Dark Chocolate Brazil Nut and Coconut Bars

Looking for a new homemade dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth? One that’s fancy enough to serve at a dinner party, but can also be thrown into a backpack on your next hike?

These dark chocolate coconut and Brazil nut bars are pretty to look at, easy to make, stay fresh for weeks and are filled with healthy fats, flavanols, and selenium. What more could you possibly want from dessert?

The idea to use a silicone ice cube tray for shaping chocolate comes from this recipe for dark chocolate snack bites. Pouring warm chocolate into a small ice cube tray yields nicely shaped, nicely sized chocolate squares.

The possibilities here are endless. Any type of nut or seed, dried fruit, sea salt, spices like cinnamon or turmeric…they can all be used to embellish the flavor of dark chocolate.

Servings: 15 small chocolate squares

Time in the Kitchen: 15 minutes, plus 2 to 3 hours for chocolate to set

Ingredients:

• 1.25 ounces (about 1/2 cup) unsweetened coconut flakes (56 g)
• 8 ounces high-quality dark chocolate (230 g)
• 1 ounce Brazil nuts (about 8 whole nuts), chopped (36 g)

Equipment:

• 1 silicon ice cube tray (with 15 cubes)

Instructions:

Recipe Tip: For easiest removal, lightly oil the silicon ice cube tray.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Spread coconut out on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and cool. Pulse in a food processor a few times to chop the coconut flakes into smaller pieces.

Use a serrated knife to chop the chocolate into tiny pieces. Put half the chocolate in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Stir in the remaining chocolate. If needed, continue heating the chocolate in 15-second intervals and then stirring, until completely melted.

Stir the coconut and chopped Brazil nuts into the chocolate. Pour the chocolate into each cube in the tray (using a bowl with a pour spout makes this easier). The chocolate will come about halfway up each cube. If desired, ingredients can also be pressed onto the top of the chocolate squares (like coconut flakes or dried fruit).

Put the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate is completely set, 2 to 3 hours.

Carefully remove the chocolate squares from the tray. Store in an airtight container in the pantry, or in the refrigerator if your house is warm. The chocolate bites will keep for several weeks.

from Mark's Daily Apple http://ift.tt/1TbOKc4