Chinese Chews Recipe with Coconut: An Updated Classic (2024)

Sneak Peek: This Chinese Chews Recipe with Coconut combines a shortbread base with a coconut-pecan pie type of experience. Ingredients include flour, brown sugar, butter, coconut, eggs, and pecans.

Pin

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

When approaching a pan of baked bar cookies such as these Coconut-Pecan Bars, more commonly known as Chinese Chews, do you question how you’ll get the first piece out without butchering it?

I’ve got the answer. It’s not complicated. But you must remember to do it BEFORE you put the cookies in the pan.

Three Reasons Why You Will Make These on Repeat

1. Two-layer cookies are the best–especially when one of the layers includes coconut.
2. Making bar cookies is easier than drop cookies.
3. Make frosting or sprinkle with powdered sugar.
4. Have fun cutting them into squares, rectangles, or diamonds–especially nice for cookie trays or boxes.

Happy Bakers Speak Up

“I’ve made these the last 2 years and everyone loves them!”–JESSICA

Recipe Inspiration

Helen Corbitt first introduced me to a form of these cookies in her recipe, “Chinese Chews,” published in her “Cooks for Company”(paid link) cookbook. Then, when I worked at the Greenhouse (a luxury health spa from years ago), where we used her cookbooks a lot, everybody went crazy for them. It sounds crazy, but some ladies actually came there to gain weight and often requested these cookies.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• FLOUR: All-purpose flour is always my first choice.
• BROWN SUGAR: There are lots of substitutes for brown sugar. I would try coconut sugar in this recipe. You may need to add more butter to compensate for the moisture difference.
• SALT: I used table salt, but sea or Kosher salt is also acceptable.
• BUTTER: You could substitute margarine, but butter is an important part of the flavor in this recipe. I don’t recommend it.
• EGGS: I always use large eggs.
• COCONUT: You can leave this out if you’re not a coconut lover. The cookies won’t be nearly as chewy.
• PECANS: Use walnuts if you prefer. Even almonds would work. No matter what nuts you use, they’re always better if you toast them first. You can toast nuts easily in your microwave.
• CONFECTIONER’S SUGAR, aka powdered sugar or icing sugar: You don’t have to sprinkle powdered sugar on top or make the icing if you don’t have this sugar. You could also use a blender to make confectioner’s sugar if needed.

Pin

How To Prepare a Pan for Baking Bar Cookies

You don’t have to use non-stick foil to make these cookies, but I highly recommend it. Without it, they will taste wonderful, but you will enjoy the cutting, serving, and clean-up process oh so much more.

Pin

If you dread washing those sticky, gooey, and hard-to-scrape pans, this magic foil is a lazy dishwasher’s saving grace. It also makes removing the entire uncut batch from the pan crazy easy.

Pin

After cooling the cookies, carefully lift the cookies out of the pan using the foil as handles. Then, peel the foil away from the cookies. Without the confines of the pan, even the first cookie you cut can be perfect.

I use this technique for bar cookies such as Peanut Butter Bars and Microwave Brownies. For a few extra pennies, it’s worth it.

More Uses for Non-stick Aluminum Foil

• Cover cheese-topped casseroles so the melted cheese won’t stick and pull off when you remove the foil.
• Wrap food in packets for baking in the oven—especially fish
• Cover cookie sheets for roasting vegetables and potatoes, especially if you plan to sprinkle them with cheese.

If you think you can use regular foil sprayed with vegetable oil, well, yes, you could. But it doesn’t work as well, according to Cooks Illustrated.

Hide this foil so the rest of the family doesn’t use it or waste it, thinking it’s just like any other foil in the drawer. It’s pricey compared to regular aluminum foil.

Steps To Assembling Chinese Chews

1. Cover the pan with foil as described above.
2. Combine the crust ingredients, pat into the pan, and bake.
3. Mix the coconut-pecan layer ingredients together, pour over the crust, and bake again.
4. Prepare the browned butter for the frosting, and add it to the remaining ingredients. Frost and serve.

How To Serve These Cookies

Serve these cookies plain, with powdered sugar, or dress them up with a browned butter glaze you can make in a microwave.

Cut them into diamonds for a party or squares for the family.

Questions About Chinese Chews

Parting Thoughts: My Easy Toffee Bars and Meyer Lemon Yogurt Squares use the same shortbread base. To all of you coconut lovers: Don’t miss this Quick Coconut Cake when you need a cake at the last minute but want it to be memorably delicious. The pecan-coconut layer is adapted from the “Chinese Chews” printed inHelen Corbitt’s Cooks for Company.