Indulgent, gluten-free, and dairy free. Oh, yum.
CrossFit Central is hosting a bake sale today to support the Habitat for Humanity build, and given that I’m a huge fan of baked goods (professional cake baker in a past life), it seemed like a good idea to try a recipe. For inspiration, I looked to Elana’s Pantry (amazing gluten-free, low-dairy, low-sugar treats) – I’d tried her Almond Joy Bars in the past, and I’d been looking for an excuse to do an adaptation of my own.
I think I’ll keep tweaking the recipe – the very bottom bit does still tend to come out a little underdone, but honestly, these things taste ridiculously good. They passed with flying colors with my 12-year-old, and he was VERY nervous about the almond extract going in… I think the key is getting really high quality dark chocolate chips. Next time, I’ll further reduce the quantity of palm sugar – I like my treats a little less sweet. I’ll keep you posted as the recipe evolves!
Dark Chocolate Almond Coconut Dessert Bars
Quantity: 16 2×2 bars
Time: About 10-15 minutes prep, 35-45 minutes baking, 60 minutes cooling
Paleo Grade: B (although naturally sweetened, there’s a fair amount of sugar in these, plus the dark choco)
- 4 pastured eggs
- 3/4 cup can coconut milk (full fat)
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2/3 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Whisk eggs, coconut milk, almond extract and palm sugar in a large bowl until well-combined.
- In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, salt and baking soda.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet with your stand or hand-mixer.
- Stir in ½ cup of the chocolate chips.
(I’m loving Dagoba organic 73% Chocodrops… they’ve got ’em at Central Market in Austin.) - Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish. Pour in batter, evenly distributing chocolate chips throughout.
- Gently sprinkle shredded coconut and remaining chocolate chips on top.
- Bake at 350° for 30 minutes and test for doneness (a toothpick inserted to the bottom should come out clean of batter). In my oven, they typically achieve “done-ness” around 35-38 minutes. (Half the fun of baking is knowing your oven… experiment and see what works for you!)
- Cool for at least an hour so everything sets.
- Cut and serve… These are tasty refrigerated as well!
Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
PaleoBetty 
These were delicious!
I actually found you from my boss, Erik (who apparently used to be YOUR boss at another company). Imagine my surprise when you’re a fellow CC’er (I’m Women’s Only 6:15 MWF).
I actually tried one of these at the bake sale and they were great! 🙂
Small world! I’m in JDP’s 7:30pm MWT class! I worked with Erik briefly at Surgient (where we both were prior to our current gigs). I’m so glad you liked the choco almond bars!
Hope to see you at a CF event soon!
Hey Nicole – here I sit this morning trying to find a good ‘treat’ to bring into our box tonight for one of our coach’s bdays and stumbled across your blog (love it!)- miss you and the Spiceworks crew!
What a nice surprise! How’s it going, Lauren? Liking the new gig? How’s CF going? 🙂
I’d actually recommend the macaroons or the dark choco cake (I made the cake this weekend and cut into 1″ bites – perfect for sharing). The dark choco coconut bars need a little work… They’re good, but not up to the standard as the rest of the site. 🙂 Enjoy!
Nicole
our whole family loves these……..yum
This looks so very good!.
Thanks! 🙂