Recreating the Dream Bars #2

Yesterday I posted the recipe for my first attempt at dream bars. It was extremely tasty, but not the dream bars that I was looking for.  Today is my second shot.  I wanted to make the crust chewier and more moist.  I wanted the top to be chewy but not cookie like.  So I changed things up a bit today.

The crust is perfect.  The top is almost there, but not quite.

Dream Bars #2

• Crust
  • 6 tbs butter – Room Temperature
    
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • pinch of salt
• Topping
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbs flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar.  When light and fluffy add the oats, flour and salt.  Press the crust into a 8×8 pan.  I am using a smaller pan for this as I want a nice thick bar instead of a puny little bar.

Place the crust in the preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes.

While the crust is blind baking, mix the eggs and brown sugar in a bowl.  Stir in the flour and vanilla.  Mix well.  Then finally fold in the nuts and coconut.  Don’t worry this will be a bit runny.  I decided to remove some of the flour and all of the baking powder as I did not want the bars to have the consistency of a cookie.  The Dream Bars from Pot Belly are moist and chewy.  Hopefully this change will help.

Place the chocolate chips over the pre-baked crust.  Then spread the topping mixture over the top of the pre-baked crust.  Spread it out evenly.  Place the pan back into the preheated oven for another 12-15 minutes.  Remove when the top turns golden brown.

Let cool before cutting.

These are my closest try so far.  Not quite there.  The crust was perfect but the topping still needs a little work.  The topping was not as chewy as I hoped.  The layer of chocolate in the middle is nice, but does not follow the dream bars that I am trying to re-create.  I think these tasted better than the Dream Bar I recipe, however, neither fits the bill for the pot belly dream bars.  Any thoughts, let me know.