Coco-Loco Bars

My past few posts have been pretty healthy. I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. I am all about the naughty too. That said I bought some Chia Seeds the other day and I'm going to have a play with them so expect a Chia Seed recipe soon!

Now going a little of topic I have a few pics to show you of some of my favourite meals from the past week or so. First off this beauty,

Its a chicken breast with a fennel, orange, avacado, red onion and spinach salad. Absolutely bloody marvellous. Fennel is such an awesome vegetable and works really well roasted and raw, very thinly sliced, like here, in a salad. It also loves orange - don't be afraid of segmenting an orange and throwing some of those babies in! I used the juice from the orange to dress the salad along with a little bit of olive oil. Simples.

Lastly,

Mushrooms on toast. This is a meal that makes me feel like a kid again even though I've pimped it somewhat from how my dad used to make it for us when we were kids for a Sunday night supper. Here I've used some rye bread for the toast (sadly not home made but bought from The French Oven in the Grainger Market) and the mushrooms are simply fried in a little butter and then you throw in a little cornflour, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and milk and stir until this thick, creamy sauce forms round the mushrooms. Finish with a little parsley and my new favourite thing in the world - smoked salt. The smoked salt is amazing it adds this subtle smokiness that works a treat with the mushrooms. I had to stop myself from eating the little crystals straight out the bag. It was a little treat to myself at £1.25 for 150g but it is Maldon and a little goes a long way. GET IN MA BELLY!!!!!

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Back to the naughty. I am still a bit obsessed with coconut at the moment but I wanted something a little more indulgent than my Coconut Pistachio Dream Bites. I came across the recipe for Raspberry Coconut Magic Bars which sounded delish (apart from the fact they broke the rule of having the word 'Magic' in their title). The best way I can think to describe them is something like a cheesecake bar but instead of a cheesecake filling they have this fudgey coconut centre which is just awesome. Now obviously I couldn't leave the recipe be I had to tinker with it a little. I omitted the pecans and the white chocolate and I didn't drizzle the chocolate I poured it all over!

These became my little evening treat with a cuppa and didn't last long when you factor in Monkey and our friend Dave, who now when he pops round to tinker with the motorbikes with Monkey, play Halo and drink coffee, comes in gives me a hug or a high five and then asks me if I have anything tasty. Daft question right?! For nearly all the recipes I cook those two are my guarenteed guinea pigs who try everything first. These and my Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Bars are definately now firm favourites.

Ingredients

Now the recipe I worked from called for graham crackers. Ruddy Americans huh! I used good old Digestive Biscuits but hobnobs or a ginger nut would work just fine. Use what ever biscuit you like but make sure you get it down to a good crumb when you blitz it as you would if you were making a cheesecake base. You need something to bind the biscuit crumb and usually butter or marg is what you would use. I went a little bit hippy dippy and used Coconut Oil. Essentially all you need is a fat that sets nice and hard when cold so use what you like but obviously olive oil or vegetable oil wouldn't work here. Now treat yourself don't get the light stuff get the full whack smear it all over yourself Condensed Milk. These little bars are meant to be a treat after all. Desiccated Coconut is the body of the dish you can use sweetened or unsweetened in this dish. I used unsweetened because that's what I had in my cupboard. Now like Bob Marley these bars need some jam in....jamming....get it? The original recipe call for Raspberry Jam (seedless) which is my personal preference but you can go wild and use the jam of your choice. I would however recommend something a little tart that is going to cut through the rich creamy coconut and also raspberry works amazingly well with the Dark Chocolate that I poured all over the top!


Coco Loco Bars

110g Digestive Biscuits
50ml Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Sugar
200g Desiccated Coconut
500g Condensed Milk
5 tbsp Raspberry Jam
150g Dark Chocolate

• Melt the coconut oil and set to one side. In a food processor or in a bag with a rolling bin whizz the biscuits until they resemble a sandy crumb. Add the coconut oil  and sugar and mix until it comes together.
• Grease and line a baking dish or tin with baking paper just along the bottom with enough at top and bottom to help lift it out (like a sling if you will)
• Mix the desiccated coconut with the condensed milk and pour over the biscuit base. Smooth and bake in the oven at 180'C for 20 minutes until the coconut has puffed up and is golden brown (with a texture like sun....)
• Leave to cool completely.
• Warm the jam a little in the microwave or in a pan just until it is smooth and easy to spread - you don't want it to be *hot*. Pour it over the coconut and smooth to a even layer. Pop in the fridge to firm up.
• Melt the chocolate in a glass or metal bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave (do this in 10/20 second blasts, stirring in between making sure the chocolate doesn't catch).
• Pour the chocolate over the jam and smooth over. Try to do this as gently as possible so you don't end up with the jam and chocolate smooshing and mixing together.
• Put in the fridge until cool. When the chocolate has set use the ends of the baking paper to lift the bar out of the pan. Cut into 18 bars and try not to eat them all at once.

NOTE: After making these I have a few alterations I would make to the recipe. Firstly I would use butter or margarine for the biscuit base. I do love coconut oil and there is no denying it is a healthier fat but in this case it does make the biscuit base a little sandy when I think you want more of a cheesecakey crunchy biscuit base. Secondly I would put the jam directly on top of the biscuit base before the coconut mixture. This is more for ease but it also helps break up the exciting pops of flavour over the creamy sweet coconut. This means that the chocolate would be poured directly over the coconut. I think this will make it slightly easier to cut the bars without the chocolate cracking and the jam sneaking through.

Please excuse the quality of the photo's and the fact that I didn't clean my knife in between slices - I was too darn excited! As you can see the chocolate does have rather the crazy paving quality to it with all the cracking but like I have said above I think by putting the jam at the bottom and the chocolate directly on top of the coconut think can be avoided. If you try it before I do let me know and send me a picture I'd love to see if any of you guys out there are giving my recipes a try in real life!