Recipe: Chocolate and Coconut Bars

You all know how much I love a recipe that doesn’t consume too much time or utensils J This is a recipe that my Nanna used to make me as a kid.  I can remember having this after school countless times and lately it has been making a number of appearances in my partner’s work lunch boxes.  It is just too easy not to make and tastes just as I remember it did all those years ago. 

It is closer to a slice than a brownie in its texture (hence why I call them bars) but because the ratio of coconut and flour are the same it is not too heavy and the coconut really shines through.  Also because I use an icing not a frosting or butter cream, it keeps the bars relatively light and refreshing.  This was probably a tool my Nanna secretly used to ensure that I wasn’t in a sugar educed coma.  On that note, there is no actual chocolate, cream or eggs in this recipe and the sugar content is quite low considering it will yield you about ten bars so they are reasonably healthy (apart from the butter)  Regardless it is one for the easy to reach recipe folder.

Ingredients:

1 cup sifted Self Raising Flour
½ cup caster sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon of sifted cocoa powder
185g butter
½ teaspoon vanilla essences

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan forced).  Line a 28cm x 18cm lamington tin with baking paper;

2.     Put sifted flour and cocoa into a bowl.  Add your coconut and sugar and stir;

3.     Add your belted butter and vanilla, mix well with a wooden spoon;

4.     Press mixture over base of tin and bake for 20 minutes;

5.     When cool, ice with Chocolate Icing.

Tips:

If you don’t have the correct size tin you could also use a loaf tin or a small square tin.