Coconut Caramel Freezer Bars
Spring is here, and the weather is warming up! I got pretty toasty yesterday working in the yard, so I decided to make something cold to enjoy on a warm afternoon. I'm really excited to share today's post with you because it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and it really goes with my "Beyond the Box" theme, replacing pre-made ingredients with a little DIY. This is one of those recipes that when I saw the picture on Pinterest, I said, "Oh, that looks awesome!" but when I clicked through to actually read the recipe I thought, "Seriously? I can do better."
And I did. This is the original recipe. It started with pre-made graham cracker crusts. Okay, the pre-made ones are more uniform and go all the way up the side of the dish, but they just don't taste as good. And a jar of caramel sauce? I get it. It's pretty, it's ready to go, you know what it tastes like, and stuff like that is probably hard to make, right? Wrong! My mom actually gave me a recipe for caramel sauce several years ago, and it is both easy and scrumptious. It works on baked desserts, ice cream, apples, coffee, you name it.
And then, horror of horrors: "frozen whipped topping" -- generic for "Cool Whip." Can I tell you something? I hate Cool Whip. It disgusts me. It disgusts me even more when people call Cool Whip "Whipped Cream." It's not whipped cream. Whipped cream is a glorious and delightful concoction of cream, sugar, and air that makes everything better. Cool Whip is overly sweetened fluffy oil. Gross.
Also, the original recipe is for two nine inch pies, which I suppose you could still do, but I would rather have one pan of tasty dessert to carry somewhere (or store in my freezer).
So after contemplating this for something like two years, I now have you, my beautiful audience, for whom to whip up this tasty treat, now tastier and more impressive for its homemade qualities. It's sweet and creamy with just the right amount of crunch. Basically these bars are awesome ice cream squares. Maybe that's what I should have called them...
Gather all your ingredients. You've all figured out by now that the soap and bamboo aren't actually ingredients, right? I just always forget to move them to the other side of the sink when I take my picture, and I'm toolazy dedicated to being real with you to photoshop them out.
So put the graham crackers in the Kitchen Robot and chop them up. I actually had to do this in two bunches because you need about 4 cups of graham cracker crumbs. You can probably get away with three cups if you want, but I think I was subconsciously trying to make up for the lack of graham cracker crust on last week's cheesecake. Coincidentally, if you want to try this recipe but need it to be gluten-free, simply omit the crust.
Melt a stick of butter, stir it up with the graham cracker crumbs, and then press the whole mixture into your pan. You probably already know this, crafty and clever readers that you are, but using the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten the crust into the pan and up the sides really helps. When you're satisfied with the dispersal of crust, stick it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300 degrees.
While the crust is cooking (and also, while it cools), make the caramel sauce. Yum! Also, this is kind of like a bonus recipe because this part works all on its own for lots of other things. Start with your butter and brown sugar in a pan on medium heat.
Melt all this, stirring to prevent burning, until the whole thing is a smooth liquid (i.e. the sugar isn't grainy anymore). It will be bubbly and beautiful. Then pour in some whipping cream.
Stir this in and keep it cooking. It should get right back to boiling just about right away, and keep it boiling for about two minutes. It will start to get a little clearer and you'll be able to smell the sugars caramelizing a little. Remove it from heat and stir in a bit of vanilla. Put this in the fridge so it can cool off and thicken just a little.
Also, put the rest of your whipping cream back in the fridge as it will whip better if it's nice and cold.
Melt some more butter, this time in a skillet, and add the pecans and coconut. Stir it up and sauté it until everything starts to toast a little. It will kind of look like weird Rice-A-Roni. Then set it aside, too.
Now comes my favorite part: whipped cream!
If you think about it, chill your mixing bowl before you get to this part. Put the whipping cream, sugar, and instant vanilla pudding in the bowl. The pudding mix helps stabilize the whipped cream so it doesn't turn back into a liquid when you're not looking. Whip the whole thing until stiff peaks form. You'll know it's done because it looks like whipped cream. Don't overdo it though, because then you'll get butter. Sweetened, pudding-flavored butter. And I don't think that's what you want.
