Put the Lime in the Coconut Rum Bars

Son of a Southern Chef

My husband loves both coconut pie and key lime pie, so we had to make these bars. This recipe is a good combination of the two, with neither flavor overpowering the other. If you don't LOVE coconut (but don't hate it) you still might like this one!

If you're looking for a thicker bar (or even a pie!), a smaller pan and slightly longer cooking time would be perfectly fine for this, and in fact Lazarus Lynch has an almost-identical version of this recipe on his website (https://www.sonofasouthernchef.com/food/coconut-key-lime-bars) that calls for a much smaller pan.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: on this episode we are going to be
[00:09]: working from lazarus lynch's
[00:11]: son of a southern chef once again and
[00:14]: we're going to be making his
[00:15]: put the lime in the coconut rum bars
[00:19]: this is in for my husband
[00:23]: some of his favorite flavors coconut
[00:26]: lime definitely rum so
[00:29]: he found it and asked me to make it
[00:31]: today so that's what i'm gonna do
[00:33]: there are three different um components
[00:36]: to this and we're gonna start with
[00:38]: the crust for preparation i've gone
[00:40]: ahead
[00:41]: and heated my oven to 325 degrees
[00:45]: he says to spray a 13 by 9 baking dish
[00:50]: with cooking spray
[00:51]: you know we don't do that here so i've
[00:53]: just buttered a 13 by 9 baking dish
[00:56]: and now uh he also says to line a baking
[00:59]: sheet with parchment paper but
[01:00]: i'm fairly certain this is not going to
[01:02]: boil over and there's no other mention
[01:04]: of actually using that thing so i'm not
[01:06]: going to worry about it there's
[01:08]: no reason as far as i can tell um
[01:12]: but there are three components and we're
[01:14]: gonna get started with the crust
[01:16]: uh and this is a graham cracker crust so
[01:19]: i've got
[01:20]: my graham crackers
[01:26]: all right that's good my graham crackers
[01:28]: into my food processor
[01:31]: with um a little bit of brown sugar
[01:35]: light brown sugar and some coconut
[01:39]: now this is sweetened flaked coconut
[01:43]: so just regular stuff you can buy at the
[01:45]: grocery store is fine
[01:46]: and there's coconut in every layer
[01:49]: of these bars so that's pretty good i
[01:52]: think
[01:53]: now i'm going to um pulse these until
[01:57]: actually i'm going to not pull yeah i'm
[01:59]: going to pulse these
[02:00]: until it becomes like a fine sand
[02:03]: texture you want all of this to be
[02:05]: broken down so
[02:10]: i don't think i have any more pieces of
[02:13]: anything in here some of the um
[02:16]: coconut might be a little bit big still
[02:18]: but that's going to be fine
[02:20]: and now we're going to add
[02:24]: some we have a little bit of cinnamon
[02:26]: and a little bit a little bit of
[02:28]: fine sea salt he says just a pinch
[02:31]: so whatever i've got those in there we
[02:35]: just happen to have some fine sea salt
[02:37]: so i used it i'm sure kosher would be
[02:38]: fine
[02:40]: um and then we have some
[02:43]: melted unsalted butter
[02:51]: and we're going to pulse it again until
[02:52]: it sort of comes together
[02:57]: and now you can see that it's um much
[02:60]: it seems sort of damp from the from the
[03:03]: butter um
[03:04]: and so what we're gonna do is press this
[03:07]: into our baking dish
[03:09]: and make the crust so let me get my
[03:12]: baking dish and clean up just a little
[03:14]: bit
[03:15]: okay so now i'm gonna just dump this
[03:17]: carefully into
[03:19]: my buttered uh 9x13
[03:23]: baking dish and now i'm just going to
[03:26]: use
[03:27]: my clean hands to sort of spread it
[03:29]: around and then we're going to press it
[03:32]: together to make the crust
[03:35]: sort of evenly on the bottom
[03:38]: so now i'm going to put this in my 325
[03:41]: degree oven and bake it for 10 minutes
[03:44]: just sort of until it's lightly golden
