Coconut and Chocolate Squares

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My daughter has been staying for a few days and wanted to do some baking. She wanted to make something retro! This recipe was a great family favourite, which happily Mum had written down in her notebook. There's a nice chewy coconut layer on a chocolate biscuit base, so not sure if it's a biscuit or a cake. Either way it's good.
It's also simple to make - a bonus for my daughter!

Preheat oven 190C/gas5 and grease and base line a 20cm square cake tin.

Crush 225g of dark chocolate digestive biscuits in a bag using a rolling pin - or put them in a processor an whizz.
Melt 75g of butter in a pan and stir in the crumbs  till they're all combined.
Press this mixture into the base of your tin.
Beat a 170g tin of evaporated milk with 1 egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract and 25g caster sugar till smooth. Add 50g sr flour and 125g dessicated coconut and mix well.
Pour this over the biscuit layer in the tin and level top.

Bake for 30 mins till the top is firm and starting to turn golden.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins then mark into squares. Leave to cool completely in the tin.

Turn out onto a board or plate and finish cutting into squares. You can freeze then for up to 2 months - defrost at room temperature. In an airtight tin, they'll keep for about 4 days, then get very soft.





Sorry the photo is a bit blurred - was in a hurry to take a photo so we could eat some! 
You can melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it over the top if you fancy, but we like them just as they are. There's a nice soft chewy layer, then the firmer chocolate biscuit layer. A good combination.

The topping tastes rather like the coconut pyramids my Gran used to love and made regularly; took me back to my childhood Ahhhhh!

Comments

Suelle said…
As you know, I love these layered cookies when I've got a bit of extra time to spend on baking! Coconut on it's own can be a bit too sweet, so a biscuit base is a great idea!
13/3/15 6:17 am
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