If you love candy bars, make some healthier ones at home! These Almond Joy Minis (and Mounds Minis if you want almond free) are perfect: they are easy to make, dairy free, gluten free, and grain free
There was a time a couple of years ago when I was eating candy bars nearly every day. I was pregnant and I made the mistake of taking my doctor too literally when he said that I needed to add some more calories into my day. I used that as permission to give in to my sweet tooth and started eating sweets like crazy!
After that, I started to put on weight for sure, but I don’t think any of it went to my son. He was still quite small when he was born and I had gained some body fat. I also found myself battling a full-blown candy bar addiction! Let me tell you, that was a hard one to break.
I still love chocolate and desserts (my sweet tooth may be genetic…), but these days I try to eat homemade treats that are a bit healthier. I love the combination of coconut and chocolate, and I made this recipe as a good replacement for store-bought Almond Joy candy bars.
You can make these nut free by skipping the almonds; or you can even try using some other nuts like pecans or cashews. These are quite rich, so I recommend making these small. This recipe makes about 9 mini bars (depending on the size you choose to make these). You could make them even smaller and get more out of this recipe.
I made some of these nut-free for my kids, so without almonds they ended up being mini Mounds bars 🙂 They’ll love these!
Just a heads up, these are not low calorie! They are healthier than store bought candy bars, but still are high calorie. You can lighten up this recipe by just drizzling the chocolate over the coconut bars instead of dipping them, and by making the coconut mini bars smaller.
This post is one of my older ones from 5 years ago that I re-vamped! Here are some of the old photos from this post:
Almond Joy Babies (Gluten and Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded coconut unsweetened
- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil softened, but not melted
- 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon coconut flour
- 1 Dash salt
- 7 each roasted almonds
Chocolate coating:
- ½ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons palm oil
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix together the shredded coconut, coconut oil, maple syrup, salt, and coconut flour. You may need to use your hands to knead the mixture together until well blended.
- Using your hands, press the mixture firmly together into small rectangle bar shapes. Or you can shape these into balls if you like.
- If you are making Almond Joy, press an almond into the top of each ball. Chill these until set firm. If you are making Mounds minis, skip the almond on top
- Place your mini bars into the fridge and chill for a bit to set up more until firm, at least 15 minutes.
- Melt the allergy friendly chocolate and palm oil in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, or over a double boiler until melted, stirring occasionally. Dip the mini coconut bars into the chocolate.
- Allow the chocolate to set completely either at room temperature or in the fridge. Store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Hey! What does “7 each roasted almonds” mean in the ingredient list? Also, the recipe says 9 servings, so does that mean it makes 9 almond joys? I just need to know how much almonds I should buy?
Hi Pollie! It should make 7-9 almond joys (depending on how big you make them), the recipe card won’t let me give a range in the servings area so it’s listed at 9. If you have 1 almond on each Almond Joy, that should be 7-9 almonds for 7-9 almond joys.
Is it possible to substitute canola or some other kind of oil for the palm oil? Our local stores don’t carry palm oil. Also, Amazon has something called red palm oil. Is that the same thing?
Thanks!
Hi Suzanne! I’d replace the palm oil with coconut oil or not use anything at all. You’d need a fat that’s solid at room temperature (like palm oil shortening or coconut oil) so canola oil won’t work here. Also red palm oil is liquid at room temperature and is different than palm oil shortening, so I’d avoid using that in this recipe.
What about Crisco, would that work?
That would probably work.
Thank you!
There is a reference to coconut cream in the Recipe Notes section but it is not in the actual recipe. Same with the honey.
Thanks for pointing that out Anu, I went ahead and fixed that. I re-made this recipe from my old one and forgot to check the recipe notes
These look so good and pretty simple to make! I will have to give them a try! 🙂
These are sooo yummy!
Thank you for your lovely culinary creation!
This is just a little note to let you know that I have featured your delicious looking raw candy recipe on my blog.
Thank you for all that you do 🙂
Thank you!
Wow, these look great! I should not have come here because I am off all sweet treats for the month of January! Can’t wait to try em though 🙂
Can you have Stevia? You could probably make these with coconut, coconut oil, cocoa nibs, and Stevia for a no-sugar version. Which reminds me, I should make recipe for a diet version of these…
Yum! These look terribly delicious!
These look divine! Thanks for posting!
Thanks!
These baby almond joys are true joys to the mouth indeed!
These are delicious, and so simple. You could actually make these out of just raw honey and shredded coconut and they would still be yummy!