White Chocolate Cranberry Coconut Bars

These are my absolute favorite dessert....well these and carrot cake. These actually hold a special place in my heart. Two summers ago when I broke my jaw and had it wired shut, the only thing I wanted to watch on TV was the Food Network (I know, why did I torture myself like that?!) This was before I started cooking and the REASON I started cooking. I was watching Paula Deen and she made these Five Layer Bars and they were the most scrumptious thing I had ever seen. I wrote down the recipe and said "This is the first thing I am going to make when I eat stuff like this again!" And it was. So began my love for cooking and my LOVE for these dessert bars. While I do love her original recipe, I prefer them this way with the white chocolate and cranberries. Also, macadamia nuts and white chocolate together can't be beat!

White Chocolate Cranberry Coconut Bars

1 1/2 C gram cracker crumbs

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, melted

1 C white chocolate chips

1 C dried cranberries

1/2 C salted macadamia nuts, chopped

1 C shredded coconut

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a food processor, grind the gram crackers into crumbs.* In a bowl, combine crumbs and melted butter and stir to combine. Press crumb mixture into bottom of a sprayed 9X13 dish. Sprinkle in white chocolate chips, nuts, cranberries, and coconut and top with sweetened condensed milk.

YUM!!

Bake for 25 minutes and remove from oven.

Allow to cool and cut into bars. Ahhh, perfection!

So call these what you will, magic bars, five layer bars, hello dollies, they are all to die for! :)

*This last time I made them, I used store bought gram cracker crumbs because I thought it would save me from having to make them myself. They still tasted great but they seemed to not stay together as well. I will make my own crumbs from now on.
**If you want to see a good version of what the crust should look like, check out these Nutella Hazelnut Magic Bars!