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Pink Lady Bars

A retro recipe almost forgotten, I am not sure where the name came from but they are good. Actually, one can make any color frosting...yellow, blue, green...but the name would have to change also. 🥰
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Servings 9 (9-15 servings)

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups crushed vanilla wafers (or graham crackers or oreo cookies, your choice)
  • 1 stick butter (melted, unsalted)
  • 1 Tbsp flour

For the filling

  • 1 14 ounce can Sweetened Condensed Milk (such as Eagle Brand)
  • 2 cups sweetened or unsweetened coconut (can use flakes or shredded)
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) (I sometimes add chopped pecans)

For the frosting

  • 1 stick butter (melted, unsalted)
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup maraschini cherry juice (or red food coloring)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325 and place parchment paper in 9X9 pan. Overlap the sides for easy removal of the baked bars. ( use small alligator clips to hold the parchment paper in place)
  • To the crushed vanilla wafer crumbs, add the butter and the flour. Place the crumbs into pan, tamping to compact. I use a metal measuring cup bottom as well as my fingers to be sure the crust is evenly distributed. Bake this for about 10 minutes...do NOT overbake. Pull from the oven as soon as the edges start to show a browning color and cool for about 15-20 minutes.

For the filling:

  • Mix the coconut, the sweetened condensed milk and pecans (optional) and spread over the cooled crust, spreading as evenly as possible. (I like to tap it down with my offset spatula) Place in the oven and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Do not let coconut burn altho mine gets slightly brown near the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 30-60 minutes.

For the frosting:

  • Blend melted butter, powdered sugar and maraschino juice either by hand or hand mixer until the frosting is nice and smooth. (You can make the frosting as pink as you like and as thick or thin as you like....my family likes a thick frosting, but you do you) Spread the frosting over the bars and place in the fridge for at least 30-60 minutes which allows the bars to firm up.

To remove the bars and cut:

  • I like my bars to be cut sharply so I lift them out of the pan using the extra parchment paper overlap and remove them from the parchment onto a cutting board. (I also use a very large pizza cutter so I cut the bars in one cut, so they will be fairly even....actually I make 2 horizontal cuts and 2 vertical cuts). I cut mine in 9 squares but they can be cut much smaller if desired.