Go ahead. Taste it. It's marvelous. It will make you never want to buy Cool Whip again. It will probably make you never want to by whipped cream in a can again. (It may make you want to buy one of those CO2 powered cans so that you can make it yourself like at an old fashioned malt shop or Starbucks, though. Those are also fun, but better for making small quantities to spray out in a pretty design.)
Next you'll get a new bowl and mix up the cream cheese (yay, cream cheese!) and the sweetened condensed milk. You can even use the same whisk attachment that you used for the whipped cream. I won't tell. Whip it until it's thoroughly mixed and is a little bubbly. It won't really form peaks of any kind, but it'll be sort of almost fluffy.
Scoop the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and fold them together with a spatula until they're pretty well mixed.
Pour half of the mixture into the graham cracker crust and spread it into the corners if it needs help. Then drizzle on some of the caramel sauce.
Repeat. Pour the rest of the fluffy cream mixture on and spread it out as needed, and put some more caramel on it.
Finally, spread the coconut and pecan mixture over the whole thing and top with the rest of the caramel (unless you want to keep back a couple tablespoons for dipping an apple in. That is perfectly acceptable).
Stick the whole thing in the freezer overnight to set up. When you're ready to serve it, let it sit out for about 15 minutes before you try to cut it into squares (or whatever shape tickles your fancy at the time).
Coconut Caramel Freezer Bars
24 whole graham crackers (or about 4 cups of graham cracker crumbs)
1 cup, 6 Tablespoons (2 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 package shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 pint whipping cream, divided
1 Tablespoon instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
Blend graham crackers in food processor into fine crumbs. In a medium mixing bowl, combine crumbs and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter. Mix to combine thoroughly. Press mixture into the bottom and up sides of a 9x13 pan and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely.
For caramel sauce, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is completely melted. Stir in 1/2 cup of whipping cream and bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Refrigerate to cool and thicken.
In a medium skillet, melt the remaining 6 Tablespoons of butter and add the pecans and coconut, stirring to coat. Sauté about 5 minutes, or until coconut and pecans are lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.
Pour 1 1/2 cups whipping cream into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the instant vanilla pudding and sugar and beat with a whisk attachment until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whip together condensed milk and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.
Spread half of the mixture into the graham cracker crust. Drizzle with approximately one third of the caramel topping. Spread remaining cream cheese mixture into pan and drizzle with another third of the caramel topping. Top with coconut and pecan mixture and drizzle with remaining caramel topping.
Freeze overnight. Allow to thaw for 15
minutes before cutting into squares to serve.
And then, horror of horrors: "frozen whipped topping" -- generic for "Cool Whip." Can I tell you something? I hate Cool Whip. It disgusts me. It disgusts me even more when people call Cool Whip "Whipped Cream." It's not whipped cream. Whipped cream is a glorious and delightful concoction of cream, sugar, and air that makes everything better. Cool Whip is overly sweetened fluffy oil. Gross.
Also, the original recipe is for two nine inch pies, which I suppose you could still do, but I would rather have one pan of tasty dessert to carry somewhere (or store in my freezer).
So after contemplating this for something like two years, I now have you, my beautiful audience, for whom to whip up this tasty treat, now tastier and more impressive for its homemade qualities. It's sweet and creamy with just the right amount of crunch. Basically these bars are awesome ice cream squares. Maybe that's what I should have called them...
Gather all your ingredients. You've all figured out by now that the soap and bamboo aren't actually ingredients, right? I just always forget to move them to the other side of the sink when I take my picture, and I'm too
And then start on the graham cracker crust. This takes almost the whole box of graham crackers (the box I had only had three left when I was finished). Break them up into manageable pieces and chop them up in your food processor. If you want to put them in a bag and beat them to bits manually, you can do that too, but I prefer the speed and ease (and lack of violence) of the food processor. Or, as the French call it, robot de cuisine! Kitchen Robot! Isn't that great? I like that so much more than "food processor."
Melt a stick of butter, stir it up with the graham cracker crumbs, and then press the whole mixture into your pan. You probably already know this, crafty and clever readers that you are, but using the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten the crust into the pan and up the sides really helps. When you're satisfied with the dispersal of crust, stick it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300 degrees.
