The recipe for Peanut Butter Coconut Bars is from one of my favorite cookbooks – the big yellow book from Gourmet, which was written with the concept of sorting through the magazine’s old recipes, selecting the best, re-testing them and reintroducing them. The book has never steered me wrong, so I was excited about making these even though all two of the reviewers on Epicurious said they were dry. In fact, I was looking forward to giving the recipe five forks and telling “Mandy in Virginia Beach” to take some baking lessons. But when I tasted the bars, I started to wish I had a big old can of condensed milk to pour over them. Mandy was right and “Shannon in Sacramento” wasn’t crazy.
I was kind of irritated, and went off to mope. A little later, I came back to photograph the bars before throwing them in the trash. But while taking the picture, I took another taste….and then another and another. Yes, they were kind of dry….but not really bad. And then I started to think of them as flakey. And then I started enjoying them. And now I DO have to go to that @#%*@%* spin class today and I DO have a stomachache. But the bars are good. You just have to know what you are in for. Enjoy with coffee, tea or some milk.
They’re very crumbly, though.
My advice is to start with a half batch and see what you think.
hahaha, you’re funny. they sound great!
You were going to trow them in the trash?! Oh now! Glad you gave them a second chance! But even if they were dry I’m sure they could not taste bad. You can allways ground them to make a cheesecake crust or something like that!
Well, they LOOK good. Great idea, Rita, a crust. You’re too smart.
Anna, I have an open can of condensed milk in the fridge right now if you need it. 😉 Minus 1 T. a recipe called for. What should I do with it? Anyone?
Those look amazing. If I thought them dry….they’d have landed in the bowl next to the icecream!
Katrina, I think you should drink it.
Make 7 layer bars Katrina! They won’t miss the 1 T you already used.
crumbly is good, good I say!
Don’t throw them out!! They look good to me 😀
Anna,
They look wonderful…hmm;-/
Glad to hear you are feeling better!
Yes Katrina, drink it!
coconut and PB are two of my fave flavors, but now sure how I feel about them together. Hmmm. maybe I will give them a try!
Hi Anna,
They look really good to me! So, if you were to make them again, what would you change? I’m not good at knowing when and what you can substitute. PB and coconut sounds awesome to me. I love anything without chocolate, since I can’t eat it. 🙁
Well, I might try underbaking or maybe adding a little corn syrup in place of sugar…or golden syrup or maybe adding an extra egg yolk. They were just a little too crumbly.
Hmmmm. Since there’s coconut in the bars, maybe a tablespoon or two of full-fat coconut milk?
Crumble them onto of yogurt, icecream, in some cereal or topped on oatmeal! 🙂
I’m not sure that I’ve ever used coconut and peanut butter together before in a recipe. They look and sound great though – thanks!
A & R–Ewweee! I would never be able to drink cond. milk. I do buy fat free cond. milk though, so it’s healthy! 😉 bahhhaaaa
Now this is an interesting blend – I bet these ingredients play well in the sandbox together.
I never thought of peanut butter and coconut as an exclusive flavor combination but I like Jennifer’s idea of crumbling the bars onto something else that will provide the needed moisture balance.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who thought coconut and peanut together sounded slightly weird. How about agave nectar instead of the sugar? If I remember right, it would be 3/4 cup to replace a cup of sugar.
Dark or light brown sugar instead of white sugar, perhaps?
I’d like to say leave out the coconut altogether, but I know I’m in a minority on that one… 😉
these surely must be flavourful. Ha your post was very funny . enjoyed reading it 🙂
These look very good to me. I’ve always loved peanut butter and coconut as a combination. The only thing that would make these better (besides the suggestions for making them less dry) is to top them with chocolate chips!
Believe it or not, I actually have coconut milk in my pantry, and leftover coconut in my fridge. I’m going to try these and will let ya know how they turn out! Thanks.
Crumbly is fine by me. These look so delicious!