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Chocolate coconutty goodness



Disclaimer: Some of these pictures may not look all that appetizing but trust me, these are really good!
 
I have been exploring recipes for easy "snacks" that fill me up and fulfill the requirements of the way I have been eating lately (see information on ketogenic diet in case you are interested). I love anything made with coconut and have recently discovered that coconut oil is definitely my friend (I cook with it, add it to my tea, etc). Not too long ago, I decided to try a recipe for Coconut Oil Candy 'Fat Bombs' from the Eat Fat Lose Fat blog, which turned out to be a hit. Not only does one fill me up in between meals if I need a quick something, but it also satisfies any cravings that I might be having (which are fewer and farther in between) AND they are very tasty.
 

I followed the recipe here directly, using 2 tablespoons of Stevia in the Raw and 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I used exact amounts listed for the other ingredients). I thought this would be difficult to mix, since I did not want to melt the coconut oil. With the electric mixer, though, it was a cinch and mixed up into a creamy concoction within minutes.


The mixture itself was very soft and not easily shaped so I opted for coating the individual "candies" to make them easier to work with. The recipe suggests the optional coating of unsweetened dessicated coconut. I decided to add a tablespoon of coconut flour to this in the hopes of coating the candies a little more thoroughly.


I found that the best way to handle the coconut oil mixture was to spoon it directly into the shredded coconut and coconut flour mixture.

 
From there, I used my fingers to cover the candy with more coconut coating and to shape it into more of a ball.

 
Once well-coated, it became much more manageable by hand.


And finally, onto a sheet of wax paper they went, and into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set up completely.


Once they were cooled sufficiently, I put them into a closed container and stored them in the refrigerator so they wouldn't get too soft to eat.

The finished product was a perfect mix of sweet and salty. As good as these are, it's really easy to eat only 1 (2 at the most when you are hungry) because they leave you satisfied and don't induce any sweet cravings.

Using different nut butters would definitely change the flavor. I'm trying to come up with a combination that uses tahini too, just to experiment with in the future. Using extracts other than vanilla could definitely mix things up too.

There's really no end to the ideas that you can find online for these types of recipes. The more searching I do, the more I find that I want to try. Just yesterday, I even ran into some recipes that incorporate cream cheese in them. Oh yeah! Something with cream cheese will most likely be the next recipe to test out!

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