Coconut Almont Fudge

Coconut + Almonds + Fudge = Greatness. There's a little store here in town called G's Dairy. Todd and I use to frequent it quite often. Mainly for their ice cream. They have many different varieties, but the one that I keep going back to is Coconut Almond Fudge. I'm seriously in heaven when I eat this particular ice cream.

While I was looking over a few recipes I came across one called Mound Bars on Allrecipes.com. It screamed "make me, make me". It had very few ingredients, looked pretty simple, and consisted of coconut and chocolate. So I put it in my recipe box with the intentions of making it one day.

Last night Todd had a Vet Club meeting to go to and Everett was fast asleep. What was I to do? Turn on Grey's Anatomy and bake. I pulled up the Mound Bars recipe and got everything together. You start by making a basic graham cracker crust. While I was pressing the crust onto the bottom of my pan I kept thinking "man, I really wish I had almonds. I bet this would taste so good with almonds." Then low and behold I see a can of nuts that we got for Christmas. So I went through and picked out all the almonds wishing I had more.

Once the crust came out I sprinkled what little almonds I had, added the coconut, and then poured the sweetened condensed milk on top. And then it went back into the oven and baked while I went back to the TV to continue watching Greys. For a second I thought how great that moment was. Sitting watching my choice of a tv show, the baby asleep, no channels being flipped, and the gradually increasing aroma of coconut filling the air. Mmmm....

Anyway, back to the bars.... The recipe tells you to bake these for 15 more minutes once you add the coconut and milk. It doesn't explain what it should look like really. Once my 15 minutes were up the bars didn't look too great. The edges were slowly starting to toast. So i decided to leave it in until it looked as though most of the coconut was toasted. It ended up being a little over 20 minutes. Once out the melted chocolate was poured on top and then they were put into the fridge until I took them out this morning to cut.

As I cut, I contemplated whether or not I should try one at 7:00 am. But then what better way to start your morning?! And let me tell you it was worth biting into all that coconutty goodness bright and early!

With my variations I decided to call these Coconut Almond Fudge Bars. In rememberance of a very delicious ice cream. Biting into these you go through a nice thick layer of chocolate, then you get to the gooey coconut filling where you get to taste a tiny bit of almonds, and then you hit the crunchy sweet crust. I honestly don't think you could go wrong with these. Unless you forgot they were in the oven and they burned:) They were simple to make and tasted great. This recipe is a keeper for me!

Coconut Almond Fudge Bars
adapted from Allrecipes.com

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 (14oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups flaked coconut
1-2 cups chopped almonds (depends on your preference)
1 (12oz.) package chocolate chips, melted (you can use whatever you like. Milk, semi-sweet, dark...)Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

1. Combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Mix and pat into the bottom of one 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 minutes.
2. Once the crust is out sprinkle with crushed almonds and coconut. Pour the condensed milk on top. Slowly spread over the crust (you'll want to be careful because if you are too hard on the spreading the coconut starts to pull up the graham cracker crust). Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until coconut is toasted.
3. Spread the melted chocolate chips over the top. Let cool and cut into squares.