[03:47]: brown
[03:48]: so here's our crust and it smells so
[03:51]: good it smells a little bit like
[03:53]: a waffle cone like a fresh waffle cone
[03:57]: it smells delicious that was in the oven
[03:60]: for just 10 minutes
[04:01]: and i just took it out kind of brown
[04:03]: it'll be fine
[04:05]: uh now we're going to make the filling
[04:06]: for our put the lime in the coconut rum
[04:08]: bars and i have to
[04:09]: uh separate some eggs because we need
[04:13]: just the yolks
[04:24]: yes we're making sort of a traditional
[04:27]: custard uh pie
[04:31]: filling sort of like a like a key lime
[04:34]: pie
[04:34]: and yeah you often just use
[04:39]: just the yolks for that kind of filling
[04:46]: okay so we have our egg yolks in here
[04:49]: and we're going to add
[04:51]: quite a lot of lime zest
[04:56]: quite a lot of lime juice
[05:00]: he does not suggest that we do this
[05:03]: separately because sometimes
[05:05]: the acidity so we have
[05:09]: a new can of sweetened condensed
[05:13]: milk
[05:17]: this is all of the sugar really that
[05:19]: goes
[05:20]: into this
[05:29]: there we go and then
[05:32]: we need to put our rum
[05:35]: in here
[05:40]: i've got just white rum because that is
[05:42]: what
[05:44]: we had that i wanted to use and use
[05:46]: whatever you like he does not suggest
[05:48]: any particular type um so whatever you
[05:51]: like is fine and then we have some
[05:54]: vanilla
[05:59]: there's still a little bit of cinnamon
[06:00]: on my measuring spoon but that's
[06:03]: okay because there's cinnamon in the
[06:06]: crust and there's so little
[06:09]: there we go so those are all the
[06:12]: ingredients we need right now
[06:14]: and closed up
[06:19]: we're going to um
[06:21]: [Music]
[06:23]: beat this with a hand mixer
[06:26]: until it is well combined and thick and
[06:29]: he says about three minutes so
[06:34]: i'm about done with having this all over
[06:37]: my
[06:37]: counter so we're going to call it done
[06:41]: and i'm going to take these out we're
[06:42]: going to have to wash those because
[06:43]: we're going to need them
[06:44]: again for the
[06:48]: other component but
[06:51]: get as much of the sort of lime zest and
[06:54]: stuff off of here as i can
[06:56]: because i'm just like that it's probably
[06:57]: not a big deal
[06:59]: but it's thickened and definitely
[07:02]: combined
[07:02]: [Music]
[07:03]: and now we just add our last ingredient
[07:06]: a little bit of coconut like i said
[07:07]: there's coconut in
[07:08]: every layer
[07:12]: so i'm just gonna stir this in
[07:16]: this our crust has cooled a little bit
[07:19]: enough that i can handle
[07:20]: the baking pan so that's fine i'm gonna
[07:22]: have to clean this whole thing up
[07:24]: um so now we're just going to put the
[07:27]: filling in the crust and we're going to
[07:28]: bake this
[07:29]: for about 20 minutes he says the edges
[07:31]: should be set
[07:32]: but the center should still be a little
[07:34]: bit jiggly slightly moving he says so
[07:37]: let's just pour this in here try to get
[07:40]: it
[07:43]: um nicely
[07:49]: evenly around the whole crust
[07:54]: i'm just going to
[08:00]: move it around instead of spreading it
[08:02]: around with my
[08:05]: there we go great into the oven
[08:10]: still at 325 for 20 minutes
[08:15]: okay so this has been 20 minutes
[08:18]: it is actually pretty set the whole
[08:21]: thing is not very jiggly
[08:22]: so we're definitely done we need to cool
[08:26]: this
[08:26]: at room temperature for 30 minutes and
[08:28]: then in the refrigerator
[08:30]: for at least two hours before they're
[08:32]: ready to serve
[08:34]: so we'll see you then to make our
[08:36]: topping
[08:37]: so the last step is to make the topping
[08:40]: um we're not gonna do that part just yet
[08:43]: but we are gonna make
[08:45]: some toasted coconut that goes on top of
[08:47]: the topping that's the very last step in
[08:49]: the book but i'm gonna go ahead and do