While the crust is cooking (and also, while it cools), make the caramel sauce. Yum! Also, this is kind of like a bonus recipe because this part works all on its own for lots of other things. Start with your butter and brown sugar in a pan on medium heat.
Melt all this, stirring to prevent burning, until the whole thing is a smooth liquid (i.e. the sugar isn't grainy anymore). It will be bubbly and beautiful. Then pour in some whipping cream.
Stir this in and keep it cooking. It should get right back to boiling just about right away, and keep it boiling for about two minutes. It will start to get a little clearer and you'll be able to smell the sugars caramelizing a little. Remove it from heat and stir in a bit of vanilla. Put this in the fridge so it can cool off and thicken just a little.
Also, put the rest of your whipping cream back in the fridge as it will whip better if it's nice and cold.
Melt some more butter, this time in a skillet, and add the pecans and coconut. Stir it up and sauté it until everything starts to toast a little. It will kind of look like weird Rice-A-Roni. Then set it aside, too.
Now comes my favorite part: whipped cream!
If you think about it, chill your mixing bowl before you get to this part. Put the whipping cream, sugar, and instant vanilla pudding in the bowl. The pudding mix helps stabilize the whipped cream so it doesn't turn back into a liquid when you're not looking. Whip the whole thing until stiff peaks form. You'll know it's done because it looks like whipped cream. Don't overdo it though, because then you'll get butter. Sweetened, pudding-flavored butter. And I don't think that's what you want.
Go ahead. Taste it. It's marvelous. It will make you never want to buy Cool Whip again. It will probably make you never want to by whipped cream in a can again. (It may make you want to buy one of those CO2 powered cans so that you can make it yourself like at an old fashioned malt shop or Starbucks, though. Those are also fun, but better for making small quantities to spray out in a pretty design.)
Next you'll get a new bowl and mix up the cream cheese (yay, cream cheese!) and the sweetened condensed milk. You can even use the same whisk attachment that you used for the whipped cream. I won't tell. Whip it until it's thoroughly mixed and is a little bubbly. It won't really form peaks of any kind, but it'll be sort of almost fluffy.
Scoop the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and fold them together with a spatula until they're pretty well mixed.
Pour half of the mixture into the graham cracker crust and spread it into the corners if it needs help. Then drizzle on some of the caramel sauce.
Repeat. Pour the rest of the fluffy cream mixture on and spread it out as needed, and put some more caramel on it.
Finally, spread the coconut and pecan mixture over the whole thing and top with the rest of the caramel (unless you want to keep back a couple tablespoons for dipping an apple in. That is perfectly acceptable).
Stick the whole thing in the freezer overnight to set up. When you're ready to serve it, let it sit out for about 15 minutes before you try to cut it into squares (or whatever shape tickles your fancy at the time).
Coconut Caramel Freezer Bars
24 whole graham crackers (or about 4 cups of graham cracker crumbs)
1 cup, 6 Tablespoons (2 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 package shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 pint whipping cream, divided
1 Tablespoon instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
Blend graham crackers in food processor into fine crumbs. In a medium mixing bowl, combine crumbs and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter. Mix to combine thoroughly. Press mixture into the bottom and up sides of a 9x13 pan and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely.
For caramel sauce, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is completely melted. Stir in 1/2 cup of whipping cream and bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Refrigerate to cool and thicken.
In a medium skillet, melt the remaining 6 Tablespoons of butter and add the pecans and coconut, stirring to coat. Sauté about 5 minutes, or until coconut and pecans are lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.
Pour 1 1/2 cups whipping cream into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the instant vanilla pudding and sugar and beat with a whisk attachment until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whip together condensed milk and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.
Spread half of the mixture into the graham cracker crust. Drizzle with approximately one third of the caramel topping. Spread remaining cream cheese mixture into pan and drizzle with another third of the caramel topping. Top with coconut and pecan mixture and drizzle with remaining caramel topping.
Freeze overnight. Allow to thaw for 15
minutes before cutting into squares to serve.
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