Coconut Chocolate Chip Dream Bars – A Microwave Bar Cookie Recipe

Coconut Chocolate Chip Dream Bars is a classic recipe for a microwave bar cookie. Using the microwave is an easy and quick way to make dessert without heating up the kitchen. This bar cookie recipe is also great for the Microwave Cooking project in 4-H.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Dream Bars

What’s a dream bar?

A microwave dream cookie bar has a shortbread crust, chewy chocolate chip center and a sprinkle of shredded coconut right on top.

The combination of chocolate and coconut is a dream come true.

Get it? These dream bars are dreamy. Corny, right?

Microwave Bar Cookies

We are in the thick of 4-H projects right now at my house. Growing up, Mom always signed us up for Foods, Microwave Cooking and Food Preservation.

And of course, I make my girls follow this same path.

This year for Microwave Cooking, my oldest has to make a microwave bar cookie. Let met tell you, there’s a serious lack of microwave bar cookie recipes out there.

Thank goodness, Mom keeps everything, and is organized (this is quite opposite of myself). Mom loaned me an old cookbook called Microwave Cooking – Baking & Desserts.

It’s so old, in fact, that it tells the reader to put foil on the corners of the pan before putting in the microwave to prevent over-browning. This had me scratching my head. DO NOT PUT FOIL IN THE MICROWAVE. I repeat, absolutely do not microwave aluminum foil.

The other funny step in all the microwave cookie recipes is to manually rotate the pan 1/4 turn every 2 minutes. In the time this book came out, microwave ovens did not contain a rotating plate.

I am happy to report that these dream bars earned my daughter a Blue Ribbon AND Reserve Champion at our county fair! Maybe we should call the “award-winning microwave dream bars”!

Ingredient List for Chocolate Chip Dream Bars (microwave recipe)

Butter, softened

Brown sugar, divided

All-purpose flour

Eggs

Vanilla extract

Baking powder

Sweetened, flaked coconut, divided

Mini chocolate chips (optional)

How to Make Dream Bar Cookies in the Microwave

1. Cream softened butter with 1/4 cup brown sugar in a mixer. Beat in flour and baking powder at a low speed until it becomes crumbly.
2. Press into an 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish.
3. Microwave at 50% power for 3 to 7 minutes or until almost done.  Do not overcook.
4. Beat 1 cup brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, 1/2 cup coconut and mini chocolate chips. Spread over cookie base in baking dish.
5. Microwave at 50% for 5 to 10 minutes or until it is almost done cooking. It will bubble up in parts of the top when it’s cooked through.
6. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup coconut. Press gently into cookie.
7. Bake at 50% for an additional 1 to 3 minutes or until set.
8. Cool before cutting into bars or squares.

For the full ingredient amounts and recipe steps for microwave dream bars, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Please note that all microwaves are different so cooking times will vary.

What does it mean to cook at 50% power in the microwave?

Did you know your microwave can be adjusted to cook at different levels of power? Probably not, because let’s face it, we typically toss in the food and press start.

However, there are recipes out there that call for the microwave to be adjusted, most often to 50% power. I have a rice cooker that calls for this, and microwave baking recipes often do the same.

How do you adjust the microwave to 50% power?

It’s easy…at least on our microwaves. Note that some might be slightly different so check your owner’s manual (or Google it for your model)!

1. Press Time Cook.
2. Enter the cook time.
3. Press Power.
4. Press 5 for 50%.
5. Hit Start.

Why make bar cookies in the Microwave instead of the oven?

There are several reasons one might choose to make microwave bar cookies instead of going the traditional route in the oven.

For one, maybe your oven is broken, or crazy as it sounds, some people do not own ovens. In this day in age, many people are choosing to live in tiny houses or RVs in which there might not be an oven. Microwave cookie bars will satisfy that urge for homemade cookies in a tight space.

Secondly, using the microwave does not heat up the kitchen and/or entire house on a hot summer day. Let’s face it. When it’s 95 degrees outside, I do not want to use the oven. Instead, use the microwave for tasty treats.

Lastly, using the microwave is much quicker in most cases.  Most microwave cookie bar recipes only cook an average of 5 to 8 minutes as opposed to 30 to 35 minutes. That’s only a few minutes between you and deliciousness.

Notes About Coconut Chocolate Chip Dream Bars

• Use an 8 x 8 inch glass dish or ceramic, microwave-safe dish.
• Margarine can be used for butter. Just be sure whichever one you use is softened before creaming.
• Chocolate Chips are optional.  Classic Coconut Dream Bars are tasty too!
• Be sure to follow the instructions for cooking at 50% power. If you use your microwave at full power, the cookies will be hard as a rock.
• Fight the urge to overcook these microwave bar cookies. Remember that the microwave doesn’t brown foods like ovens do so while the bars might look underdone, they are not!
• Check out our Amazon Store for our favorite pantry essentials and kitchen items.

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