Chocolate Shortbread Coconut Toffee Pecan Bars

Whew!  That title is a mouthful and so are these bars!  This past week I ended up making seven different goodies for a family get together.  These are one of the things I made.  The day I made them, I was out of eggs and went searching for some kind of bar treat that didn’t all for eggs, but that was packed full of lots of flavors.  These were great!

One thing I liked about these is if you don’t like coconut, you don’t have to add it.  Same with nuts or even the toffee.  But these bars have a nice chocolaty crust.  Looking at them, you’d think it’s a thin brownie layer, but it’s more of a shortbread with just a mixture of flour, powdered sugar and cocoa combined with butter and pressed into a pan and partially baked before adding the toppings.

Hiding in between that shortbread layer and all the toppings is a nice fudgy layer made with sweetened condensed (I always use fat free, you know, to make things healthy!) and melted chocolate.  It’s a perfect thing for holding all those different toppings.

I think these would be good, fun and easy for any holidays with the toppings you like and sprinkled with festive colored sprinkles when they come out of the oven.  Give a little press down on the toppings and they will stick to the gooey, fudgy layer.  I found the recipe for these on Allrecipes, but adapted it quite a bit.  On Allrecipes, they are called Coconut Chip Nut Bars.

These could even but cut smaller.  They are quite rich and sweet.  Even a bite sized portion could be put in little paper liners for serving.  My favorite trick for getting bars or brownies out of a pan nicely is to always line the baking pan with foil.  Once they are cooled, just lift out using the edges of the foil that hang over the sides.  It usually works well enough to then stand the whole bar or brownie on it’s side while you peel the foil off.  Then lay them on a cutting board and cut into desired size pieces. 

Chocolate Shortbread Coconut Toffee Pecan Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (210 grams)

pinch of salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar (83 grams)

5 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used 1 tablespoon dark cocoa just for fun.)

1  1/4 cups cold butter, cut into pieces (I used a combo of butter and Bestlife Buttery Baking Sticks, as that is what I had on hand.  It seems to have worked just fine!)

1 can (14 ounces) fat free sweetened condensed milk

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, divided use

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup flaked coconut (I used about 60 grams)

1/3 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray the sides with cooking spray.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, powdered sugar, salt and cocoa.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Add the cold butter and pulse again just until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press the mixture firmly into the pan (it will be crumbly, but will press down nicely).  Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized saucepan, combine the condensed milk and 1 cup of chocolate chips.  Stir together on medium heat until all melted together.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour over the crust and spread evenly.  Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips and the pecans over the top.  Then the toffee and coconut.  Gently press down into the chocolate layer.  Bake for 18 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Remove from pan by lifting foil edges and carefully remove foil from bottom of bars.  Cut on a cutting board into desired size bars.