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Chocolate Almond Bark
CHOCOLATE ALMOND BARK
By Marie Sooklaris
This is a sugar-free recipe that uses stevia powder as a sweetener. If you
use any other type of sweetener, you will have to experiment with amounts of
sweetener. Being that I'm low-carb and a natural girl, I won't use anything
but stevia to sweeten. I'm still suspicious of sucralose (Splenda), I don't
trust aspartame, and simply cannot do sugar of any kind. That's just me.
4 T. (1/4 Cup) Virgin Coconut Oil
1-1.5 T. alkalized Cocoa Powder (your favorite -- I like Valrhona)
2 oz. (by weight) almonds
1/4 t. stevia rebaudiana powder
Place small pan or steel bowl with coconut oil on very low burner just
enough
to melt coconut butter but not for the purposes of heating it. In fact,
remove from heat before all coconut butter melts. The ambient heat will
finish the job. Stir to melt down the white gobs.
Add in cocoa powder and stevia and using rubber spatula, stir to combine and
blend well. Taste chocolate mixture and adjust seasonings if needed. You
might want to add more stevia, but add it in 1/8 or 1/16 teaspoon
increments.
Chop or grind almonds (or other nut or combination of nuts and seeds, for
that matter) to desired chunkiness or fineness (I used food processor for
fine grind), then toast by placing in non-stick skillet on medium heat and
stirring occasionally with spatula until they just warm or turn a little
golden (to your preference).
Blend nuts (and/or nut/seed combo) into chocolate mixture.
Have chilled a metal bakeware lasagna or cake pan or pans in freezer for ten
minutes or so. Remove from freezer and line with plastic wrap. You may
need
to moisten side walls of pan with a finger's dab of water so plastic wrap
sticks to it. Then pour chocolate/nut mixture into chilled pan and spread
to
desired thickness. Some like it thin and crackly. Some like it a little
thicker. Try the thinner version first because I know that is popular.
Pop it in refrigerator or freezer on level shelf and let it sit 10 minutes
or
so. It will harden quickly and breaks with a snap and is so much fun to
eat.
(It melts in your hand -- ! ! ! -- so you may want to handle it with
plastic
wrap. Or what I do is break it into bite size pieces and keep it in a
container lined with plastic wrap in the fridge or freezer, that is if it
lasts that long!)
Aside from almonds, I have used and like a combination of equal amounts of
shredded coconut, macadamia nuts and almonds. Or toasted sesame seeds. Or
add some flax meal as well (don't toast so you preserve the EFAs). Pecans,
walnuts, whatever you like.
Experiment with how fine or coarse you like your nut mixture.
This whole proposition can be accomplished in less than 20 minutes. From
"Hershey's Bar with Almonds or See's Candies Almond Bark fantasy" to healthy
coconut oil and stevia sweetener alternative, just as quick as running down
to the corner store for a candy bar, only much better for you.
Enjoy... ; )
Marie Sooklaris
From the coconut-info
discussion group
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