Thursday, April 8, 2010

Homemade "Mounds" or "Almond Joy" Candy

The other day my husband came home from work & saw my computer open to a page on The Nourishing Gourmet that featured a picture of her homemade "Mounds" candy.  Right away hubby started talking about how good they looked- and when I looked at the ingredients I thought, "I can make those!"  So I did  :)  Have you tried them yet?  If you like coconut & chocolate- you must!  They are UH-MAZE-ING!  If I had an award to give, I would certainly give her one for this recipe.


I used a mini muffin pan, so the recipe made 24 candies.  I used 2 "crispy" almonds in each one (you could do 3, or use chopped), so you would need at least 48 almonds this way.  Here's my 1 1/3 coconut in the bowl (I used unsweetened shredded instead of flaked) along with the teaspoon almond extract and 1/4 c. honey & 1/2 c. coconut oil that I melted in pot of hot water.  You don't have to use muffin liners & may not want to- I will go into that more...  Using almonds make these more of an "Almond Joy", but because it is a dark chocolate, not milk chocolate, it's kind of a "Mounds" & "Almond Joy" hybrid.
OK, so my 6 year old son is a camera fiend & he took this picture of me furiously stirring up my coconut/honey/oil mixture (and then he took 20 of the dog).  Sometimes his pictures actually turn out & I am so thankful for the "delete" button on digital cameras (as well as the fact that the sink of dirty dishes is behind me where you can't see it)!
Here is the coconut mixture sitting on top of the almonds. Next it goes into the freezer for 30 minutes, and you can work on the chocolate mixture (or spend some time deleting pictures from your digital camera).
Here is the coconut oil, tablespoon vanilla, scant 1/4 c. honey and 3/4 c. cocoa powder getting mixed together.  I want you to know I was almost out of coconut oil, so I only used 3/4 c. instead of the 1 c. called for & it still turned out great.  In fact this chocolate mixture is more than great, it's so-good-I-have-to-lick-the-bowl-clean great!
Oh yeah!  There it is- can you believe that ingredients this simple can make something this awesome?  Now, if you are using paper liners you have an extra step here- you have to remove the paper liners before you put the chocolate layer on- you see the cups are so full that the chocolate will run over the top & around your paper liners.  Not good.  So, why use paper liners?  Well, if you notice in my picture below my candies ended up looking "chocolate dipped" because the paper liners are smaller than the muffin cups, they freeze that way & then the chocolate goes all around them.  So, if that look is important to you- go for it- otherwise skip the paper liners!  By the way, if you use a tablespoon to measure the chocolate mixture on each candy it should work out just right.  Freeze for another 30 minutes or so, wait patiently, until...
My husband took one bite of these and said, "These are way better than Almond Joy!"  My daughter (11 year old milk-chocolate-loving-sweet-toothed one) said, "These aren't sweet enough" and as she was finishing it she said, "Can I have another one?"  LOL- yes!  Kimi says to store these in the freezer but we put them in a container & they store well in the refrigerator.

WARNING: these candies may cause serious cravings & consuming thoughts of... MORE!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade

4 comments:

  1. I will have to try these - I adore candy and am looking for a way to get more healthy fats into my little one (and husband!) I love the fact that your son takes your picture - my little one loves to be the one in charge of the camera also - almost as much as she loves to cook!

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  2. @living gracefully: yup- these are a husband fave! My son goes crazy with the camera & the funny thing is when he talks to the dog like she's a model. :)

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  3. I am so making these but with carob. (Sensitive to chocolate :(

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  4. @lost and found: would love to hear how they turn out- go for it!

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