How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars (AKA Burfi)
If you are a coconut lover then this recipe is for you. A good coconut bar is the perfect delivery system for massive amounts of tasty coconut. No bake recipes, like caramel dipped shortbread, fruit and nut balls, and stuffed dates always deliver big flavor.
This particular coconut bar recipe is a no bake recipe which doesn’t really change the game from a speed or clean up perspective as there is still a little cooking that needs to be done. Being no bake does keep it rather simple though, and you can add pretty much anything you like to the mix and make it your own. So here we go – How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars!
How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars – A Page From Burfi
In addition to being no bake, another nice thing about this recipe is that it is mostly coconut. The trick becomes simply finding a way to bind the coconut together so a bar can be made. There are many ways to do this, but one of the most delicious ways is to take a page from the very famous Indian dessert Burfi and use sweetened condensed milk. By cooking coconut together with sweetened condensed milk, a sticky mass can be formed. Once a lot of the moisture is cooked off that will cool to a nice sliceable form. It doesn’t take long to do this – only about 10 minutes. Using sweetened condensed milk also reduces the need for other ingredients, such as extra sweeteners. In fact, you don’t even need sweetened coconut.
How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars – The Add Ins
You can, of course, make the simplest no bake coconut bars with only coconut, but there are wonderful additions worth considering. I like to add flavor in 2 ways – something added on the inside and something added to the top. The addition of dried fruit – like apricot – is nice for the inside and a topping of nuts is a great finish on top. Many nuts work, but taking another page from Burfi, pistachio or cashew are excellent choices. The apricot can be stirred right in when cooking and the nuts sprinkled and pressed on top. Other tropical flavors would be great, too. Stem ginger, pineapple, mango etc, would all make for very flavorful variations.
How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars – Spices, too
Of course, there is more to do and it is up to you! A nice dash of vanilla or, more Burfi-ness again, a dash of cardamom is very welcome. Yes, you could go totally crazy and do a pumpkin spice coconut bar or even just use cinnamon. There are many ways to make it your own!
The ‘How To Make No Bake Coconut Bars’ video is below and the full recipe follows.
- 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 5 cups of grated, unsweetened cocnut
- 3/4 cup of chopped, dried appricot
- ΒΌ cup of chopped pistachios
- Butter a 9x9 baking pan.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Put the coconut and apricot in a large, non-stick pan. Turn the heat to medium.
- Add the wet ingredients to the coconut. Cook the mixture until it starts getting sticky and coming together as a mass. The moisture will cooked off. This should take about 5-10 minutes.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and press it into the pan with the back of a wooden spoon or using a piece of parchment paper. Careful - this mixture is hot!
- Sprinkle the top with pistachios and gently press them into the coconut.
- Let cool then refrigerate for one hour.
- Slice and serve.
- All variety of add-ins can be considered as can other nuts.
I hope you enjoy!
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