Chocolate Peanut Butter Sea Salt Coconut Haystacks (Quarantine Cookies)

I was looking through our pantry to see what we had that I could use to make something to satisfy my sweet tooth while sheltering in place. I found some coconut, oatmeal, and a few partial bags of baking chips. Hmmm… let’s see what we can make using those items!

Note: I had a variety of baking chips available, but you can use any flavor or combination of flavors in this recipe. Just make sure they equal 1 2/3 cup total.

Cook / Prep Time – 1 hour

Servings 1 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1/2 can condensed milk
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/3 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Toast 1 cup of the coconut in the oven until browned. Remove and set aside. In a double boiler, melt the butter, the condensed milk and all of the baking chips together, stirring frequently.

In another bowl, mix the oats, the toasted coconut, and the other coconut flakes.

When all the baking chips are melted, add the sea salt and vanilla and blend together.

Place some parchment paper on a sheet pan and spray with pan spray. Use a scoop or spoon and spray it with pan spray, too.

When the baking chips are melted and smooth, take off the heat and stir in the coconut and oatmeal mixture. When blended, scoop up the mixture by the spoonful and place on the parchment paper. Sprinkle sea salt on the top of each.

These are sinfully delicious!

Place in the refrigerator and chill until cooled and firm. That’s it!

**Warning – you may consider adapting a self isolating exercise regimen after eating several of these!

Enjoy!

Suggested self quarantine playlist to listen to while preparing these….

“U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer from his 1990 album “Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em” that features the opening riff of the Rick James song, “Superfreak”

“Too Much Time on My Hands” by Styx from their 1981 album “Paradise Theatre”

“Alone” by Heart from their 1987 album “Bad Animals”

“Keep Your Hands to Yourself” by The Georgia Satellites from their 1986 album, Georgia Satellites”

Apricot Almond Logs

When I was a kid growing up in Iowa, I always looked forward to tasting our Uncle Leo’s apricot bars around Christmas time. Our grandparents and him lived a couple of hundred miles from us in northwest Iowa and we would sometimes visit them around Christmas. Our uncle Leo always made candy for us when we would visit, usually his world famous fudge and apricot bars. If we didn’t visit, him and our aunt Marie would send some to our house around Christmas. She made some delicious green mint leaf marzipan type candy, too.

I still always imagine the taste of those delicious apricot bars around Christmas, and wish I had the recipe. Unfortunately, both our aunt and uncle have both been deceased for several years.

I called my father to see if maybe he had the recipe, but he did not, and he referred me to my sister Cathy. Maybe she had the recipe? Nope. Rats!

We both decided to research apricot bars online, and Cathy’s husband John sent me one that he found online that he thought looked similar. I used that recipe as a base, but made a few changes to try to mimic our uncle Leo’s recipe and came up with these.

While these are delicious and taste very similar, the texture is not quite the same. His tasted a little leathier, almost like a thick fruit roll up. If any of our Joynt cousins read this and have Leo’s recipe, by all means send it to me!

Oh well, I will enjoy these this year and experiment again next year!

Cook/Prep time – about 4 hours

Yield – 2 logs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 6 chopped dates
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 2/3 cup sweetened desiccated (finely chopped) coconut
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp finely grated orange rind
• 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

Place the apricots and dates in a saucepan. Cover them with the coconut water. Let them cook until softened and strain them, pushing as much liquid as possible out of them.

Place in a bowl and add the orange rind and golden raisins. Place the fruits in a food processor and chop them well. This will make a paste. Press the paste onto waxed paper and let it dry in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Mix the coconut together with the coconut. Chop the almonds.

Spread the coconut sugar mixture onto a counter.

When the fruit is chilled, place it on top of the coconut mixture.

Sprinkle the almonds on the mixture.

Roll up jelly roll style. Roll into a long log then cut it in half to make two logs.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator or freezer to chill again.

Cut and serve as needed.

That’s it! Enjoy!

Suggested music to enjoy while making the apricot logs…..

Since Keith Richards turns 76 today, and he’s likely to live to be 150, how about The Rolling Stones “Hot Rocks 1964 – 1971 ? A classic album released in December 1971.