I was reminded the other day that many cooking bloggers spend way too much time telling you their life story at the beginning of a post when you just came for the recipe. Ha! Totally a little guilty of that. I try to keep it relevant to the topic though!
Therefore, since I have been insanely busy this Christmas season (seriously, can I just get a moment to breathe!?), I’m gonna keep this part really short! Just make these, ok?! These bars are the best dessert I’ve made in months. If you even remotely like lemon flavored things, you will adore these.
Whenever I make bars, I always do two things: I purchase a professional 8 x 8 pan to bake them in because the edges are usually more straight than glass baking pans, and I line them with 2 sheets of parchment paper like this:
When you line the dish with parchment like this, it makes it really easy to lift the bars out by the edges when you’re done. Crucial step!
The bottom layer is a similar to a shortbread cookie and its super easy to put together, just combine flour, sugar, and toasted flake coconut in a food processor and pluse until combined. Then add in cold butter till you have coarse crumbs and then press it into the bottom of the pan.
After you bake that for 10 minutes, you will pour on the lemon filling which is also really simple to make.
That layer bakes for 20-25 minutes until the middle is set and it looks like this:
After freezing it for a bit to make sure it sets up well, you’ll mix together the top layer and pipe it on. If you don’t want to do any piping, you can totally just use an offset spatula to “frost” the top layer on. It will taste the exact same!
Top with the remaining toasted coconut, freeze some more, and slice them into whatever size bars you’d like. Or don’t slice them at all and just take a fork to the whole thing…. I’m not judging you.
Lemon Coconut Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded sweetened coconut, toasted
For the crust:
- 3 tbsp butter, cold and cubed
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup flour
For the lemon filling:
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- zest of one lemon
For the whipped mascarpone topping:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 4 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Toast the coconut in a skillet over medium heat, mixing until the coconut is brown but not burnt. Set aside.
- Make the crust by pulsing 1 cup of the toasted coconut, flour, sugar, and salt in food processor. Add the butter and pulse until a grainy dough forms. Press into a papered pan sprayed with cooking spray (be sure to use parchment paper or it's difficult to remove from pan). Bake crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until light brown.
- Place filling ingredients in a bowl and mix using a hand mixer till combined. Pour filling over hot crust and bake at 350 degrees until slightly brown and set, 25-30 minutes.
- Freeze to set firmly and cool before proceeding, about 25 minutes.
- Whip cream to stiff peaks in a large stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Add the mascarpone cheese and whip until combined. Spread over the chilled filling with an offset spatula, or pipe using a star tip and piping bag.
- Sprinkle with remaining toasted coconut and freeze for another 20 minutes until they are set before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.
