Somoas Bars

These bars have  really gotten me into loving coconut!! They are soo good!! I highly recommend making these!! :----]

Ingredients:
~ 1/2 cup of sugar
~ 3/4 cup of butter (softened)
~ 1 large egg
~ 1/2 tsp. of vanilla
~ 2 cups of all purpose flour
~ 1/4 tsp. of salt
~ 3 cups of shredded coconut
~ 12 ounces of chewy caramels (around a cup and 1/2)
~ 3 tbs. of milk
~ 20 oz. of chocolate chips (around 2 cups)

Directions
1. Make cookie base: Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream together butter and sugar. Next beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour and salt until just combined. The mixture will be pretty crumbly. That's okay!! Press it into a baking dish ( 9 in. by 13 in.). Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Allow to cool
2. Next step is to make the topping: Start by toasting your coconut. Turn the oven on to 300F. and lay coconut on baking sheet. Turning occasionally, toast about 10 minutes; once golden remove from oven and set aside to cool.
3. Next melt the caramels in the microwave: First unwrap the caramels and put them in a large bowl with the milk and 1/4 tsp. salt, microwave for 3-4  minutes. STIRRIING EVERY 30 SECONDS until evenly melted. [note: this is very important. I did not do this and well...my caramels irrupted in the microwave. Oops!] Add the coconut to the melted caramel and stir to combine. Set aside in a bowl.
4. Next make the chocolate layer: Remove cookie base from pan and set aside. Melt chocolate and put about 7/8 of it in the pan that did have the cookie base in it. Spread chocolate evenly. Set aside the 1/8 of chocolate.
5. Add all layers next: Put cookie base back in the pan on top of the chocolate. Then put the caramel coconut on top of the cookie base and spread evenly. Drizzle the 1/8th chocolate over the caramel coconut. Put in freezer/fridge for a short time. Slice and ENJOY!!