Omagorsh, just typing Almond Joy takes me back to when I was younger and my siblings/cousins and I would walk to the store down the street from my nonna’s (Italian for grandma’s) house and grab a treat before watching a movie.  I loved picking Almond Joys (or in Canada a Bounty).  I will say that I preferred the Almond Joy because of, well, the almonds.  I’m a big fan of almonds any which way, raw, roasted, finely grated into flour, butter, etc.  I thought it might be nice to share with you a healthy Almond Joy ball.  I created this recipe on my own, and I think I outdid myself on the healthy part (each ball is only 60 calories with 4g of carbs, 1g of protein, and 1g of fiber), and the taste is spot on.

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It has been ungodly hot here in Irvine (ironically as I’m writing this post it’s raining), so I wanted to come up with a baked good that didn’t actually require any, well, baking.  These were quite easy to assemble, exactly how I prefer my sweet treats.  I like to get at them as quick as possible, patience is not my strong suit when baking.

Here’s most of what you need, I’ll be honest, I added a few more ingredients after I took this picture and then was too lazy to set up another one…

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Side note: after my first round, I decided to opt out of using the chocolate bar.  This is not because I don’t love Lindt, but because it required a stove and I just really didn’t want to turn on the heat.  Now my only thought about why using chocolate may be better than my cocoa powder + vanilla + coconut oil + coconut nectar concoction would be that it might form a nice shell when they are cooling, where as my mixture doesn’t seem to firm up very well.  Not that it matters to me, because I’m pretty much licking my fingers anytime chocolate is involved anyways.

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So I know some people prefer the Mounds over the Almond Joy (I’ve yet to meet one, but I believe they’re out there), if you are one of those people simply use a half a cup of coconut flour rather than a quarter almond/quarter coconut flour, and don’t sprinkle the outside with chopped almonds.

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Healthy Almond Joy No Bake Balls

  • Servings: 11 balls
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Balls

  • 1/4 c almond meal
  • 1/4 c coconut flour
  • 1/4 c shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1/4 c canned coconut milk
  • 1/8 c coconut sugar

Chocolate coating

  • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 Tbsp coconut nectar*
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 Tbsp canned coconut milk

Topping

  • 1/4 c crushed raw almonds

* I used 2 Tbsp and it seemed slightly too sweet, use just 1 if you like less sweet

Directions

  1. In a food processor (I have a ninja, thanks mom and dad) combined all of the ‘ball’ ingredients and blend (I used the dough setting).
  2. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper form .5-1 inch balls, set aside.
  3. In a separate (microwave safe) bowl combined the chocolate coating ingredients and microwave in increments of 10 seconds, until the ingredients form a melted chocolate texture.
  4. In a small bag place 1/4 cup raw almonds and crush them (this is very stress relieving so I advice you buy the whole almonds and crush them yourself).
  5. Using a spoon dip the balls into the chocolate mixture coating completely and then place them back on the parchment paper.
  6. Once all of your balls are covered in chocolate (after writing this sentence I realize all the jokes my husband will make about this recipe, I’m surprised it took me until this point in the post) and placed back on the parchment paper, sprinkle them with your crushed almonds.
  7. Place balls in the freezer for as long as you would like, I could hardly wait 10 minutes.

Nutrition

Per ball (yields 11 balls) – this also assumes that you have about half the chocolate coating left in your bowl.

  • calories: 68
  • fat: 5g (GOOD FAT!!)
  • carbohydrates: 4g
  • fiber: 2g
  • protein: 1g

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Mangia!