Piña Colada Bars

These non-alcoholic tropical coconut custard bars have chunks of pineapple and shredded coconut all on top of a crunchy graham cracker crust.

Long ago, back in 2014 when I started my website, I published these piña colada bars and they went BANANAS on Pinterest. Since then, I’ve had a pretty steady flow of visitors to this recipe, but have never been 100% on board with the final product after hearing reader reviews.

I love growing and learning more and expanding my baking skills, and since these bars’ debut, I have been itching to get to this recipe to make it better than ever.

Back in the spring when I made my coconut custard pie, I discovered that a coconut custard type filling is what these piña colada squares were missing. So I took to the kitchen, selected my best coconut ingredients, and made these bars exactly what I wanted them to be.

So easy! And a wonderful complement to the filling.

A note on the coconut milk– you will need this at room temperature where it is often separated into fat and liquid. Take care opening your can, or, if it’s warm enough, you may be able to turn it into a complete liquid by shaking it before adding it to your other ingredients.

Other ingredients you’ll need for the filling: cream cheese, egg yolks, some vanilla extract, a little salt, and to bring all the true piña colada flavor, crushed pineapple and sweetened shredded coconut.

You might be wondering to yourself… Where is the rum?

Although there is no actual alcohol in these bars, you can most certainly add some rum extract to make these truly a cocktail dessert. See my notes at the bottom of the recipe for suggestions.

Gather the ingredients into a food processor and pulverize everything. Add the melted butter and the sugar and continue to combine.

You’ll press this mixture into the bottom of an 8″ square pan lined with parchment or foil (I prefer foil).

Then, you’ll bake this for about 8-10 minutes just so it can set up.

For the filling, you’ll start by creaming together the cream cheese and granulated sugar. To this, you’ll add two egg yolks, then the coconut milk and the vanilla extract.

Remember, your coconut milk may be separated, so take care when emptying the contents into your mixture.

Lastly, we’ll add some salt and then crushed pineapple and ⅔ cup of the sweetened shredded coconut.

Your crushed pineapple should be drained, but it does not need to be bone dry. Don’t worry about wringing out all of the moisture, but do be sure to press out as much as you can before taking it out of the can.

Once these ingredients are all well combined, pour it into the pre-baked graham cracker crust, then sprinkle the remaining ⅓ cup of sweetened shredded coconut on top.

You will bake these piña colada cheesecake bars for a long time– over 1 hour. Remember that this is a coconut custard based bar, so it will need longer to set than traditional bars made with cream cheese.

Once baked, they’ll need to cool completely before you refrigerate them to cut and serve them. This is crucial in letting the bars set the whole way.

For me, there is no such thing as too much coconut in my life, and these bars are jam-packed with it. It’s the perfect summery dessert and worth all the heat of turning on the oven.

The coconut sprinkled on top browns just a little bit, so the slight toasted coconut flavor in each bite meshes well with the sweetness of the bar.

My favorite part of the bar, though, is the caramelized edges that come from the baking of the pineapple juice. It makes the bars just the right amount of sticky and chewy that belong in a dessert.

To make things even more fun, I sometimes top my bars with a maraschino cherry, so it is essentially a chewy cocktail. Now that I’ve typed that, it sounds kind of gross, but I promise, these bars are a tropical dream.

If you like piña coladas, you must try this dessert.

And the best part? You can eat ALL of these bars and not have a hangover!

Ok, ok, please don’t do that… It would probably be not so great for your belly! Besides, these are too good not to share with fellow piña colada loving friends, so gather them ’round and get to baking!