You guys are going to love, and I mean LOVE this recipe today! It is ridiculously delicious…sooo freakin’ good…and on top of all that it is super easy to make. Well, if you like coconut I suppose…although my husband never liked coconut and now he loves it…go figure 🙂 This is my take on a mini Mounds bar…or an Almond Joy if you want to add a cute little almond on top. It is a two-bite dessert that only takes 4 ingredients…I love me some even numbers! I hope you love it as much as we do. Oh, and if you are using good quality ingredients it is a pretty healthy treat too…enjoy!
Chocolate Coconut Cups {Gluten and Dairy Free}
Recipe Type: Dessert
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 8-9 oz of dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup dry unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 tsp coconut extract (optional if you want more coconut flavor)
- 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
- Raw almonds (optional)
Instructions
- In a mini muffin tin, place 12 mini cupcake liners.
- Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and then in 30 second increments after that, making sure you stir the chocolate after each time until it is completely melted.
- Place about 1 teaspoon of chocolate in each liner and coat well.
- Place in the refrigerator to harden.
- In a small bowl, mix together the coconut oil, dry unsweetened coconut flakes and coconut extract. (You may want to add about a tablespoon of sugar if you like it a little sweeter or using sweetened flaked coconut is another option!)
- Add one tablespoon of the coconut mixture to each liner and then cover with another spoonful of melted chocolate.
- If you want to add an almond do so before you add the final spoonful of melted chocolate!
- Let harden in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!
I use half a bar of this delicious dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s. This bar is HUGE by the way, ginormous, humongo, as big as my head…just saying! I melt it in the microwave for a minute, stir it, and then do an additional 30 seconds…usually it’s good to go then. Pour about a teaspoon into each liner and coat it well, then let it harden in the fridge for a good 5 minutes of so.
For your insides, you will mix together 1/2 cup of coconut oil, 1/4 cup dry unsweetened coconut flakes and 1 tsp coconut extract (if you want it). If you aren’t used to unsweetened coconut this may taste a little unsweet to you, it’s cool if you want to add in a tablespoon of sugar. Or you can always use sweetened coconut flakes too! PS. Coconut oil is a liquid at warmer temps so if you leave these out and your house is on the warm side they may get really runny…so eat them fast, lol! Or do what we do and leave them in the fridge. There is nothing like a nice cold mini Mounds bar 🙂
Mmm, this is what dry (or desiccated) unsweetened coconut looks like! I buy mine in bulk cause it’s cheaper that way.
Fill each chocolate-lined mini cupcake liner with a tablespoon of the coconut mixture…
Add a spoonful of melted chocolate on top and let harden in the fridge for another 5 minutes.
If you want go ahead and add a raw almond on top of the coconut mixture before the last spoonful of melted chocolate…Boom!…easy peasy delicious Almond joy right there.
Then once the chocolate is hardened, pull one out of the tin, and unwrap that chocolate madness.
Now, doesn’t that look GOOD!
Take a bite! Check out that creamy coconut center…total bonkers! 🙂
Give these a whirl ASAP…you know you want to!
Enjoy!!!
XOXO,
Thanks so much. Almond Joy has always been one of my favorite candies. This is a much healthier-Gluten Free way to enjoy them.
Blessings.
http://thepeacethatpassesallunderstanding.blogspot.com/2012/03/spring-has-returned-to-big-country.html
I hope you give them a whirl…they are so good!
thanks for the recipe mine came out a little oily my coconut oil was liquid due to the heat i guess your recipe is for the harden stuff right?
Yummy!
Yummy squared!
These look AMAZING! Did you use a spoon or a brush to push the chocolate around the liner?
I just used the back of a small spoon, works like a charm!
Whoa…you’ve captured 2 of my three loves (other one is peanut butter, which I can see adding to this ;O) in ONE little piece of Heaven! I can’t wait to give them a try. Thanks for sharing this one!!
Ah man, you are like me! I love those 3 food groups too…they are so food groups right!? Hope you love this recipe!!!
This looks so good!! Where do you find the unsweetened coconut? I’ve seen it one place and it was almost $4 for 8 oz. that seemed really high to me. I might just use sweetened coconut if I can’t find a better deal.
