coconut Archives -

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cream Cups

on July 19, 2016August 13, 2021 By Kelley

These creamy, rich, and chocolatey Coconut Cream Cups are the ultimate decandent (and secretly healthy!!) treat. Pop one of these into your mouth and the rich chocolate melts away to reveal silky, smooth, snowy, and sweet coconut cream. They are easy-peasy to make, and be sure to make extra, for they won’t last long!

Oh, chocolate. My true love.

Ode to chocolate:

Creamy, smooth and sweet.

Your rich flavor makes my heart skip a beat.

Sends tingles down from my head to my feet.

You make it so hard not to eat!

I mean, what is it about chocolate that makes it SO GOOD, and SO ADDICTIVE!? Really!? It really should come with a warning label that reads something like this: “If you are eating this for the first time, be warned, that you may never be the same again and find yourself craving chocolate for the rest of your life.” lol.

Cricket and I love to make healthy treats, so we can indulge in the good stuff, without all the guilt. Although Cricket can’t eat chocolate, because she is a dog, I always make her some thing special when I’m making a treat for myself. So today I made her some bacon jerky while I made these easy chocolate coconut cups all for myself! Oooh- maybe I should have made chocolate covered bacon cups?? Maybe next time….

So many flavors go great with chocolate. The best ones I can think of are peanut butter, almond butter (see my Chocolate Almond Butter Cups), and coconut! I always loved Mounds candy bars when I was a little girl, and now I can recreate that amazing flavor combination without having to leave my kitchen. Even better, the ingredients used to make THESE Coconut Cream Cups are healthy, all-natural, and good for you! Hip-hip Hoorah!

Chocolate Coconut Cream Cups

1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life brand
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut butter

Melt the chocolate chips plus 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat.
Grease the mini muffin tin with a little bit of coconut oil.
Pour a teaspoon of melted chocolate into each compartment. Chill in the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes.
Melt the coconut butter, maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat.
Once melted mix in the shredded coconut, and remove from heat.
Spoon a heaping teaspoon of coconut cream mixture into each compartment (on top of the chilled chocolate layer).
Spoon the remaining chocolate on top of the coconut cream layer and chill in the fridge until set, about 1/2 hour in the fridge or 10-15 minutes in the freezer.
Carefully pop the cups out of the tray using a fork or butter knife.

Somoa Gooey Bars

on March 18, 2016August 13, 2021 By Kelley

These Somoa Gooey Bars are loaded with extra gooey caramel, toasted coconut, and dark chocolate, layered on a crumbly shortbread. They will surely satisfy your Girl Scout cookie cravings without the guilt! They are easy to make and taste amazingly delicious, rich, and decadent! Grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, pegan and paleo!

March is Girl Scout cookie time! I remember the years when I was a Brownie, and I would make my yearly trek around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, peddling arguably the BEST cookies of all time. NO ONE turned me down, and it wasn’t because I was a little kid with a big smile. It was because no one, I mean NO ONE, can turn down those dang cookies! They are addictive, and worst of all, they make you wait ALL year long until those sweet intoxicating cookies can meet your mouth again. Cruelty!

Well I am here to save the day. I not only have a Somoa cookie remake for you, but it’s grain-free, gluten-free and paleo! Plus I pumped it up a bit, wanting to improve upon the already phenomenal cookie, and added extra gooey caramel. You can never have too much of that, right!?

These gooey, chocolatey treats are also easy to whip up, and made in bar form for convenience. There is no need for the saucer-shaped cookie with the middle cut-out…. Why do they cut out the middle of the Somoas anyway!? No middles cut out here and you can cut them as BIG as you want:)

Somoa Gooey Bars

1 cup unsweetened coconut shreds (toasted)
1 ¼ cup coconut flour (you can sub almond flour but then reduce the amount of coconut oil]
1/4 cup + coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup coconut milk/cream (one can of full fat coconut milk, cream only, save liquid for another use)
½ cup coconut sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
½ cup chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a pan over medium heat, toast the coconut shreds, moving them around the pan to ensure they are evenly golden, then set aside.
Next in a bowl combine the coconut flour, salt, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla and mix well until you can form a ball of dough with your hands. Add more coconut oil if needed. Dough will be crumbly.
Push dough into a even compact layer in a parchment lined 8″x8″ pan.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until just golden brown.
In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the coconut cream, coconut sugar, and 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Let it come to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the caramel has thickened to a honey consistency.
Pour the caramel on top of the shortbread, then sprinkle with the toasted coconut.
Melt the chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium-low heat and drizzle it on top of the coconut and then let the bars chill for 30 minutes in the fridge, then remove and cut into bars.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Coconut Butter Drizzle {Pegan-Paleo-Grain Free}

on November 23, 2015April 28, 2021 By Kelley 2 Comments

These fluffy and flavorful pumpkin pancakes are made even more delicious topped with a maple coconut butter drizzle. They are grain-free, pegan and paleo friendly, and of course healthy!

What is your go-to breakfast? My weekdays usually begin with an fried egg or two and sliced avocado, but by the time Saturday rolls around I am ready for somethin’ a little different… Something a little indulgent, sweet and celebratory. Enter- Pumpkin Pancakes (which happen to be delicious and grain free). Yes please!!

I have began a journey into a grain free diet, not due to any specific food allergies, but to improve my overall health. I have always loved all things gluten- fresh bread, pasta, fluffy cupcakes, cookies (…I can go on and on..)but when I eat them I can easily over indulge and I find myself feeling hungry not too long after my last bite. I want to enjoy my food but also have it nourish my body, be balanced with protein, healthy fats, and be nutrient dense.

These fluffy babies are made with coconut flour, which is tricky to cook and bake with, but I am slowly figuring it out and have had some recent success. I am so happy to share them with you today! I hope they make your weekend as special as they do mine!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Coconut Butter Drizzle {Pegan-Paleo-Grain Free}

2 eggs
1/4 cup cashew milk
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
dash of Himalayan salt (or celtic sea salt)
butter or coconut oil to grease the pan

Drizzle:

3 tablespoons coconut butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl- coconut flour, salt, baking soda, spice, and mix.
Add the wet ingredients- eggs, pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla, and mix into the dry ingredients until smooth.
Let the batter sit 5 minutes to thicken up (should be slightly thicker than regular pancake batter).
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add butter or coconut oil.
Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet and cook until bubbles form throughout the pancake, then carefully flip an cook for an additional minute, or until golden brown.
Repeat with remaining batter.
Note- You may need to lower the temperature to medium low (and cook a bit longer) if the first side is getting to dark before the pancake is flippable.
To make the drizzle melt the coconut butter and mix in the maple syrup, pour over pancakes.