Dessert Recipe: Toasted Coconut Caramel Blondies

Brownies are just the best, but do you know what else is great? Brownies that aren’t quite so brown. Blondies, if you will. These wonderful, cakey dessert bars are great served warm with a little vanilla ice cream and perhaps some maple butter.

The real secret to this recipe is toasting the coconut before hand. It adds a fantastic character that blends wonderfully with the salted caramel. To make the recipe simpler, we created a caramel sauce by melting together caramels with some heavy cream and salt. It’s cheating slightly instead of caramelizing sugar into a sauce, but it’s simple and we liked it. By baking the caramel into the center of the blondies, we ended up with a delightfully chewy bar full of caramels and decadent sweetness. Keep reading below for this wonderful recipe…

Toasted Coconut Caramel Blondies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 12ozcaramels
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300F. Spread the coconut out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Take the coconut out of the oven to let it cool, then turn the oven up to 350F.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter at medium heat, then whisk in the brown sugar and whisk until incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Once the sugar butter mixture is cool, transfer to a mixing bowl and beat in the eggs and vanilla. Sift in the flour mixture and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and mix.
4. In a microwave safe bowl, melt together the caramels, salt and cream in the microwave in 30 second pulses, stirring a little between each pulse. Once the caramel is smooth, add the coconut and mix well.
5. Place half of the blondie dough in a 13″x9″ baking dish. Spread the coconut caramel mixture on top so it’s even. Top with the remaining blondie dough to cover the caramel. Set in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
6. Let cool at least half an hour before cutting into bars and serving.
7. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted fromThe Salted Cookie