Oatmeal Coconut Raspberry Bars

A tasty and very filling treat! I made a large pan over the weekend and we have been cutting off bars to have with tea. I adapted my recipe from the very many I saw online. The recipe calls for a total of 1 cup sugar - feel free to adjust the amounts of brown and white to suit what you have on hand, as long as the total remains 1 cup. I used only about 1Tbs white sugar, as it isn't something I usually have around.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup softened (NOT melted) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (NOT quick oats!!)
3/4 to 1 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Spread 3/4 cup coconut evenly on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until golden. In my oven this took about 5 minutes - you want to keep a very close eye on it, as the sugar can burn pretty quickly. Remove from oven and let cool.

Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Add the flour, salt, and almond extract and stir until a dough begins to form. If your arms give out, an electric mixer can do the job. A food processor would probably make super quick work of it.

Knead in oats and toasted coconut until well combined. Put aside 3/4 cup of the dough mixture for topping.

Press remainder of dough evenly into bottom of a buttered 13x9-inch metal baking pan.(I did not do this. I only had a glass pan, so I lined it with parchment on the bottom and buttered the sides and it worked beautifully!)

Spread the raspberry jam over the dough. Crumble the reserved 3/4 cup of dough evenly over jam. Sprinkle the 3/4 cup of untoasted coconut over it all.

Bake in middle of oven until golden brown - about 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely in pan on a rack.

Loosen from sides of pan with a sharp knife. Cut into bars. Wrap bars or store in a tightly sealed container to prevent drying out. (I confess that I never remove all the bars from the pan - I just wrap well with foil, and cut as needed!)

Enjoy!