A tasty baked dessert! The Kidlet isn't ✨super excited✨ for them the way she is for the paletas, but she does like it. The original recipe just calls for "coconut", which probably -- since this is a New Zealish cookbook -- means sweetened dried shredded coconut. We played it safe and went with a 50/50 mix of sweetened and unsweetened, but after tasting it, symbol thinks it would ok with 100% unsweetened, and I agree.

Coconut Dream Bars

From Edmonds Cookery Book pp.85-86

Ingredients

• Base
• ½ C brown sugar
• 2 C soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 170g unsalted butter, softened
• Topping
• 3 eggs
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soft flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C unsweetened dried shredded coconut
• 1 C coarsely chopped walnut
• ⅛ tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Lightly grease a 20cm×30cm baking dish.
3. Sift together the sugar and flour for the base.
4. Rub in the butter with your fingertips or a food processor, stopping when it begins to form clumps.
5. Spread evenly into the baking dish and press down firmly.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until just starting to brown at the edges. Remove and place on a wire rack.
7. Whisk together the eggs and brown sugar with an electric beater until pale and thick, ~2 minutes.
8. Fold in the remaining ingredients.
9. Spread mixture over the still-warm base. Return to the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.
10. Let cool, then cut into fingers and eat.