Low Carb Life: Chocolate Coconut Candy

Candy is of course one of those indulgent things that isn't at all good for anyone, and yet it is so very good. If you look at the ingredients on a bar of chocolate it is loaded with stuff that we shouldn't eat. When you begin a restricted diet, you start to want those things even more just because you have to avoid them...I began researching how to make chocolate and found it to be very easy and if you are on a paleo diet that isn't highly restrictive, making your own is actually okay in limited quantities and dark chocolate that isn't full of sugar and other additives has beneficial properties.

The recipe that I have come up with does have a small amount of maple sugar, to cut the bitterness of unsweetened chocolate, but not enough to make it sweet.





Chocolate Coconut Candy

Coconut Layer
2 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes chopped super fine
1/3 cup of coconut butter
2/3 cup of coconut oil
1-2tsp of maple syrup (if wanted not really necessary)

Melt the coconut oil and butter in a pot. Stir in the maple syrup if using. Add in chopped coconut. Stir until combined and pour into a parchment lined pan. 9x11 seems to work great. 9x13 will make a thinner candy, but you will get more pieces. Put coconut layer in the fridge to harden while you work on the chocolate.

Chocolate
2/3 cup cocoa butter
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 cup of high quality unsweetened cacao powder(cocoa powder can be used but it has less nutrients)
1-2 Tablespoons maple syrup honey or other sweetener (more if you want it sweeter, but I don't recommend it if you are trying to get the sugar out of your diet)

Melt the cocoa butter and coconut oil heating it to about 100 degrees. Stir in the maple syrup and unsweetened cacao powder. Stir the mixture until all of it is incorporated. The mixture will have to be tempered in order for it to work right. Personally I am still working on getting this right but there are many tutorials on the internet. Tempering the chocolate is a way of realigning the crystal structure of the cocoa butter so that it has the correct texture and feel.

When the chocolate is ready and the coconut layer is hardened, gently pour a layer of chocolate over the coconut and put back in the fridge until it is all solid an hour or two. I usually pour a thin layer of chocolate over the coconut and prepare another pan for the rest of the chocolate either to save for another batch of coconut, or to have on it's own.

After it is hardened use the parchment to remove it to a cutting board and break it into pieces. It needs to be kept in the fridge or freezer(if you find it difficult to resist).

Other things can be added to your chocolate, be creative...
If you can have nuts try different kinds depending on your mood.
Add a few drops of mint essential oil
Zest some orange and add it to the top
Dried fruit if you can eat it
Cayenne Pepper
Candied Ginger
Sea Salt
Caramel(if you are not diet restricted)
pumpkin seeds

What would you put in your chocolate?