Dark Chocolate Coconut Treats

I love coconut and chocolate, especially Mounds and Almond Joy, so when I came across Tasty Yummies recipe for these delicious Dark Chocolate Coconut Treats, I had to try them.  These are Vegan, Gluten-free and Refined Sugar-Free, which means they are perfect for the boys and they are completely unprocessed (I’m starting a clean eating diet today, so perfect timing).

For once, I actually followed the recipe pretty closely, except for a few small things.  For one, instead of 6oz of 100% unsweetened organic dark chocolate, I just used whatever bakers dark chocolate my store had. I highly doubt it was 100% organic, so whether this makes the recipe no longer vegan, I’m not sure.  I’m hoping not since I used Nestle, but you never know. Plus I used 8oz of chocolate since the bars I bought were in 4oz packages. Waste not, right? Especially chocolate. *grin* I did end up with some chocolate left over, but that may be due to the fact my boys got into the coconut bites before I added the chocolate.

Also, I was actually kind of surprised at how easy it was to find coconut oil.  It’s something I never looked for and thought I was going to have to hunt it down; but nope, it was sitting pretty next to the olive oil, so look there first. *grin*

The biggest difference I noticed was Tasty Yummies said this recipe made 12 cups, but I used my mini-muffin pan and ended up with 36 cups. This made them more bite sized and perfect for little hands since they always want more than one.  One last thing, these have to be stored either in the refrigerator or the freezer.  If you try keeping them on the counter, expect to find coconut chocolate puddles instead of bites.

Now that I’ve made these, there is another change I would do. It will involve changing the chocolate topping to something a little more “dippable”.  Freezing the coconut mixture came out fine; but after adding the chocolate topping and freezing again, that’s where I ran into a problem.  They started falling apart once I tried getting them out of the muffin pan. Jesse came up with a good idea and that was to dip the coconut mixture in the chocolate, so the whole thing is coated and not just the top. I like this idea as the coconut mixture was easy to get out. And hell who doesn’t like chocolate covered anything. *grin* So I will be changing the chocolate dipping, but not right now. I’ll update the recipe once I try this recipe again…which will probably be soon since I have this big container of coconut oil to use. *grin*

Coconut Filling:
2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut, finely shredded
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Topping:
8 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate (aka bakers chocolate)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the coconut filling ingredients and mix together until well combined. Evenly divide up the filling between the 12 muffin cups, pressing it in very tightly, making sure it is even. Don’t worry they won’t stick. Place the muffin pan in the freezer make sure it is sitting flat, and freeze until hard, about 30 minutes.

While the coconut filling is cooling, melt the dark chocolate with the coconut oil. Either very carefully in a double boiler setup on the stove top or in small increments in the microwave. After the chocolate and coconut oil is melted and whisked together and well combined, remove from the heat (if you melted it on the stove), and add in the maple syrup. Stir well to combine. Give the chocolate topping a little taste to see if you want it any sweeter. Add more syrup, if you wish. Take the muffin tin with the frozen coconut mixture out of the freezer, and divide your chocolate mixture over it, spooning it on top and smoothing the chocolate out to make sure it totally covers the coconut.

Put the muffin tin back into the freezer, and freeze until the chocolate has set, about another 30 minutes or so. To get the treats out of the pan, slide a knife around the outside of the treat and it will very easily pop out.

Nutritional Information: Servings 36; Calories 142; Carbs 13g; Fat 11g; Protein 1g (as determined by MyFitnessPal.com)