Coconut Butter Bars
Coconut Butter Bars are the ultimate cookie bar for any coconut lover. A rich, buttery shortbread cookie base is topped with a sweet, creamy coconut layer loaded with chocolate chips for a tropical treat everyone always loves.
Cookie bars are always a winner at our house, and we love keeping things fresh with creative variations. These coconut bars have become a favorite because the shortbread base and coconut layer create so much rich flavor in every bite. They’re also easy to make, which is always a plus!
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Basic Ingredients: These bars are made with a handful of simple baking ingredients found in any grocery store.
- Easy: Both the cookie base and coconut topping are simple to make.
- Rich Flavor: The buttery shortbread base and rich, creamy, sweet coconut topping give these bars super rich flavor in every bite.
🛒Ingredients
We’ve made this list to help you save time on your next trip to the grocery store. You can find the full amounts needed in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Flour – divided
- Packed brown sugar – divided
- Butter
- Large eggs
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Vanilla extract
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Sweetened shredded coconut – divided
🔪 How to Make Coconut Butter Bars
This is a quick overview of the steps needed to make this recipe. You can find the full instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Whisk 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
- Melt 1 cup of butter in the microwave and mix it into the dry ingredients.
- Press the mixture into the bottom of a prepared 13×9 baking dish lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 until lightly browned.
- Whisk the remaining flour, brown sugar, and butter, the eggs, the condensed milk, and the vanilla extract, and melted butter.
- Mix in the chocolate chips and 3 cups of the shredded coconut, then spread the mixture over the cookie base.
- Sprinkle the top with the remaining coconut and bake at 325 until golden. Cool, slice, and enjoy!
🥄 Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowls
- 13×9 baking dish
- Parchment paper
🥫 Storage
Refrigerate these bars for up to 4 days in an airtight container. For longer storage, wrap chilled bars individually and freeze them for up to 2 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container.
Defrost the bars overnight in the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before serving.
What to Serve with Coconut Butter Bars
A glass of ice-cold milk or a cup of hot coffee or tea are the perfect pairings for these delicious cookie bars. They also make an excellent dessert after classic meals like slow cooker pot roast stroganoff, smothered pork chops with mushrooms, or chicken broccoli pasta.
💭 Tips
- When lining your dish with parchment paper, leave an overhand on each of the short sides. They’ll become the handles for removing the cookie bars.
- Let the uncut cookie bar cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan, so it holds its shape.
- Fully cool the bar before cutting it into smaller balls. This allows it to meld well and keeps it from falling apart.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Essentially, yes. Cookie bars use cookie dough, but it’s baked in a sheet and then cut into squares.
Dry cookies are usually the result of using too much flour. Be sure to measure your flour correctly or measure it by weight for the best results.
Loosely spoon the flour into a measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Never scoop the flour out directly with the measuring cup. This compacts it and results in too much flour in the recipe.
🍽 More Recipes
Do you enjoy coconut? Then, try these delicious recipes.
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Coconut Butter Bars
Equipment
- 13×9 baking dish
- Medium mixing bowl
- small bowl
- large mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups flour divided
- 1 ¼ cup packed brown sugar divided
- 1 ¼ cup butter divided
- 3 large eggs
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 cups sweetened shredded coconut divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with parchment paper so that the paper extends up the sides of the pan.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups of the flour and 1 cup of the brown sugar.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
- Stir the melted butter into the flour mixture until well combined.
- Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the parchment paper lined baking pan.
- Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325F degrees.
- In a large bowl whisk together the remaining ½ cup of flour, ¼ cup of the brown sugar, 3 eggs, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, and the vanilla extract.
- Melt the remaining ¼ cup of butter in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl, then stir into the filling mixture.
- Add the semisweet chocolate chips and 3 cups of the shredded coconut; stir well.
- Pour the filling mixture over the baked crust. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 cup of coconut.
- Bake the coconut bars as 325F for 30 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Cool the bars in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully remove from the pan by lifting the sides of the parchment paper and moving the bars to a cooling rack.
- Cool completely to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.
Disclaimer
Any nutritional data I provide is an approximation and actual dietary information can vary based on ingredients and proportion sizes.
Oh, wow. These are so amazing! I love their rich, buttery flavor, and the coconut really pops.
I made these for a potluck, and everyone asked for the recipe! The texture was perfectly chewy, and the coconut flavor was just heavenly!
I am definitely a coconut lover and these turned out great! Will make again