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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Simple, delicious, and a breeze to freeze, these Coconut Grape Jam Bars are perfect to make for all of your holiday party snack trays! Make extra to save for later or devour them now.
If you enjoy these, why not also try my Raspberry Coconut Bars, which were the inspiration for the coconut grape delicacies? If you have some grape jam leftover, use it up in a batch Grape Jelly Meatballs.
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: These bars are very easy to make.
- Total Time: Making these bars will take you approximately 65 minutes from start to finish.
- Variations: This recipe can be made with pretty much any fruit jam you like. Play with different flavours, add almond extract, or use a drop or to of coconut extract instead of vanilla. Chop up some pecans, walnuts, or almonds to mix into the crust or incorporate into the topping. Try adding some chocolate chips or a drizzle of melted chocolate for an extra bit of sweetness.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need an 8×8 or 9×9 baking pan, two medium bowls, a pastry cutter or fork, and a spoon.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Grape Jam or Jelly: Whether you have some homemade grape jelly sitting in your pantry or an untouched jar of the storebought stuff, this is the way to use it up. Grape jelly is incredibly sweet and often overlooked, but it is the perfect pairing for crunchy coconut.
Coconut: This recipe calls for sweetened coconut but since the jam layer is so sweet you can absolutely get away with unsweetened coconut. Whichever size of coconut shreds you like best will work for these bars. Bigger shreds will make the topping more chewy, while smaller shreds or flakes will keep the texture a bit smoother.
Vanilla: Now, while any old vanilla off the grocery store shelf will work for this recipe, this is a great opportunity to try a higher-quality vanilla or experiment with other flavorings. Vanilla bean paste, Mexican vanilla, Madagascar vanilla, coconut extract, or even almond extract would all be delicious options to try.
How To Make Coconut Grape Jam Bars
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 8×8 or 9×9 baking pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the 1 and 1/4 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar together. Cut in butter with pastry cutter, a fork, or two butter knives, until the mixture is crumbly. Pat the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan.
- Bake crust for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread grape jam over crust.
- In a medium bowl, mix together topping ingredients. Spread evenly over top of the crust and jam layers.
- Put pan back in oven and bake for 25-35 more minutes.
- Cool, slice, and serve.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Coconut Grape Jam Bars
Frozen Goodies: These bars, like so many other bars and cookies, freeze remarkably well! Once they’re fully cooled, you can slice them up, layer them with parchment or wax paper in a sealed, freezer safe container, and freeze them for months. If you’d like to maximize the structural integrity of the bars, you can always spread out the individual slices on a baking sheet to freeze solid before placing them in a bag or container.
Fun Ideas: While these bars have a lovely toasted coconut look to them already, you can easily lay around with making them look a bit fancier or more festive. Why not add some colourful sprinkles to the topping? Or melt some chocolate chips or baking chocolate to drizzle in pretty zigzags across the cooled bars? You could even try melting some white chocolate and some dark chocolate so that you get more colour contrast.
Storage Instructions
You can keep these in a sealed container at room temperature for 3-4 days, refrigerated for up to a week, or in the freezer for several months.
More Delicious Coconut Recipes
Are you looking for more ways to up use shredded coconut?
Try making these Coconut Cookies or a pan of Coconut Rhubarb Crunch.
If coconut pies are calling your name, check out this Coconut Cream Pie or this Impossible Eggnog Coconut Pie!
Why not take a chance on these Coconut Malibu Rum Balls this holiday season?
There you go, friends. A lovely way to show some appreciation for those forgotten jars of grape jam. Try out this recipe and let me know what you think.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Coconut Grape jam Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup salted butter
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
Filling
- 1 cup grape jelly of choice
- Topping
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8 or 9×9 pan and set aside.
- Mix the flour and sugar together, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until crust mixture resembles crumbs. Pat the crust evenly into bottom of the baking dish.
- Bake the crust in the oven for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
- Spread the grape jam over the crust.
- Mix the topping ingredients together until there are no lumps and spread evenly over the top. Return to oven. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the filling is firm and set.
- Remove and cool completely.
- Cool, then slice and serve! These freeze exceptionally well.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Barbara Bolling says
Definitely going to try these. Thanks! We always have grape jelly because it’s the only kind my grandson likes and he would starve if not for p.b. & j’s!
Barb B says
Wonder what this would be like with a layer of peanut butter before the jam? Then the coconut as usual.. hmmm might have to try it.