I make these bars every year for Christmas as they are awesome. I agree that the coconut is hard to spread without breaking the graham cracker crust, but have found a simple solution. As soon as you pull them out of the oven after baking the coconut, I use the flat side of a spoon, sprayed with cooking spray and smooth out the coconut. The coconut mix is now more pliable, now that it is hot. I finish recipe as follows. I even sometimes sprinkle a few slivered almonds on top top make them like Alomnd Joys.
Great! I did not add the sugar to the graham cracker crust. I always wonder why the extra sugar when there is already sugar in the graham crumbs. Anyway, it was plenty sweet enough. I also, as suggested by another reviewer, spread the coconut on thop of the hot crust and then poured the condensed milk on top of that and it worked perfectly.
These bars are delicious! My grandmother has been making them for years and they are a family favorite. I would highly recommend substituting Hershey's chocolate bars for the choc. chips. Not only do they add great flavor, but they create a smooth top on the bars. Add 6 unwrapped bars after they come out of the oven. The bars will naturally melt over the coconut/milk mixture. You can then smooth it out over the top. My mom recommends to score the bars with a sharp knife before they fully set up. This way you can get nice clean slices. Also, I love these bars chilled!
To fix the spreading problem others have mentioned. I put the coconut over the graham base and then poured the milk on top directly from the can. Wait a few mins and it is all mixed. I also added almonds on top and drizzled the chocolate.
Awesome bars! I made them in a smaller pan so they would come out thicker. I added 1 tsp. coconut extract to the S.C. milk to intensify the coconut flavor. I also added 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil to the chocolate chips to make it easier to cut after they set. Turned out great!
Easy quick recipe that the family loved...I added about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the chocolate chips and microwaved them to make cutting a bit easier later on. Thanks Annie added this one to my recipe box.
The taste is way better than any mounds bar I've ever had but it need few changes. The coconut mixture just wasn't enough to spread out with out tearing up the crust so I doubled it but next time I will just increase it by another half. I melted the chips in a doubled boiler and it cooled to quick to spread well so I made another cup or so to cove it. It does sink down in to the coconut mixture. When it cooled it was hard and turned out a little on the thick side which made it hard to cut. next time I will stick with the original chocolate amount but I will and 1/3 of a bar of paraffin wax which will make it not only easier to spread but will keep it soft when you try to cut into bars. if you don't have wax I highly suggest you precut through the chocolate when it is half way cooled to allow you cut it when its fully cooled without you breaking any chocolate. I am not a fan of coconut (I don't even like Samoa's girl scout cookies) But this recipe is so good I had to immediately package up as my as I could to send to my sister in Iraq to stop from eating them. This is surely something I will take to work to impress.
I made these bars because some of the photos look so good but my bars were thin and did not resemble the photos at all. Now I've gone back to read the reviews of the photos I've admired to see that the bars were modified by baking in a smaller pan to get thicker bars and by increasing the coconut and/or chocolate layers. As written these bars are way too sweet and I didn't even add the white sugar to the crust. If I were to make them again I would tone down the sweetness even more. I'd eliminate the white sugar use unsweetened coconut use more coconut (but not increase the sweetened condensed milk with it) and bake them in a smaller pan. You really have to have a sweet tooth to like this recipe.
I'VE HAD THIS RECIPE FOR 30 YEARS, AND THE PROBLEM SPREADING THE COCONUT IS SOLVED BY HEATING THE CONDENSED MILK, THEN ADDING THE COCONUT TO THE MILK, RIGHT BEFORE SPREADING ON THE CRUST. THEN JUST FOLLOW THE RECIPE AS IS.