I bought mine in bulk at Whole Foods!
If you have a winco in your area, it’s a couple bucks a pound. 🙂
I love love love it.
Deee-lish!
This post should definitely come with a drool-inducing disclaimer!
Also, your littles are so darn cute!!
LOL! And thank you so much for the compliment on my little ones!!
This looks absolutely delicious. I’m attempting to go without chocolate until Easter, and you’re making it VERY hard for me.
Oh man, good luck! I am not sure I could do that, especially being pregnant!!
These look so awesome! I am pinning them:)
I hope you love them Vanessa! And thanks for the pin!!
I have been looking for a perfect dessert to bring to a friend’s house where she is nursing and the little one has a sensitivity to dairy (so sad, no cheese) and her husband is GF. And as mentioned by someone above, you have totally captured the best of the food groups 🙂 Thanks!
Oh, that is so sweet of you! I hope they love these!!
YUM! Looks amazing! Found you on Pinterest.
Glad you stopped by Ann Marie!
they look jummie!
They are yummy! Enjoy if you make them!
Yum! Yum!.
Thanks 4 the recipe :}
I just hope no one calls out the chocolate patrol on me when I make these
ColleenB.
LOL Colleen!
These look so yummy!
Just beware of that imitation coconut extract you used in the recipe. It contains propylene glycol as well as artificial flavors (who the hell knows what chemical concoction they use to make that!) Propylene glycol is compound commonly used to make anti-freeze and de-icing solutions for car, airplanes and boats and used in the creation of polyester compounds. It is also used as a solvent in the plastics and paint industries.
Thanks for the advice…I have been looking more and more into this!!!
The kids and I are going to make these for Easter!!!!!!thanks for posting!
I hope you love them!!
Mine are cooling in the fridge…can’t wait! Pinned these yesterday – repinned 44 times already! Clearly a big hit!
ooooh, I hope you love them! Thank you for the pin too!!!
Delish! Hubby approves, too. I left out the coconut flavoring (didn’t have any on hand) and they were still great!
I was going to ask if these would still be good without the extract because we’re trying to eat only real food as much as possible. Hopefully it’ll be alright, thanks Katie for saying that yours turned out fine without it 🙂 Can’t wait to try!!
Yes, these are excellent without the extract! I have it in the recipe for those that like a stronger coconut taste because if you use real desiccated coconut and aren’t used to it the taste differs a bit from sweetened coconut flakes. 🙂
Mmmmm, you could add Almond extract instead of coconut (can’t find the good stuff) – it could be like an almond joy on steroids!!
Thank you!
Can’t wait!
Ciao, Rochelle
I hope you love them Rochelle!
Hi Maggie, delicious. I’m just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/
Thank you Chris! That means a lot to me!
hi
these look great and im going to try them
Just want to check, the recipe is dairy free, so how about the chocolate used, doesn’t that have milk in it?
Also, the coconut oil, half a cup?
Hi! Most dark/semi/bittersweet chocolate is dairy-free although make sure to check the packaging…get a good brand too! The higher cacao percentage the better also! As for the coconut oil, yes a 1/2 a cup…but mine is in a semisolid state so if yours is liquid you may need less!
Is the chocolate you used a sweetened chocolate?
Almond Joy is my most favorite candy! Can’t wait to try this. Many thanks for sharing 🙂
Mine too! I have to pull them out of the kids’ Halloween pumpkins before they see them..all mine!
My mom is going to be so excited I found this recipe!! Yum!! Please link up to Foodie Friday!
Oh, I hope she enjoys them!!
My gfdf grandson, who is also a teeny bit picky, loved these. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Forgot to say that I used sweetened coconut flakes and omitted the essence.
Wonderful! I love to hear that!!
Any particular reason the almonds need to be raw? Almonds are MUCH tastier after they are toasted, in my opinion.
Raw almonds are healthier for you than oil roasted/salted almonds but if you prefer them then go for it!
Thank you for this yummy recipe! is there any substitution for the coconut oil? it is so expensive at the store $9.00 for unrefined and $11.00 for refined. Thank you!!
You can just omit it Edi. I just use it to help bring out the coconut flavor but probably only use it half the time!!
