Honey Coconut Chocolates

Subtly sweet with a hint of almonds, you'll soon be addicted to these melt-in-your-mouth honey coconut chocolates. It's so easy to make these specialty chocolates at home!

Have you noticed how many specialty and niche chocolate bars are available these days? With creative flavor combinations and unique textures, most of them are pretty good, too. I’m not sure there's ever been a time in history when we've had such a selection of chocolate to choose from.

Jump to:

• 🍯 Honey Mama Chocolates
• 🍫 Ingredients
• 🌡️ Special Equipment
• 🍳 Instructions
• 💭 Thought Process
• 📋 Top Tip
• 🧂 Variations
• 🧊 Storage
• Honey Coconut Chocolates

I'm not talking about the dollar bars at the grocery store register. These are chocolates you’ll find in small local businesses such as food co-ops, markets, chocolate shops, and gift stores. You may find some in the specialty or local section of a supermarket, but probably not in the traditional candy aisle.

🍯 Honey Mama Chocolates

The other week a friend asked me if I had tried a Honey Mama bar. I had never heard of Honey Mama, let alone tried their bars. So she brought one over to sample along with a recipe for us to attempt a version of our own. It was fantastic!

Honey Mama is based in Portland, Oregon, and makes chocolate bars with just five ingredients – raw honey, cacao powder, coconut oil, pink salt, and sprouted almonds or shredded coconut. They’re organic, direct trade, non-GMO, and free of soy, eggs, dairy, and gluten.

It’s a softer chocolate bar that’s almost fudge-like, which is why you’re supposed to keep it refrigerated. I loved the strong taste of honey and coconut that came through with each bite. And it was totally unique compared to the chocolate I’ve had lately. I had to stop myself from eating it all.

With so few ingredients, it’s no wonder that someone replicated, or at least came pretty close to replicating, Honey Mama chocolate and posted their recipe. And naturally, we had to give it a try, especially considering we can't get these bars at stores in Vermont. 2021 update: they're now available at many Vermont co-ops and I will definitely be making a trip to get myself some.

🍫 Ingredients

Making these chocolates is such a quick and simple process that uses ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen pantry.

Here's what you'll need:

• dark chocolate
• cocoa powder
• almonds
• honey
• coconut oil
• coconut flakes
• flaky salt
• vanilla extract
• various flavorings such as dried fruits and nuts

🌡️ Special Equipment

That said, there are a few essential pieces of equipment you'll need to make these honey coconut chocolates at home.

Thermometer: You're making candy and getting the temperature right is key. If you don't have one get yourself either a candy thermometer (cheapest option) or a digital thermometer.
Food processor: The coconut and almonds need to be pretty finely ground, so this is important.
Ice cube tray: This acts as a chocolate mold. Preferably, use a silicone one so it's easy to pop the chocolates right out. Is this 100% essential? Maybe not. If you don't mind freeform chocolates, you could try to shape them on a baking sheet lined with parchment but I haven't tried this.

🍳 Instructions

Grab your food processor and let's get started!

Grind the almonds, coconut flakes, and cocoa powder until you have a fine crumb.

You then want to heat the honey and coconut oil in a small pan until it reaches about 245 degrees.

Off heat, combine the two mixtures until blended, and then divide them up in a silicone ice cube tray. Add your flavorings, pop the tray in the freezer and you're done!

💭 Thought Process

Our first attempt was delicious, but the consistency was a bit off. Ours had more of a bite compared to the almost melting nature of the original Honey Mama bar.

When I tried the recipe again, I cooked the honey and coconut oil to a slightly lower temperature hoping that would create a softer texture. I also used both the almonds and coconut flakes, since I thought our bar was a little light on coconut flavor.

I knew I would devour the bar too quickly and instead of making one large bar, decided to make small pieces using a silicone ice cube tray.

Not only did this help create individual portions, but it also reduced the prep time and allowed me to flavor each cube differently. I added some chopped candied ginger and ground cardamom into a few, almonds and dried cherries in others, and sprinkled flaky sea salt over them all.

That all said, these don't really compare to the Honey Mama bars. But at the end of the day, it’s a quick and simple approach to making specialty chocolate that you can customize to your liking. It's a great activity to make with kids, too.

📋 Top Tip

Keep in mind that when solid, you'll pop the chocolates out of the mold (ice cube tray) and the bottom of the mold will create the nicer end of chocolate. So if you want toppings on your chocolate, put them in the bottom of the mold before pouring in the chocolate. Personally, I preferred the look of sprinkling salt over my chocolates after popping them out of the tray.

🧂 Variations

Flavors: There are no limits to how you can flavor your chocolate. Think dried fruits, nuts, spices, and nut butters, for starters. Take a look at some of your favorite chocolate companies (one of mine) and see what you might be able to replicate at home with your honey coconut chocolates.
Chocolate: Try milk chocolate or chocolate with varying degrees of cacao.
Honey: Honey is not optional or easy to substitute in this recipe. Sorry. Look for honey produced by a small business in your local community for the best quality and most health benefits. Check your farmers market.
Almonds: You could probably use another nut instead, but I haven't tried this. Let me know if you do!
Coconut Oil: It's important to use coconut oil because it solidifies under 74 degrees, which helps to keep the chocolates solid when cold. Don't try and substitute this one either.

Love chocolate as much as me? Try my Coconut Chocolate Eggs or Rugulech Recipe. If honey is more your thing, you'll definitely want to make this Honeycomb Candy.

🧊 Storage

Once solid, you can store these chocolates in the freezer for several months or in the fridge for a couple of weeks or more. Mine never last that long. If storing in the freezer, you might want to let them defrost for a few minutes so you can bite into them without breaking a tooth.

Print