Chocolate Macaroon Bars

Adventure number two...Chocolate Macaroon Bars! I got the original recipe from the Nestle Best-loved Cookies. This recipe calls for you to use a package of chocolate cake mix, so of course I didn't want to use a box mix. I then took out my Williams-Sonoma Cakes book to find a chocolate cake recipe to use as a basis for the dry ingredients for my bars. I decided on the Devil's Food Cake as I LOVE chocolate. I then took off to the grocery store to grab my ingredients - nothing tough to find for this recipe. Then back home for the baking to begin. I mixed up the dry ingredients as listed. The best part for me was chopping the unsweetened chocolate...loved the smell! I then added the called for 1 egg and 1/3 cup butter. The dry ingredients was still very dry. I then decided to deviate from the recipe and added one more egg and enough butter to equal 1/2 cup total. It had the consistency of a thick pie crust. I pressed it into the baking pan (which by the way I quickly realized I need to perfect my parchment paper application). I tried to spread this with a spatula, but ended up using my fist. I then took on the easy part of the coconut macaroon mixture. I opted not to use the nuts, which were optional. I tossed the bars in the oven and they started to smell yummy after about 25 minutes. I baked mine for 33 mins., because the sides seemed to be getting quite brown. Now the results....Yummy chew textured chocolaty bars. I didn't feel like there was a strong enough coconut flavor or consistency. Next time I would add another half cup of coconut and the nuts to the topping. Also I would bake them for 2 or 3 more minutes. All in all I thought they were very tasty, but I am guessing with the small changes, they would taste even better!

I will be adding the recipe later today!