Monday, January 28, 2008

Lowcountry Cookies

You know I love Paula Deen, but I also love coconut and pecans. So these LowCountry Cookies seemed like the perfect, right-up-my-alley kind of dessert. And they are incredibly easy!

I had no clue what "lowcountry" meant. So, of course, I went to Wikipedia for an answer:
"Lowcountry cuisine is the cooking traditionally associated with the South Carolina Low Country. While it shares features with Southern cooking, its geography, economics, demographics, and culture pushed its culinary identity in a different direction from regions above the fall line."

This region includes Savannah, which of course is why it's one of Paula's recipes.

Here's The Recipe (found on food network):

Filling:
1 (16-ounce) box graham crackers
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup or 3 (1/2-ounce) cans shredded coconut

Topping:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 4
tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3 tablespoons milk

For the filling:
Line a 13 by 9-inch pan with whole graham crackers. Melt the butter in saucepan and add sugar. Beat the egg and milk together; add to butter mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the nuts, coconut, and 1 cup graham cracker crumbs. Pour over the crackers in the pan. Cover with another layer of whole graham crackers.

For the topping:
Beat all the ingredients together and spread over top layer of crackers. Chill. Cut into squares.

Here's What I Got:

I got prepped for the filling by lining my pan with graham crackers and measuring out all my ingredients:
They might as well put this picture in the dictionary under "Paula Deen":
The combined butter, egg, milk, graham cracker crumbs, pecans, and coconut. This stuff was seriously good to lick off the spoon:
Get ready to drown the crackers in pecan gooey goodness:
Looks mushy, tastes delicious:
Create another layer of graham crackers over the filling:
Who doesn't love icing?! This stuff was EASY. Just combine quick and pour:
The icing poured right on top of the second layer of graham cracker:
It's time to chill!! You have to get these things cold so they stick together. If you happened to be in St. Louis over the weekend, a garage works perfectly as a fridge!

The finished product. DELICIOUS!

What I learned:
- Do everything the EXACT same way next time. These were VERY sweet but oh-so-good.
- You must keep them stored in the fridge
- Dip left over grham crackers in the icing while you are waiting for the bars to chill
- I saw a review of this recipe that recommended using chocolate and marshmallows instead of the pecans and coconut to make smores cookies. I think they would be awesome!
This was a fun recipe to make over the weekend with my Mom. Stay tuned.... caramel cinnamon rolls coming soon!! (I took a bread making class, watch out!)

Thanks for stopping by!

3 comments:

Lara said...

Wow! Those sound so good!!!

Dan said...

Kara, let me just say, I'm so glad I just discovered your blog.

Unknown said...

YUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!