When Minnesotans plan church coffees and pot luck lunches and dinners, several people are usually asked to bring bars. Bars are a church staple in Minnesota and there are hundreds of recipes for them. Some bars are almost like cake, while others are crisp and chewy.
Brownies are the most popular bars. They are baked in square cake pans or jelly roll pans. Minnesotans make no-bake bars, fruit bars, chip bars, and combination bars. Sometimes the baked bars are cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies
Lois Hill, author of "365 Great Cookies You Can Bake," describes bars as "the simplest of cookies." Bars must be cooled before you cut them. To keep the bars from crumbling, Hill recommends a sharp knife frequently rinsed in cold water.
"Betty Crocker's Best Recipes for Cookies" recommends shiny cookie pans instead of dark steel. According to the cookbook, dark steel pans may overbrown the bottom surface of cookies and bars. If you bake your bars in a non-stick pan, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees to avoid over-browning.
You will get the best results if you bake one batch of bars at a time and do not double the recipe. Bars should be baked on the middle oven rack, one pan at a time. After the bars have been cut, they must be stored in an air-tight container.
Kids will enjoy mixing the dough and spreading it in the pan. (Make sure their hands are clean.) These bars freeze well and you can bake them weeks ahead of time. The bars taste best when served slightly warm. Chocolate Chip Coconut Bars taste great with cocoa, coffee, and ice cream. They make great gifts and always turn up at cookie swaps, a Minnesota tradition.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature (or I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring (or vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup presifted flour
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Method
Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla with electric mixer. Combine salt, baking soda, chocolate chips, and coconut in a separate bowl. Turn mixer to low and slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Spread the dough in a 13-inch by 9-inch jelly roll pan. Though it looks like the batter will not fill the pan, it will, if you keep pressing towards the sides. (If dough sticks to your hand, moisten it with a bit of water.) Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack and cut into "fingers." Makes about 3 dozen bars.
Short of Holiday Baking Time? Make Chocolate Chip Coconut Bars
Copyright 2009 by Harriet Hodgson
http://www.harriethodgson.com
Harriet Hodgson has been an independent journalist for decades. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for a local magazine. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from Amazon. Centering Corporation has published her 26th book, "Writing to Recover: The Journey from Loss and Grief to a New Life" and a companion journal with 100 writing prompts. Please visit Harriet's website and learn more about this busy author and grandmother.
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