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Coconut Mounds Bars

posted by Liz Berg on May 3, 2020 (updated 9/11/24)

Coconut fans will swoon for these outrageously delicious Coconut Mounds Bars with a graham cracker crust, coconut filling, and a chocolate ganache topping! It’s easy to create these rich, irresistible Coconut Bars at home!

With all the flavors of a Mounds candy bars, these Coconut Chocolate Bars are even more delicious in my humble opinion. It’s the contrast between the buttery crust, gooey coconut, and semi-sweet ganache that makes these easy mounds bars outrageously delicious!

Mounds Bars stacked on a round white plate.

Table of Contents hide

1 Why You Must Make

2 Ingredient Notes

3 The Best Coconut Chocolate Bars

4 How to Make

5 Frequently Asked Questions

6 You May Also Like:

7 Coconut Mounds Bars Recipe

Why You Must Make

I’ve loved this Mounds Bars Recipe of my mom’s for decades. If you love coconut desserts, you’ll adore these.
These bars are super easy to make!
They are gooey and decadent!!

I mentioned my love for Mounds Bars in a previous post. This recipe for mounds bars was my contribution to a cookbook compiled for our moms decades ago when I was in first grade. Held together by metal brackets and covered in wood grain patterned shelf paper, this recipe book was my resource when an urge for coconut hit. Unfortunately, this gem disappeared from my childhood home when I was desperately craving coconut.

Ingredient Notes

Kitchen Staples – Powdered Sugar, Melted Butter (salted butter is fine)
Graham Cracker Crumbs – Find boxed crumbs in the baking aisle of large supermarkets. You can also make your own by adding broken graham crackers to a food processor and pulse them into crumbs.
Sweetened Condensed Milk – One can (14 ounces).
Sweetened, shredded Coconut – I used Angelflake coconut.
Semisweet Chocolate – Chopped for easier melting. I use Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate bars, chopped.
Heavy Cream – 36% butterfat.

Homemade Coconut Bars on a white ceramic tray.

The Best Coconut Chocolate Bars

My friend, Susan, of Schnitzel and the Trout, hearing about my predicament, came to my rescue. My only other attempt at recreating these bars fell short. They were good, but either my memory of my mom’s bars had failed or these just weren’t as decadent as the original recipe.

How to Make

Susan sent me her recipe for mounds bars, which I tweaked by baking in a smaller pan, therefore doubling the filling, and replacing the topping of melted chocolate chips with a glossy ganache.

When baking most bar cookies, I recommend lining the baking pan with non-stick foil. This helps with easy cleanup, but it also allows you to lift the bars from the pan and place them on a cutting board for easy slicing.
After baking the coconut layer, cool the bars before frosting. They can be slightly warm, but not hot.
Use a small offset spatula (Amazon affiliate link) to spread the chocolate over the coconut. It’s one of my most used kitchen tools.
Cut the coconut bars after refrigerating. This helps cut clean slices. Scoring the bars first will help minimize cracking of the chocolate topping. Plus, I like using a hot dry knife to help glide through the ganache topping.

Well, the verdict is in: these coconut bars are BETTER than the original!! Thanks so much, Susan!!!

Coconut Chocolate Bars garnished with shaved coconut on a white tray.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Mounds Bars?

Introduced in 1920 by the Hershey Company, Mounds Bars are candy bars made of sweetened coconut filling topped with dark chocolate. Its sister bar is the Almond Joy.
These Easy Mounds Bars with Chocolate are a riff on the candy bar I finally tasted and fell for in my early teens! Those living abroad may be familiar with Bounty Bars which are like our Mounds Candy Bars except bathed in milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate.

What’s the Difference Between a Mounds and Almond Joys?

A Mounds Bar is coated in Dark Chocolate. An Almond Joy is coated in milk chocolate and each piece is topped with a whole almond. They both have coconut filling.