I needed something "festive" to bring to a holiday party, so I went on searching on good old Pinterest. Although this looks nothing like the beautiful picture of the recipe that I found from a blog called "She Talks", it actually tastes delicious. I didn't have any coconut butter, so I ended up making my own.
1 cup coconut butter, melted (instructions to follow if you don't have any on hand)
2 TBS coconut oil
2 TBS cocoa powder
4 TBS maple syrup (you could probably get away with 3, maybe 2, but 4 made it nice and sweet)
dried fruits and nuts for topping (I used dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds)
sprinkle of coarse sea salt (my own addition, and it added a really nice touch)
Melt coconut butter in small pot over low heat stirring constantly. Add coconut oil and keep stirring until melted. Add cocoa powder and maple syrup and stir until smooth. Pour mixture onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (I had to kind of press it down and smooth it out with my fingers until it was about 1/4 inch thick). Add toppings and press into chocolate (this is when I sprinkled the sea salt on). Freeze for 15 minutes. Cut or break into pieces and store in airtight container in the fridge.
For the coconut butter:
Blend 4 cups of coconut flakes in food processor for about 10 minutes, scrapping down the sides as needed. It goes through a couple of different stages: grainy, lumpy liquid, and then finally smooth liquid. It just takes patience. :-)