The oil you leave out or the extract?
coconut and chocolate – yum! These are going on my “to make” list for sure. 🙂
Enjoy! 🙂
Here’s a hint for coating the muffin paper cups. Use one of those rubbery silicon pastry brushes. Take the teaspoon of chocolate and put in bottom of cup and brush it up the sides of the paper. My GF nieces are going to love these.
Great idea…I always just use my spoon cause I hate to have another thing to clean, lol!!
Having just begun a gluten and dairy free diet for mu allergic 2 year old son these will be great for our family!!! P.s. I use blogspot too…how do you create different tabs at the top of your site?
http://www.taketenagain.blogspot.com
Oh man…I am seriously drooling right now !! I can’t wait to make these. I follow a vegan diet, and haven’t had an Almond Joy (which was my favorite candy EVER) in several years.
Thank you so much for the recipe !!
Yep – I’m going to make these tomorrow – just need to pick up some more chocolate (we go thru it quickly around here)! Thanks!
Just made these and have them setting up in the refrigerator! The coconut mixture only filled half of my cups (6 of the 12) so I made a peanut butter mixture for the other half. Delicious!
These are AMAZING!! I made both a coconut mixture and a peanut butter mixture! Yummy! Can’t wait to give them to my cousin tomorrow for her nursing graduation! Thanks!
Yay! I am so glad you liked them! And how sweet are you to make them for your cousin!!!!
I just made these and they are AMAZING! I made both the coconut and peanut butter ones! I can’t wait to surprise my cousin with them tomorrow at her nursing graduation.
Thank you so much, these are delicious and not too much of a cheat 😉
Can’t imagine adding sugar, they taste really sweet to me. I used the same chocolate you did, love the pound-plus! I had to increase the amount of dried coconut to get the right consistency. I will be making these regularly!
I can’t wait to make these. I probably won’t use coconut extract though. They look heavenly.
This recipe really caught my attention! Will make them the first chance I get.
I am so homesick. Your post was goin’ along fine til you showed the Trader Joe’s stuff. :`( We don’t have one in our state! Ugh! Then someone in your comments mentioned Winco. Ugh! Again, can I please come home?
Anyway….thanks for sharing what could be my next fav recipe. I will follow you from here out. 🙂
OMG!!!!!!!!!! I am going to make these so very soon!!!!!!!! They look deee-lish… I’m a big fan of coconut!!!! Thanks so much for the recipe!
I am so going to try these tomorrow, thanks for the great recipe!
These look delicious!
These look delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Wayyy too much oil. I ended up with a thick layer of coconut oil on the top of all the cups! Eww. 🙁
THANK YOU! I’ve been gluten/dairy free for almost 3 months and I must admit, other than cheese, it’s my sweets I miss!! I’m definitely trying these babies!!
THANK YOU so much for posting this onto Pinterest. I stumbled upon it before hitting the grocery store and made them when I got home. I just finished blogging about them and I am sooooo glad I did. I am a gluten free girl and posted about them. All the credit to you my fellow blogger. 🙂
http://bargainbaker.wordpress.com/
I am so going to make these for the hubby and I… we love coconut!
Way awesome recipe. I am a coconut fiend so I had to give it a go with what I had and well I do not refrigerate my coconut oil so of course it was melted but tried anyway and my coconut flake were way big but stuck in food processor first and I didn’t have the coconut extract on hand but had almond extract so I halved the amount of extract and these ended up to be more Almond Almond Joys but way good. However I will hunt down coconut extract next time i am at the health food store as well as coconut flour given it is much finer than the flakes i have and way yummy on it’s own and plan to give it another go. Thank you for this recipe. Mighteymouse@hotmail.com
I just made them with ingredients all found at Jewel in the specialty aisle. I found the coconut oil and then used the gluten free/dairy free chocolate chips from Enjoy Life. This recipe is yummy!! The “regular” eaters in my family loved them too.
On a Paleo lifestyle, so – the sugar these are perfect for me!! thanks so much! …Kyle
that looks so good..im gonna make it really soon
Yes – I’m also a coconut & chocolate fan!! Raw cacao nibs (little bits of heaven) would be a nice addition! When I began using coconut oil, I made up things like this more often, now I tend just to munch on a piece of dark chocolate (tiny little square!) w/a Tbsp of pure coconut oil, LOL – but these WOULD be fun for a treat to share! Carob powder is another addition that can help ‘sweeten without sugar’ the chocolate. I like mixing the two!
thanks for sharing 🙂
can you use milk chocolate, as i am allergic to dark chocolate..sad but true.
