7 Desserts 7 Days- Coconut Chocolate Almond Congo Bars

The fifth dessert in this series of 7 Desserts 7 Days ticks all the boxes for Valentine's- chocolate....check......coconut......check........nuts......CHECK! What more could you ask for! After the chocolate overdose that was Chocolate Pots de Creme, these will appear more sedate. But don't be fooled by appearances.

I'd call this bar a cross between a cookie and brownie- you've got the crunch of the former and the fudginess of the latter. The salt in the graham cracker base perfectly balances out the sweetness of the topping. And sweet it is with the addition of condensed milk. I love condensed milk and much prefer to use it over sugar when I'm making sweet things. But I recently discovered someone who loves it more than me- my Filipino nanny. Apparently Filipino cuisine uses condensed milk in various ways- moong beans and pasta to name a couple. But we digress.

The great thing about these bars is that they can be prepared in advance and also frozen (airtight containers). We actually had these for breakfast with a plain glass of milk. So I'm thinking along the lines of breakfast in bed on Valentine's with a steaming cup of coffee!

As a side note, I've been looking for these paper straws for months in Dubai and was ecstatic to finally find them at Me&Riley. Thye really are like gold dust and was so glad I could get my hands on them. So much so, that I decided to take a shot of them to highlight their glory. So if you're  Dubai resident and want to get your hands on these, you know where to find them. By the way, I don't work for them :)

I thought it would be a fun idea to serve these as little heart shaped delights. Just in case you can't tell, those are heart shaped congo bars hearts in the photo above. You can use a simple cookie cutter to achieve this. I just think it's befitting for this time of the year.

Tomorrow I have a real treat for you. We're sticking to the nut theme but with peanuts this time. And chocolate. Basically, if you're a peanut butter fan, you need to come back! And just in case you haven't seen the fabulous giveaway running on this blog, all you have to do is click here.

Coconut Chocolate Almond Congo Bars

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (can reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp if you prefer an overall sweeter bar)

1 cup Graham Cracker crumbs

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

7 tbs butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup nuts, roughly chopped (I used almonds)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade. Grease a 9x9 inch pan with butter and dust with flour. To make the crust, mix together the first 6 ingredients. Mix until the dough is crumbly. Spread this evenly into your pan and flatten very slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is slightly golden.

To prepare the topping, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Spread this mixture evenly over the topping. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the top appears set and the edges just begin to brown. Cool on a wire rack until completely cold before cutting into bars.

This recipe is from Savory Sweet Life and make around 16 bars.