Raspberry and coconut bounty bars

I have just come back from a break a way on my own and I am determined to improve my eating habits.  I have got into some bad snacking habits.  The trouble is, that if I do not have anything nice in the house, I am like a locust and eat several things trying to get that hit that I am craving.  I do make popcorn to try to satiate myself, but that does not always cut the mustard.  I therefore decided to make myself these reasonably healthy raspberry and coconut bounty bars as a treat when I really need them.

As you know, I hate waste and always try to use up and shop from the items in my cupboards.  I had all of these ingredients already, except the dark chocolate.  The coconut is going out of date in July, the ground almonds were already out of date, and the raspberries were in the freezer left from last year’s harvest.  My raspberries in my garden will be ready in two or three weeks and so I wanted to use up those left from last year. I remember seeing a similar recipe to this about 4 years ago and kept meaning to make it, and so I thought that I would give it a go.  This made 24 mini bars.

Ingredients

150g of fresh raspberries. (mine were from the freezer and and still had some ice crystals when I whizzed them)

90g desiccated coconut (I find it is cheapest on the world food aisle).

60g ground almonds

1 dessert spoonful of honey. (use the real stuff if you can afford it).

200g of dark chocolate (higher the amount of cocoa solids the better)

1 heaped tsp of pure coconut oil

Method

1. Weigh out the ingredients and place all of them except the chocolate and coconut oil into a food processor
2. Whiz until they combine. (if no food processor mash the fruit and mix with dry ingredients and honey).
3. If the mixture is too wet (very juicy raspberries) add a little bit more of the dry ingredients (these amounts were fine for me).
4. Shape the mixture into little bars and open freeze for 15 minutes.
5. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together (I did mine in the microwave, checking every 20 seconds).  Stir to combine.
6. Dip the frozen mini bars into the chocolate using two forks so that the excess chocolate can run off.  Place on the a silicon mat or baking parchment.
7. Place into the fridge for 30 minutes for the melted chocolate to harden.

This will store in the fridge for a week, but I chose to freeze mine so that I am not tempted to eat mine all at once.  This might not seem a particularly frugal recipe, but if you compare it to the price of mini bounty bars, it works out cheaper than buying them.  They are also  much healthier with no nasty ingredients.  I am going to allow myself one each day and it will give me a treat to look forward to.  I will eat it after lunch instead of a dessert.  The texture is a bit softer than a bounty bar, and the fresh raspberries add a lovely taste to these ‘healthy’ bars.  I am going to make some more next month with some of my fresh raspberries.  What do you like to make with your raspberries?