[08:50]: it now
[08:51]: um just so
[08:55]: it'll it'll keep it doesn't matter
[08:57]: really um so i've got
[08:59]: my coconut same sweetened flake coconut
[09:03]: in a
[09:03]: dry pan over medium-high heat and we're
[09:07]: just going to keep stirring it
[09:08]: and trying not to burn it
[09:13]: until it is light golden brown so
[09:16]: now i think that possibly
[09:20]: the intention with the parchment-covered
[09:24]: baking sheet
[09:25]: was to toast this in the oven which is
[09:28]: another
[09:29]: perfectly fine way to make toasted
[09:32]: coconut but then he tells you to use a
[09:36]: dry pan over medium-high heat to do so
[09:39]: so
[09:40]: it's already starting to get a little
[09:41]: bit brown so i'm just going to keep an
[09:42]: eye on this and try not to burn it
[09:44]: and uh yeah we'll be done real real soon
[09:47]: i think
[09:48]: all right it's starting to get pretty
[09:50]: dark in places so i'm going to take it
[09:51]: off and i'm going to take it out of the
[09:53]: pan
[09:53]: because it will continue to cook in this
[09:56]: pan and i'm just going to put it back in
[09:58]: the same
[09:58]: container that i've had it in and that
[10:01]: will be
[10:02]: plenty good enough you can get a much
[10:06]: more even toasting in the oven
[10:10]: but this is fine too and very very fast
[10:14]: we got to show you the coconut cream
[10:18]: we're finally at the final stage of our
[10:20]: put the lime in the coconut rum bars and
[10:23]: we need to make
[10:24]: coconut whipped topping so my bowl
[10:27]: was in the refrigerator for a little
[10:29]: while because he says to use a chilled
[10:30]: bowl
[10:31]: i don't think that's too important
[10:36]: i have some whipping cream some heavy
[10:39]: cream here
[10:41]: from the refrigerator so that's chilled
[10:46]: um and i need some coconut cream so this
[10:51]: is unsweetened coconut cream this is
[10:54]: exactly what he calls for
[10:56]: if you can't find this
[10:59]: you can very carefully open up a can of
[11:02]: coconut milk
[11:03]: before you shake it don't shake it and
[11:06]: the stuff at the top
[11:07]: is basically coconut cream so i'm just
[11:10]: going to open it with a
[11:12]: standard can opener
[11:17]: so i have my um plunger type
[11:20]: measuring cup just to make sure i can
[11:22]: get all of it out
[11:24]: and a spoon you see it's i did shake it
[11:27]: up but it's kind of
[11:28]: still got a few lumps in it um that's
[11:30]: just the
[11:31]: where the coconut will will separate a
[11:33]: little bit
[11:38]: try not to be too messy with this
[11:41]: i'm gonna have to save the rest of this
[11:43]: in the refrigerator and figure out what
[11:45]: i'm gonna do with it
[11:46]: so we're just gonna combine these two
[11:48]: this did not uh he did not say for the
[11:51]: coconut cream to be chilled so i didn't
[11:54]: worry about that
[11:57]: all right cleaned up a little bit and
[11:59]: we're going to use the same
[12:00]: hand mixer to whip this to
[12:04]: soft peaks okay
[12:09]: okay we're at soft peaks now and i need
[12:11]: to
[12:12]: add some confectioners sugar he says
[12:15]: sifted
[12:17]: so what i'm going to do is just
[12:22]: use this tiny little little small sieve
[12:25]: that i have
[12:26]: and put the confectioners sugar in it
[12:30]: and sift it over the top
[12:35]: you see we do have some lumps in there
[12:37]: i'm just going to use my fingers to sort
[12:39]: of push those
[12:40]: through all right
[12:43]: so there we go that's almost stiff peaks
[12:47]: we're definitely done he said do that on
[12:50]: high
[12:51]: on yeah high speed uh which i did for
[12:54]: the whole thing but i just didn't
[12:57]: um anyway i don't think it needs five
[12:60]: minutes
[13:01]: after it has soft peaks the first time
[13:03]: anyway
[13:04]: there we go and now we're ready to put
[13:07]: together
[13:09]: our coconut rum bars so he does say
[13:12]: to just put this over the whole pie