You sure could!
once again, I am reminded of how much I hate not living near a Trader Joe’s! These look awesome and on my next trip to a town/city with better selection, I am getting these ingredients!
Hi there! I’m the director of a confectionery company in Wales (UK) called Ella Riley’s and I LOVE the look of these little beauties. I will be trying your recipe out on our tasting group and if successful will be bringing a version of this to the UK. It looks delicious! Can I also give you a tip…on the dark chocolate when melting it, to avoid bloom and fat transferance from the coconut oil make sure you temper it. Its really easy to temper chocolate to make sure you get that snap on it. When melting in the microwave do it in 30 second blasts on defrost. Keep stiring til melted, then when melted to a warm runny state just pop about 1/3 the chocolate in again and stir it til melted in(best if you chop the chocolate up to finer pieces but not essential!) This way you’ll have perfectly tempered chocolate that will be more stable and have that bite/snap that chocolate should have. 😉 But this is a fabulous recipe idea. Cheers for this! Feel free to follow us on twitter @ellarileysweets as we’re also hoping to export our confectionery to the US in Fall 2012!
These look wonderful. I would definitely add sugar rather than using sweetened coconut. I recently looked the ingredients in sweetened coconut and was stunned to find propylene glycol!! So much for one of my favorite snacks straight out of the bag. 😛 Nothing packaged is particularly safe any more!
Thanks for the great recipe.
And get Fair Trade chocolate whenever possible – yes, check label for dairy & soy! Fair Trade ensures that workers get fair wage, & child labor isn’t involved in harvesting/processing!! Our local Grocery Outlet often has FT & Organic chocolate! & the Enjoy life chips (dairy/soy free) are another great option!
For sweetening, you could also use a bit of honey or maple syrup (again, doesn’t need much!)
Looking forward to try these – need the right pan….
My first attempt at candy. Success! I think using a double boiler helped though. So, I am cooking in the heat of a Brooklyn summer, and the oil was totally liquid. I couldn’t deal with looking at the flakes float around in a pool of oil, so I doubled the flake quantity. I also couldn’t find pure coconut extract, so I subbed peppermint for an Andes meet Almond Joy surprise. I stuff the oils and flake mixture into the freezer for a sec to solidify while I prepped the cups with chocolate.
I didn’t give the tops a chance to cool totally before stuffing one in my mouth to test. Delish! Yum. Simple. Fun.
Well done!
These cups look fabulous and I love that they are free of gluten, as half of my family is allergic. i love, love, love these pictures and absolutely have to make them!
these were way tooo oily we had to add mre than double the amout of coconut and lots of icing sugar in order for them to taste good but they did end up quite tasty in the end! i recomend using half the amout of coconut oil and double the coconut flakes
Remember to use Fair Trade chocolate! Then they will not only be gluten-free, they will be karma-free!
sounds good except for the artifical coconut flavor……allergic to it
These are soooo good! Thank you for the recipe!
I have made these 4 or 5 times. They are wonderful. Yesterday I made 12 this way and 12 with peanut butter. Thanks for sharing!
I must be missing something here…well, a few things. Having some ditsy moments I suppose as I thought hey, I can use my 100% baking chocolate that is not sweet at all! I did throw in some sugar with that, but still pretty chocolatey and not so sweet. I did use sweetened coconut, but felt your ratio of 1/2 C coconut oil and 1/4 C coconut was backwards or something. I added tons more coconut as the coconut oil was on the warm side and runny. Oh, and guess what–I didn’t have a mini muffin pan so made them large. That wasn’t a problem though. Chocolate–totally my fault. Coconut mixture–still feel like I missed the ball on that one…what did I do wrong?
Yeah–just read that Almond Joys used 1 C coconut. That sounds more like it…
The amounts are correct. You need to use the coconut oil in the solid state. And if you use unsweetened coconut it will change the recipe outcome as there is more moisture in it.