Outrageous Cookie Bars!

One of the girls at work brought these in a few years ago. They were so good that I knew I had to get the recipe. They even have coconut in them and as a general rule, I avoid coconut. I actually like the flavor of coconut but I don't like the texture. I don't like the sound it makes when you bite it and I definitately don't like how you can't seem to bite through it. I know. I'm odd. I've never denied it and now you have proof.

Many of you probably already have this recipe. It seems to be a holiday favorite on cookie trays. I guess I never noticed it before since I usually avoid all cookies with coconut in them. After these cool, I cut them into squares and put them in decorative cupcake papers. It just adds a special touch to the cookie tray.

I made these a couple of weeks ago for one of Curtis's bosses at work as a thank you for letting us park at his house for Allison's Open House at school. There is seriously not enough parking at the school. We are told to park down the road at a grocery store and they shuttle us back and forth. Fortunately his boss lives several houses down from the school so he lets us park there. I wanted to make sure he knows we appreciate our own private parking space and what better way to do that but with home baked goodies?

Outrageous Cookie Bars

Makes 48 bars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed Milk
1 (14-ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Melt butter in a 13 x 9-inch baking pan in the oven. Remove the pan from oven and sprinkle with the graham cracker crumbs over butter. Stir the two together well and press it onto bottom of the pan.
3. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the crumbs evenly
4. Next sprinkle with the crust with the chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until light golden brown.
6.Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

The picture below shows you how I packaged them up for delivery. I had purchased some take-out containers from work a couple of years ago for a bake sale I did. I still had some in my stash and it worked perfectly for 2 layers of 9. I matched the ribbon to the holiday papers and ended up with a festive thank you. As you can see, it doesn't take a lot of money to show someone they are appreciated.

Thanks for visiting my kitchen!