bar department!!!