These lemon coconut squares are so soft and chewy they are fudge-like. They’re sweet with a delicious lemon tang and so easy to make – no baking required!
One dessert flavour that I often get a craving for is lemon. I don’t know what it is about it but more often than not when I have a craving for something sweet it will be for lemon meringue pie or lemon slice or (OMG don’t say it) lemon cheesecake! I even have a Pinterest board devoted to lemon treats! I have to stay away from many of these things in the stores because sometimes I find it hard to resist buying them.
I try to curb my sweet tooth as much as possible but when it plays up it often uses my love of lemon desserts to make me give in. When I go out I can often resist dessert, except that is when there is a lemon cheesecake or the like on offer!
I don’t know what it is about lemons and dessert but they are just so irresistible!
Well this week I gave in to my sweet lemony tooth and made up a batch of yummy lemon coconut squares. They are kind of my invention because I have turned a recipe I had for chocolate coconut balls into lemon coconut squares!
Don’t get me wrong, I love the chocolate balls, but because we had some lemons around I started to wonder “why can’t I substitute the cocoa for lemon flavour?” Once I had this question running around in my head I just had to try it.
Yesterday I set about trying out my lemon recipe idea. I experimented with the amount of lemon juice and zest needed and adjusted the rest of ingredients accordingly.
When I was finished I was very happy with the results. A little too happy because these lemon coconut squares keep calling me from the fridge!
Anyway the recipe I ended up with is a definite keeper. It’s only got 4 ingredients; crushed sweet biscuits, coconut, sweetened condensed milk and a lemon! It is so easy too! And because there is no baking required it is great for even small children to help with.
- 200g (2 cups) of crushed plain sweet biscuits
- 1¼ cups of coconut
- 400g tin of sweetened condensed milk
- zest of one lemon
- 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
- ⅓ cup extra coconut (for coating)
- Line a 20 cm (8 inch) square baking pan with non-stick baking paper, leaving excess paper hanging over the edge to allow you to lift the mixture out after chilling.
- Place all ingredients except the extra coconut into a large mixing bowl and mix well.
- Press the mixture into the lined baking pan and refrigerate for 4 hours (mixture is initially quite sticky and the longer you chill it the easier it will be to cut).
- Cut into squares and press the edges of the squares into the extra coconut to coat.
- Store the squares in an airtight container in the fridge.
You should get around 40 – 50 lemon coconut squares from this recipe depending on how big you cut them. I tried to cut mine up quite small so that I could have fewer calories in each square.
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!
Leave a Reply