Chabon-bon bars

A shortbread bar cookie layered with gooey coconut and dark chocolate

These coconut shortbread bars were inspired by a request from Ayelet Waldman and her husband, Michael Chabon. The result is a salty shortbread base, a sweet and gooey coconut middle and, for contrast, a dark chocolate layer to top it off.

The shortbread base is my standard, with confectioners sugar replacing white sugar, to ensure a tender crumb. I beefed up the salt a bit, because the bar is all about the contrasts.

I tried a number of different iterations for the coconut middle. Most coconut recipes use sweetened condensed milk as a multi-faceted binder and sweetener. So naturally, I tried something different to start with, because dare to be different and all that. You didn’t see Isaac Newton or Marie Curie just trying the first thing and going for it, did you? Anyhoo, my first off-road trial, was a mix of brown sugar, butter and egg along with the coconut. The result was delicious, but didn’t give that full-on coconut flavor that I was going for.

Another attempt had me giving in to the sweetened condensed milk, but I added egg for structure and a small amount of butter. Once again, nice! But just nice.

Then I went full on sweetened condensed milk and lots of coconut and here we are. Pure and simple. A sweet and salty coconut bar.

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This is the dough just after I poured it into the pan. You can also see the paper sling. I clip the paper back while I’m working the dough in the pan to prevent the parchment from flopping into the dough and annoying the daylights out of me.

Chabon-bon Bars

Inspired by and dedicated to Ayelet and Michael

What You’ll Need

For the shortbread base:

4 ounces (1 stick butter), cut into 8 pieces

2 ounces  (1/2 cup ) confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt (you can go a little generous here)

¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional, but recommended)

7 ounces (1 ¾ cups) all-purpose flour

For the coconut-y middle

8 ounces (about 3 cups) sweetened shredded coconut (such as Baker’s)

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

For the chocolate top:

6 ounces (about 1 cup) Guittard extra dark chocolate chips (63% cocoa) (of course you can use something else. And you can use semi-sweet, I just desired balance with super-sweet coconut)

3 tablespoons heavy cream

(if you don’t have heavy cream in the house, or any other reason to buy it, you can just gently melt the chocolate in the microwave without)

Notes: You can have your wicked way with the recipe. Add a teaspoon of vanilla or rum to the coconut mixture. Sprinkle some flaky salt on the top of the chocolate or toasted, chopped pecans, or both.

What You’ll Do:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.     Line the base and sides of an 8” square baking pan. I lay two long pieces in, sling-style.

3.     With a stand mixer or food processor, beat the butter until soft and malleable, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and beat in the sugar, vanilla, salt and almond extract (if using). Add the flour and mix (scraping the sides at least once) until little and big crumbles of dough begin to form in the pan.

4.     Dump all the crumbles in the pan and pit-a-pat it down to form an even layer.

5.     Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough appears set, and may just, just, just be developing the slightest yellow color. The better way to say this is: it should be less white. Remove from the oven.

6.     While the mixture is baking, mix together the coconut and sweetened condensed milk.

7.     Smooth the coconut mixture on top and bake until just set and, well, sort of off-white again, about 15 to 20 minutes. (You can go crunchy if you want, but you run the risk of drying the middle out.)

8.     When the mixture is completely cool, make the chocolate topping: Put the chocolate chips and the heavy cream in a small microwavable bowl or Pyrex measuring cup. Give it a blast of 30 seconds, stir, then another blast and stir. Stirring will help melt the chips as well. Only give it another 10 second blast or two, if your chips are still solid. When the mixture is smooth, pour it over the top of the coconut bars and spread evenly.

9.     Chill in the fridge if you are impatient.

Bosco’s face = My Covid mood

I’m sorry I’ve been a bit MIA these past few days. The Covid fairy finally visited and left me with a little dose of my own. Truth be told, I’ve been quite lucky so far, touch wood and all that. I dosed up on Paxlovid, but lost my sense of taste and smell, which as you may have guessed, has driven me quietly mad. This most cookiest time of the year and me, relegated to the attic, eating little but Mentos.

Yes, Mentos. I mentioned to Ayelet Waldman that I had Covid and was taking Paxlovid. Within one hour there was a gigantic bag of treats Ayelet had magicked all the way from California to New Jersey, with the help of the Good Witch InstaCart. The bag was filled with Ayelet’s recommendations for taking away the bitter miasma Paxlovid left in my mouth (it’s a clinical thing, actually, called ‘dysgeusia). Along with fabulous-sounding chocolate bars (which I still can’t properly taste), there was a 5-pound bag of Gummi Bears, bottles of Naked fruit juices (oh, how you brought me joy Pina Colada!) and rolls and rolls of Mentos, which not only could I taste, but which killed the rank Paxlovid flavor.

Thank you again, Ayelet. And for the rest of you: put some Mentos in your Covid prepper kits.

As you may have figured, I worked on this recipe a few weeks ago.

I hope to be back in the kitchen tomorrow. I’ve never been this far behind in my cookie baking. Watch this space.

How are YOU folks doing? Did you take Paxlovid? Did you lose your taste with Covid? How long did it take to return? Also: Do I have to cook a giant Christmas meal this year, or do I get a pass? Recommendations gratefully received.