Coconut Pineapple Bars

What an awesome recipe! Coconut Pineapple Bars are exactly that! An entire No. 2 can (1 lb. 4 oz) of pineapple and 1 ½ cups coconut…WOW, this bar cookie is sweet, fruity, and good for you ?

The recipe mentions 1 can (No. 2) of pineapple. I had no idea what this meant, so I did what I normally do in these situations…Google it! I looked up “What is a #2 can?” Right away I got an answer from Myrecipes.com. A No. 2 can holds 1 pound 4 ounces, or 2 ½ cups.

I didn’t know this when I went to the grocery store to pick up the crushed pineapple. It must be common knowledge in the canned food business, or I just got lucky and picked up the right amount. Either way, I was really happy I had the right amount of pineapple and didn’t have to make a second trip out to get more!

Being the first time I made this recipe, I was excited to see how they would turn out! I’ve made Cookies by Bess’ Almond Coconut Bars which also have coconut and pineapple. These bar cookies were so good, I believe I referred to the cookies as a meal!  The recipe only calls for ¼ cup pineapple, so making a bar cookie with a whole No. 2 can of pineapple AND 1 ½ cups of coconut made me really wonder and excited to see how they turn out.

I’m rating Coconut Pineapple Bars 2-stars for cookie difficulty for all of the steps involved in the recipe. Once again, it’s not a hard recipe to follow, it just has several steps. I will say, the recipe instructions are spot on! I followed them closely, and they guided me nicely through the process.

There aren’t too many ingredients in this recipe. I pulled them all together and got started cutting in the butter and sugar.

I’ve cut in butter and flour together before, but haven’t cut in butter and sugar. The recipe called for soft butter. This helped quite a bit! I started by slicing the butter into 1 Tbs chunks of butter and used a fork to break them up and mix together with the sugar.

It didn’t take too long and when done, the butter and sugar was blended together nicely.

Next, I added the flour and used a wooden spoon to mix the butter/sugar and flour together.

As the recipe mentions, the mixture soon became a crumble.

Per the recipe, I got my hands involved and began to mix the crumble together until it was solid dough. The dough sill had a few crumbles, but it was thoroughly mixed together.

Next, I began to press the dough into the greased baking pan.

I don’t have a 9 x 9 inch pan, so I used my 11 x 7 inch pan instead. The dough fit nicely and pressed together fairly easily.

Time to prick the crust with a fork and stick the pan into the oven to bake for 20 minutes.

While the crust was baking, I started mixing together the topping.

I pulled out my hand mixer (which used to be Grandma Bess’s) to blend the egg and sugar together. It really turned a lemon yellow color like the recipe says…so pretty!

Next, I added the melted butter and coconut and mixed together with a wooden spoon.

Finally, I started to layer the toppings. I ensured the pineapple was well drained and spread it on top of the baked crust.

Next, I spooned the coconut mixture on top of the pineapple. I used my wooden spoon the ensure it was spread evenly.

So pretty and ready to bake!

I gauged how long to bake the cookies by the color of the coconut. I ended up baking the bars for an extra 3 minutes or until the coconut started to get a bit brown. Again, so pretty!

I let the cookies cool for about 15 minutes and then cut them into bars.

I love the texture of the pineapple and coconut together. The crust blends so nicely with the pineapple and the sweet coconut just tops it off nicely!

As for taste, WOW! The pineapple is moist, the coconut is sweet, the crust adds a light crunch. Coconut and pineapple together is hard to beat for sure, these Coconut Pineapple Bars are also hard to beat! Easy to make, awesome to eat!

I highly recommend Coconut Pineapple Bars.  Whether you are having friends over for coffee, barbecuing in the back yard, or just trying to fill your cookie jar…these cookies are sure to please anyone and everyone!

XXOO,

Janet

 

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