Keto almond and coconut clusters recipe
If you’ve got a sweet tooth going low carb really helps reduce the dependency. Because you eat no sugar or similar ‘-ose’ ending ingredients, you end up getting use to not having the sweet sugary flavours all the time. But sometimes I do like to have a ‘dessert’ or something slightly sweet to give an alternative option. Especially if others are eating sweet treats, it’s nice to have something that’s more treat like. This is where these almond and coconut clusters come in.
I’ve always liked nuts, but I’m eating a lot more on this way of eating. They’re good fats, and have lots of good vitamins to help with healthy mind and body. Adding coconut and chocolate makes them a more substantial treat.
You don’t need to be an amazing star baker to make these almond and coconut clusters. There’s no baking involved. Just melted chocolate with the coconut oil which I do in the microwave – heating squares of chocolate in short bursts until nearly melted, then stir to melt the remainder.
If you’d prefer you can melt the chocolate in a bain marie – in a glass bowl sitting above a pan of simmering water.
Then it’s just mixing the other ingredients in, and dolloping circles of the mixture onto the baking sheet/parchment paper and leaving them so the chocolate sets.
I include a little erythritol sweetener in mine but feel free to switch it for another sweetener if you prefer. You can adjust to taste depending whether you want the taste sweeter or not.
Similarly adjust the chocolate to what you prefer. For keto you preferably want unsweetened. Otherwise the darker the chocolate the better, as lower than 100% will include some sugar.
Obviously you can make these non keto by switching sweetener for sugar, and using a different chocolate if you prefer.
These chocolate, almond and coconut clusters are great eaten with a tea or coffee, as a snack or treat. Or even as a sweet sign off after a meal.
Almond and coconut clusters recipe
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 minutes
Chill time: 1 hour
Makes 12
Equipment you’ll need
Ingredients
- 80g unsweetened chocolate chips
- ​1 tablespoon of coconut oil
- 1 tbsp erythritol (powdered)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ​1/2 a cup of sliced almonds
- 1/2 a cup of big coconut flakes or big chips
Instructions
1. Melt the baking chocolate and coconut oil together in a small sauce pan over low heat, whilst stirring.
2. When the chocolate is melted, add the sweetener and vanilla and stir until mixed in.
​3. Remove from the heat and mix in the almonds and coconut flakes.​
​4. Scoop the mixture into bite sized clusters and drop them onto parchment paper (or into the silicone cupcake moulds)
5. ​Let the clusters harden in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Once the chocolate is set eat, or store in an airtight container. As they’ve got coconut oil in, they should be ok stored at room temperature, but I’ve got quite a warm kitchen, so keep them in the fridge.
You could add whatever other flavours you wanted. I like the flakiness of the almonds and coconut, but you could add different nuts as you want. They may just be a bit chunkier if you’re not using flaked almonds.
If you have more time, you could also lightly toast both the coconut and almond flakes – in a dry non stick pan on a low heat until they’re just turning a little brown. Cool before using in the recipe.
What would you eat these with?
Like this post, try these other tips for nearby days out.
