Today we're going to be making "Almond Joys." It's no bake, it only takes a few ingredients, and
it's really, really fun to make and also, of course, enjoy. So what you're going to need
is some almonds, coconut... shredded coconut, dates, vanilla bean powder, and coconut oil.
And so we have two parts to it. So, this is our base. Those are the ingredients that we first listed off.
We already made this just because it can get really noisy and a little bit more
elbow work goes in to it. So, the trick to doing this is blending your almonds first in your food processor
to make it really fine. It's almost like an almond flour texture that you're looking for.
That's going to give you a really nice consistency when you actually
make your "almond joy" base. And then, after that, I recommend putting in your shredded coconut
meat and then your dates. Once you get a really nice sticky texture where you can
just use your fingers like this and it sticks together, that's really what you're looking for.
That way we're going to be able to scoop it out just like this and put it right on the sheet.
We're going to go ahead and make our chocolate topping together and that way we can show it
step by step. What we're going to be using for the chocolate topping is vanilla bean powder, cacao
powder, which is really our hero here, and then coconut oil. Coconut oil is a really great base because once it
heats up it's going to turn liquid and then once it cools down it actually solidifies. That's
going to give you a nice crunch. On top of that, we're just going to add our almonds which is
pretty much it. And then also add in some honey. So we're going to do that.
First off is cacao powder.
And that's about a half a cup. Then this is another half cup of coconut oil.
And then our honey.
Then I'm just going to do a pinch of vanilla bean powder because a little goes a long way.
Perfect! So now we're just going to blend this up until it's a nice fudgy consistency.
It's going to be a little loud for a second.
[Mountain Rose Herbs: Can you use almond flour instead of the first step of blending almonds?]
Yeah, you definitely could! It's not going to be as chunky as a traditional Almond Joy would be,
but it's definitely going to stick together really nicely with the coconut...
the shredded coconut and the dates. So, yeah, you'll get a really nice, smooth,
probably a little bit more doughy consistency with that. It's a really great question.
So, what I recommend for tools: you could just use a traditional tablespoon and scoop it and
scoop it out with your finger. I found that getting a nice like cookie scoop that's
almost like an ice cream scoop works the best time-wise and also for consistency.
Just press it out.
Then once you scoop it, just press in to the actual equipment and then it scoops out really nicely.
If you have a fridge, after you're done scooping everything out...
a fridge or a freezer... you can put the "almond joy" base into the freezer
and it will help solidify a little bit more. We're at a good room temperature
in here. It's a great recipe for winter or fall so you don't really have to worry about
really hot temperatures where everything would start melting.
So I'm going to scoop out about three more here and then we'll get started on the chocolate.
All right, so now we have our chocolate topping.
You can put that on.
This chocolate turned out to be a nice fudgy consistency.
Whenever you make it, it could look a little bit different, like I mentioned, depending on
the room temperature of where you are. So ours today is nice and fudgy.
Because we weren't able to melt the chocolate a little bit more, they are going to look a little
bit more fudgy and sticky than usual but they're going to taste wonderful regardless.
Just adding the almond on top.
Then to store these little babies, I would definitely recommend putting them in the fridge,
a really chilly room, or even a freezer. If you put them in the fridge, they're going to last for a
really long time. I would say for about a month or two at least. And they're really great to just go
into the fridge and grab a little bit of a treat that you made ahead of time
And there you have it!