What does this have to do with homemade coconut butter cups??? Well, this January when we were choking from the smog and smut, we decided it was a good time to do a detox. The program we chose was just 10 days long and targeted environmental poisons as well as the usual culprits of sugar, alcohol, caffeine and wheat.
Luckily, my daughter and son-in-law joined me for this undertaking. We actually shopped for groceries together, shared recipes and commiserated together. It was pretty great!
Although I've really cleaned up my diet in the last several years I still enjoy baking and adding sugar to my coffee. Yeah, I only use organic, non-GMO ingredients. Still, organic cane sugar is still sugar. I was worried about giving up this sugar for 10 days.
This "cleanse" was well thought out and included supportive supplements and a nutritional "shake" mix. I was surprised by a couple of things. I was never hungry and I didn't crave sugar! I did crave blessed coffee and hot oatmeal cereal! Go figure...
I really thought I would lay awake at night twitching for homemade brownies or peach tarts. It didn't happen. I did dream longingly about hot, steamy, sexy coffee...and a HUGE bowl of steel cut oats!
I did go through some physical withdrawal symptoms. Mild headache and flu like symptoms on days 3 and 4 and possibly (I'm not sure) I might have been a bit snippy.
Well, day 11 rolled around and I had absolutely no desire to eat sugar! It was so strange. Of course I figured that wouldn't last but decided to ride the wave as long as possible! I thought if I stocked the house with a few "go to" snacks it would help drag out the sugar famine.
I purchased some very pricey coconut butter cups to have on hand. The ingredient list was small. Organic coconut butter, organic unrefined coconut sugar and organic dark chocolate. Although not craving sugar, I did crave a snack and those really hit the spot. I could happily linger over just one cup and have no desire to eat anymore. They were totally satisfying. Unlike the old days where I could easily knock back a half package of Reese's miniature peanut butter cups and still crave more! Side note...so glad I gave up high fructose corn sweetener! Never looking back!
Well, after about 2 weeks I had finally made my way through all of those stashed coconut butter cups. I thought about ordering more and then realized I could just make my own!
Several blog posts back I have recipes for making more traditional peanut butter and almond butter cups. They are very yummy and I highly recommend making those instead of indulging in their HFCS cousins...
So, I just figured I would use the same method and make coconut butter cups instead! I thought I might have to use a little trial and error to get the right ratio. Nope...I hit the target on the first attempt!
I have to admit I could not find "organic" coconut butter where I live. As soon as I go to the big city I am going to stock up! Note...this is "coconut butter" not to be confused with coconut oil. (which I also love)...
Gently warming the coconut butter and organic, unrefined coconut sugar. Yeah, it sort of looks like oatmeal...I just barely warmed it until it all melted together and was a spreadable consistency.
Sorry about the glarey picture! These are the chips I used. So many choices...I went with these and they worked just fine and taste good.
I melted the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. You know the rules...NEVER get any water in your melting chocolate and DON'T use a microwave. Yes, I know you can melt it in the microwave...but, it's a microwave!!!
So here is the recipe I came up with...
1 cup of coconut butter
2 Tablespoons of organic, unrefined coconut sugar
tiny dash of good salt
1/2 teaspoon of organic or homemade vanilla ( I'm proud to say mine is homemade ;))
1 pound of good quality, dark chocolate
Warm the butter and sugar together until you have a nice smooth consistency, add the pinch of salt and vanilla and stir until blended...it will stay melty and smooth while you melt the chocolate.
I used mini muffin pans with mini cupcake papers. It yielded 24 mini cups.
Start by taking a teaspoonful of the melted chocolate and covering the bottom of the cupcake paper. Then dip your spoon again and add a bit more chocolate and drag it up the sides of the paper. I let it set up in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Then, add a dollop of your coconut butter mixture right in the middle of the cup and pop that into the freezer for another 5 minutes. I was using 2 mini muffin pans and it worked great alternating them. Finally, scoop up another teaspoon of melted chocolate and top them off. I smoothed the chocolate with the spoon trying to make them look "perty"!
Then I put them in the freezer until they set up. After they were solid, I just kept them in the refrigerator in a container.
Confession...after I did the first 12 cups I added a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to the rest of the coconut butter mixture. So, I did 12 regular and 12 almond flavored. I also added a tiny sprinkle of Himalayan pink salt to the tops of the almond ones.
I think I may try making them with a bit of orange extract or a bit of mint extract next time. And oh, there WILL be a next time!
These are super fun and fast. Even better...I had 24 coconut butter cups stashed in my fridge!
I really am satisfied eating just one!!! Also, since the detox, I'm adding either a bit of this unrefined, organic coconut sugar to my morning coffee or a teeny tiny drizzle of maple syrup! So not missing the morning sugar!
One more thing! They taste exactly like the pricey store-bought coconut butter cups...! Yay...
If interested in the detox cleanse we used...find it here.
metagenics.com
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