I am hardly alone in my love of Smitten Kitchen and all things Deb. To say I have made about a billion of her recipes — both sweet and savory — is no exaggeration. And to say I look to her site almost every time I develop one of my own, is the cold hard facts. It was only a matter of time, therefore, before I would eventually post one of her recipes here. And that time is now. 
I have made three recipes (and counting) from Deb’s new book, Smitten Kitchen Every Day, (the bakery style butter cookies, the sour cream coffee cake, and now these chocolate coconut oat bars) and I love them all. I chose to share this recipe with you because I love the name (“Bake Sale Winning-est Gooey Oat Bars” — you had me at gooey). Plus, I love seven layer bars (and this is not unlike one) and I love easy (and this is all that and then some).
Deb recommends that the chocolate coconut oat bars be sold at a school bake sale (hence the name) but I made these for some teenage boys who needed sweets to lure kids into joining their Shakespeare Club, or some such craziness and lo and behold it worked! Bars were eaten; clubs were joined. Win win. So even though these never made their way to an actual sale, they very much attended school. I hope that would make Deb happy.
FYI: I adapted this recipe almost not at all, but where I did so, I made note.
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