German Chocolate Cake Bars

This "Sweets on Sunday" post comes from a recipe from Paula Deen. I made these back in April. As always, I made a few little changes. My changes are noted below. Enjoy!

 German Chocolate Cake Bars

Crust:1 18-ounce box chocolate, Swiss chocolate, or devil's food cake mix-no pudding added. {I think I used one with pudding added- and I used whatever chocolate one I had on hand}
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted {I used some applesauce-because I usually do that}
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix together above ingredients. Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with cooking spray. When crust is mixed,  press into the bottom of the prepared pan. The crust should not come up the sides. Bake for 7 minutes and remove from the oven. The crust will not look done.

Filling:
1 14-ounce can low-fat sweetened condensed milk { I used Fat Free}
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup chopped pecans {I used less}
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips { I used 1/2 milk and 1/2 semisweet}

While the crust is baking, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, egg, pecans and coconut. When the crust comes out, pour evenly over the warm crust, sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips, and bake for 24 to 30 minutes, until the top is a light golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

These were pretty good. The chocolate and coconut combination is really delicious and these are much easier to make than a cake with the fancy coconut frosting.