[13:15]: and then add our toasted coconut and
[13:17]: then slice it and serve it rather than i
[13:19]: mean look kind of looks like
[13:20]: the picture is sliced and then put the
[13:23]: stuff on
[13:23]: do whatever you want but we're going to
[13:25]: do it the way the book says
[13:27]: so i'm just going to put all of this
[13:31]: on here there we go
[13:34]: and then i'm just going to put all of
[13:36]: our toasted
[13:38]: coconut sprinkles on top and that
[13:42]: is our final step to putting together
[13:46]: the entire
[13:47]: put the lime in the coconut rum bars i
[13:49]: hope you enjoyed watching me make this
[13:53]: we're going to slice it and serve it
[13:57]: and see how it tastes and we'll let you
[13:60]: know what we think
[14:10]: on this episode of cooking the books
[14:11]: with heather you watched me make
[14:13]: put the lime in the coconut rum bars
[14:16]: from
[14:17]: son of a southern chef by lazarus lynch
[14:21]: and i have to say we we really enjoyed
[14:24]: this recipe
[14:25]: um we had we had some guests over when
[14:29]: we made it
[14:30]: and uh everyone liked it
[14:34]: almost there's coconut in every layer
[14:38]: so if you don't like coconut again this
[14:40]: is probably not the recipe for you
[14:42]: but if you do like coconut and you like
[14:44]: key lime pie
[14:45]: um this is a very analogous sort of
[14:48]: thing
[14:49]: a little bit of rum a lot of lime and
[14:52]: honestly
[14:53]: for me it just felt like a little bit of
[14:55]: coconut even though there was some in
[14:56]: every layer it wasn't
[14:58]: overpoweringly coconut because there was
[14:60]: so much lime in it
[15:02]: which was still delicious um it does
[15:05]: call for a pan size that i don't think
[15:08]: is very common
[15:09]: a 9 by 11 inch pan
[15:14]: i don't have one um i think i have
[15:18]: like six by ten not the nine by 13 is
[15:22]: normal
[15:23]: and then a slightly smaller one which is
[15:26]: not nine by eleven not six yeah not nine
[15:29]: by eleven
[15:30]: um i think it's it's definitely smaller
[15:33]: than that so i used my slightly larger
[15:35]: one
[15:36]: and they turned out a little bit thinner
[15:38]: than the pictures
[15:40]: i do feel like this would actually
[15:42]: probably make a nice
[15:43]: pie without
[15:46]: adjusting the ratios at all a little bit
[15:48]: of a thicker crust a little bit of a
[15:50]: thicker
[15:51]: filling and it would still be delicious
[15:55]: and i feel like
[15:56]: i looked at his website and there is a
[15:59]: pie that is a lot like this so i feel
[16:01]: like it was probably an adapted
[16:03]: recipe from a pie to a bar so
[16:07]: anyway that's about it you do need a
[16:10]: food processor for the graham crackers
[16:12]: you don't have to have that you could
[16:14]: bash those up by hand
[16:16]: uh in a plastic bag they wouldn't be
[16:18]: quite as fine
[16:19]: or i think you can buy graham cracker
[16:21]: crumbs already
[16:22]: or you could use a crab cracker pie
[16:24]: shell
[16:26]: pre-made if you want to make it a lot
[16:28]: easier um
[16:31]: but you wouldn't have the coconut in it
[16:32]: then
[16:34]: you know up to you uh but other than
[16:38]: that
[16:38]: i think he uses a handheld mixer which
[16:40]: most people have
[16:42]: because they're easier to store you
[16:44]: could use it in a stand mixer if that's
[16:45]: what you usually prefer
[16:47]: of course um and yeah
[16:50]: it was relatively easy does require a
[16:53]: food processor
[16:55]: though there are ways around that um and
[16:57]: if you like a key lime pie
[16:59]: and you like coconut you should try it
[17:02]: let me know in the comments down below
[17:03]: if you do try it and what you think and
[17:06]: if you've enjoyed watching me make this
[17:07]: give me a thumbs up
[17:09]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[17:10]: and watch me make something else
[17:13]: [Music]
[17:18]: she never does this she never squeaks
[17:20]: her toy
[17:27]: he knows