COCONUT CHEWS - 1958

Kitchen Secrets Cook Book - 1958
Trade Lake Zion Lutheran Church
Wisconsin

Last night was 'party night' for our Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. In other words, our last lesson in the 13-week course. Yup, we decided not to be normal. Normal is being in debt and like Ramsey, we don't want to be normal!

For this last night, class members brought treats to share. So, I pulled a few old cookbooks off the shelf and settled on The Kitchen Secrets Cook Book, published in 1958, compiled by the Miriam Circle of Zion Lutheran Church in Trade Lake, Wisconsin. I found a recipe in the Cookies & Doughnuts section named Coconut Chews, submitted by Mrs. LeRoy Lundeen:

COCONUT CHEWS
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Mix together and put in pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 10 minutes. Then spread with the following mixture:
2 well-beaten eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Karo syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
Blend eggs and brown sugar. Stir in syrup and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Stir in coconut and nuts. Spread over bottom layer. Return to oven and bak 25 minutes longer. Cool and cut into bars.

For this recipe I used a 9x12 glass pan, dark brown sugar (because it was the first brown sugar I grabbed from the pantry) and pecans. Pecans are my favorite in recipes and these days, they cost less than walnuts!

These were very yummy. I love nutty chewy treats and these hit the spot. The only thing I would try differently next time is to use light brown sugar instead because they were a little dark in color. Even so, I had no problem convincing class members to take them home so that I wouldn't eat them all. (This blog project is going to be hazardous to my not as girlish anymore figure.) :) But, there is always the diet that gets started every Monday. Maybe I need to start a diet blog too (or is that a conflict in interest?) LOL