Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars

This is the first recipe I tried from the new "The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook" and it's a variation on the traditional magic cookie bar. According to the cookbook (read my review here), the recipe "features two distinct layers: the base, which consists of a brown sugar shortbread-like cookie crust, and the top layer, a rich, chewy oatmeal-coconut-chocolate-chip cookie.

I made these bars one Friday night at the end of a long, long, long week after coming home tired from grocery shopping.
It's a mix-and-pour recipe that doesn't involve much elbow grease or thought. Fortunately, this has no bearing on the end result - a scrumptious sweet sensation that will linger on your taste buds for days after the last crumbs are gone.

I won't copy and paste the recipe here due to copyright issues, but I will say it involves mixing butter, brown sugar, coarse salt, vanilla extract and flour for the shortbread-like base and then baking it. The filling is a mixture of light brown sugar, coarse salt, large eggs, vanilla extract, flour, coconut, rolled roast, macadamia nuts, which is later sprinkled with semisweet chocolate chips.

Substitutions: I couldn't find macadamia nuts at my grocery store, and prefer pecans anyway, so I simply used the pecans I had at home. After all, who doesn't love the coconut, pecan, and chocolate combination? (See my previous post on German chocolate cake). There were no problems with my substitutions. The recipe also suggests substituting any of your favourite nuts or dried fruits as a variation.

Would I make this again? Considering I ate one every time I passed the cookie jar, the answer to the question is a booming YES. I tested out my family members' willpower by sealing the container every time I saw the lid open, and sure enough it always magically found itself ajar.
Grade: Five stars out of five. This was straightforward and held mass appeal to every age range in my family. These bars also kept well for several days (even though the jar was not sealed well as mentioned above). Putting all that aside, these bars are just downright delicious. They are buttery, they are indulgent. But not cloying. You won't be able to stop at one.