Toasted Coconut Chocolates

Mmm, the flavor of these simple little treats belies the few wholesome ingredients they contain, mostly dates, coconut and chocolate. The toasted coconut is the key! They don’t require too much hands-on time to make, though after the initial steps, they require some resting time to firm up in the fridge before covering with chocolate.

As for their chocolate coating, I call for unsweetened chocolate or cacao paste below, but you could easily use a regular bar, melted. For cacao sources, please refer to this page to see my favorite products. Since, I call for unsweetened, you could add a little honey or a dash or two of powdered stevia or monkfruit if you want the chocolate coating to be a bit sweeter, but do NOT use any sweeteners that contain water (like maple syrup) as they may cause the melted chocolate to seize. (You can read about that on this page.) I like to add a bit extra cacao butter or coconut oil to my melted cacao paste, but you can leave it out if you want. Of course, you could skip the unsweetened stuff, and just melt any bar you have on hand to use as the coating. Of course, the quality of the chocolate matters, so use a quality bar that you wouldn’t mind enjoying on its own.

To melt the cacao paste or chocolate, use a heatproof glass bowl (Pyrex) over a saucepan of water, or in the top of a double boiler of some sort.

Lastly, I give the option of using coconut oil or coconut butter instead of the almond butter. I prefer the almond butter simply because the mixture is a lot easier to press together, so you can just use what your have keeping that in mind.

If you’re going to share these with friends, keep in mind that in warmer temperatures, the chocolate coating may soften and the coconut may get a bit greasy. They are still delightful to eat, but most neat straight from the cool fridge!

INGREDIENTS

1.5 cups shredded coconut
1 cup soft dates, pits removed
1 tablespoon almond butter, or substitute coconut oil or coconut butter
Pinch sea salt
Unsweetened cacao paste or chocolate, melted with a small amount of cacao butter or coconut oil

METHOD

PLEASE NOTE: You definitely need a full-size food processor for this — a blender or bullet or whatever you have will NOT work to properly blend the coconut and sticky dates together. You also need parchment paper.

Spread coconut out evenly on a baking sheet and toast in a 350 oven until most of it is golden brown - be careful, this happens quickly, so watch it after the first minute or so, and stir as necessary for more even toasting. It’s ok to leave some untoasted if most of it has browned.

While the coconut is still warm, place it in a food processor with dates and nut butter or coconut oil or butter, and process until the mixture resembles crumbs and is beginning to clump together. .

Turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper set on a large baking sheet. Using your hands and the edges of the paper, firmly press the mixture into a rectangular shape about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, as you prefer. I won’t lie, it takes some finessing to press the mixture into a neat, compact shape at this stage so it doesn’t fall apart later, but keep at it, you can do it! If you do end up with some unruly crumbs, you can save them to decorate the top of the chocolates later.

Refrigerate for a few hours until firm, then remove it, and use a large sharp chef’s knife to cut the firmed mixture into small square pieces.

Spread the pieces out so they are separated from each other by an inch or two. Using a spoon, drizzle the melted chocolate all over the tops of the coconut squares and down the sides. Decorate the top with any saved crumbs or perhaps a few flakes of coconut. Put them in the refrigerator for the chocolate to harden. Peel the treats off the parchment and store them in a sealed container in the fridge until you’ve savored or shared each one! They won’t last long!