Brown Sugar, Coconut & Chocolate Bars

As a baker, you can lure friends with treats. You can bake and have someone fall in love with the smell drifting from the oven. Better yet, you can barter with your treats! On Martha's Vineyard, we've formed communities. Online Facebook communities to help summer people get housing, groups for selling and buying, groups for sharing daily photos of the Vineyard. How does this come into play with these delicious bars? Let's just say I bought a chair and bartered to have it delivered in exchange of these treats (and some extra marshmallows!)

These bars are from Easy Does It: Winners & Favorites by Patti Roper and it's a cookbook filled with traditional Southern recipes including Pimento Cheese, Creole Catfish, Peach Muffins, and these Brown Sugar bars. Simple ingredients that should always be in your baking cabinet, make these treats a delight to share with friends!

Brown Sugar, Coconut & Chocolate Bars

Adapted from Easy Does It: Winners and Favorites by Patti Roper

Published by Quail Ridge Press

Yield: 9 thick bars*

2⁄3 cup butter, softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips and coconut. (These were mixed by hand with a dough whisk!)
2. Press half the dough into greased, and foil covered pan (this one is 8 by 8 inches).
3. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips. Roll the other half of the dough to fit on top and press down.
4. Sprinkle with shredded coconut.
5. Bake 30 minutes, until coconut is toasted and bar is fully baked. Cool for an hour or overnight for clean cuts.

*This recipe could yield 18 bars if made in a larger pan! The smaller the pan, the bars result thicker than expected, allowing you to layer the chocolate and coconut, creating a chewy and rich bar!

What would be three ingredients in YOUR dream treat bar?