I have never really been a fan of bounty bars so I thought this slice wouldn’t be my favourite. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with coconut. I love the health benefits of coconut and I love all the cooking properties of coconut. It acts a lot like dairy so it can be substituted so easily, but I am not the biggest fan of the taste. I don’t absolutely hate it, but I don’t love it either. To my surprise, these bars were actually delicious! I enjoyed them much more than the real deal. The coconut base was really sweet with a pleasant texture, but the best part was the chocolate topping! The recipe for the chocolate topping actually comes from a lovely friend of mine on Instagram. Her name is Summer and she is two Instagram accounts: @nutrimum and her business account @cleaeats_company. She works really hard to create amazingly beautiful vegan treats for her clients around Melbourne. I have always admired Summers chocolate coating on her recipes, they are so shiny and perfect you can see a reflection in them. I asked her if she could share her recipe with me and she did and I will be forever grateful because it is the best chocolate layer recipe I’ve tried! I think I am one to always try and simplify recipes so I generally make a chocolate sauce that’s an easy 3 ingredient recipe of just melt down some dark chocolate, but sometimes it really does pay to put in a little extra effort because it makes all the difference.
If you are a pro at shaping and dipping, you can try to form little bounty bar shapes out of the coconut base and dip them in the chocolate coating. I initially thought I would try this but I am just not good at shaping things or dipping things so I gave up and turned them into slices instead.
The only other thing I want to say before sharing this recipe is that I have recently discovered that most desiccated or shredded coconut also contains preservatives! its something I never considered before until I looked at the ingredients. I’m really not sure why it’s necessary, so from now on I will be making sure to buy my coconut organic and preservative-free when possible. If this is something that matters to you then read the ingredients before purchasing. There are plenty of preservative-free alternatives, but they are usually in a health shop or in the health section.
This recipe is vegan /plant-based, dairy-free, refined sugar-free and gluten-free. Enjoy.
| Raw Vegan Bounty Bars | Print |
- COCONUT BASE:
- 2 cups desiccated coconut
- 3½ TBSP maple syrup
- 4 TBSP coconut oil
- drop vanilla
- pinch salt
- CHOCOLATE COATING:
- ¾ cup cacao butter
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup cacao powder
- 1½ TBSP coconut cream
- For the coconut base: simply mix all ingredients in a bowl with a spoon until they become sticky and hold together. Press down evenly into the base of a lined square baking tin and set aside.
- For the chocolate coating: meltdown the cacao butter in a saucepan over low heat, meltdown coconut oil too if solid, whisk in all remaining ingredients until smooth and silky. Pour over coconut base and freeze for 2-3 hours until set.
- Slice and enjoy.
