Chocolate Coconut Cups

There have (luckily!) been many days around here recently during which it was just too hot to turn on the oven. We're talking smoothie-pops-featuring-heavily-at-dinner-time too hot in the kitchen. 

Enter these little guys - a no-bake tropically inspired treat. Naming inspiration was somewhat lacking though, as suggested names for these included Coconut UFOS, Coconut Chocolate Dealies, and Plentifuls (a play on a certain candy). Clearly my naming consultant was getting a little light headed over these... 

What you'll need:

• 75ml coconut milk
• 100g desiccated coconut (unsweetened)
• 25ml coconut oil, melted
• 200g milk chocolate
• about 24 hours (of waiting time, not prep time, I promise!)

What to do:

In a small mixing bowl, combine all coconut ingredients - desiccated, milk, and oil varieties. The coconut oil should be in liquid form, so you might need to melt it. Mine was helpfully already in liquid form when I took it out of the cupboard; I told you it's been warm here!

Use a fork to combine the ingredients until the coconut starts to clump together, as above.

Once you've achieved the desired consistency, line a muffin tin with paper liners and evenly distribute the coconut mixture into the paper cups. I made 6 with this, but I like the coconut quite thick. I would say you could easily make 9 chocolate coconut cups with this, or possibly 12. (However, I can't confirm the structural integrity of any that are this thin. I'll try again soon and report back!) Make sure to firmly press the coconut mixture into the bottom of the paper liners. 

Next, cover the muffin tin and place in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least 12 hours.

Twelve or so hours later, roughly chop your milk chocolate and melt using a double boiler. Stir constantly and remove from heat once a little over half of the chocolate appears to have melted. Continue stirring to allow the remaining chocolate to melt.

Remove the coconut cups from the refrigerator, the muffin tin, and the paper liners. Honestly, you could probably dispense with the paper liners altogether if you lightly grease the muffin tin with coconut oil. I will verify this after my next batch too! 

Space the coconut cups evenly apart on a piece of parchment paper and spoon the melted milk chocolate over each one. I had just enough chocolate to make a nice chocolate top for each coconut cup. If you're aiming to make 9 or 12 coconut cups, I would recommend adding at least another 100g of chocolate to provide proper coverage. 

After you've exhausted your supply of melted chocolate, let the chocolate coconut cups cool for a bit before returning to the refrigerator in an airtight container. Once the chocolate is solid again (8 hours to be safe), they're finally ready to eat!

Not that these will last very long, but I would recommend you enjoy your no-bake treat within the week. 

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes

My favorite Girl Scout cookies were always (and still are) Somoas. This definitely fits with my general love of the chocolate/coconut combination (see this post for additional evidence). Unfortunately for my taste buds/fortunately for my daily sugar intake, delicious Somoa cookies are only available during "cookie season".

These Somoa Brownie Cupcakes should fill the void during off-season though. What do you think?

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes - YUM!

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes

(Inspired by Somoa Girl Scout cookies, makes 2 dozen)

What you'll need:

For the brownies:

• 150g flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150g unsalted butter
• 100g dark chocolate
• 50g milk chocolate
• chocolate powder
• vanilla

 For the topping:

• 3.5 cups shredded coconut
• 14 oz caramels
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbls milk
• 3 oz chocolate

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180C/360F. 

Evenly spread the shredded coconut on a cookie sheet and pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Move the coconut around with a spatula a few minutes into the toasting process, so that it toasts evenly. You'll set this aside for the topping.

While the shredded coconut is toasting, melt the solid chopped dark and milk chocolate and 75g butter in a double-boiler. Stir constantly and remove from heat once a little over half of the chocolate is melted. Continue stirring and the heat of the melted chocolate will melt the remaining chunks. Set aside for a moment after melting - you'll use this soon.

Next, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate powder with a mixer - low speed unless you particularly want chocolate powder to coat your entire kitchen. Gradually add in the melted chocolate, then the flour.  Mix until fluffy - I used an electric mixer on medium for about 2 minutes.

Fluffy brownie batter

Lightly butter a muffin tin, and spoon in the brownie batter. Fill about 1/2 of the full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test! Let cool before icing.

Ready to go in the oven.

Once your brownie cupcakes are in the oven and baking away, you can start on the topping. Chop the caramel pieces, and melt in a saucepan over low heat with the milk. Stir constantly. This will take some time.

Melting caramels

Once the caramels are (finally!) melted, pour in the toasted coconut and mix thoroughly. This should be a reasonably sticky topping, and not at all liquid-y once the coconut is stirred in. If your caramel coconut topping can be poured, rather than spooned, add more shredded coconut!

Stirring in the toasted coconut

Once your brownie cupcakes have cooled, spoon the caramel coconut topping over each one. Be generous. 

Finally, melt the remaining chocolate with the double-boiler and pour into an icing bag (or a plastic sandwich bag with a small hole snipped in the bottom corner, which is what I did!). Squiggle a little chocolate design on top of the coconut caramel topping, so each brownie cupcake will now really look like a Girl Scout Somoa cookie!

Voila! A close up of the final product!

I hope you enjoy these! I definitely did!

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. As it is now Monday, I thought chocolate might be in order. And for good measure, some coconut too. 

Freshly baked chocolate coconut cookies

In my mind, these fit into a category with Girl Scout Somoa cookies, Bounty bars, and the bonbons we beg my mom to make for the holidays. Basically, things containing chocolate and coconut that I cannot be trusted to be left alone in the same room with.  Interested?

What you need:

• 325g white self-raising flour (I used Dove's Farm gluten free variety)
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• 100g chopped chocolate
• 60g desiccated coconut
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tbsp vanilla
• 100g coconut oil

Mixing in the sugar

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 175C/350F.

Melt the chopped chocolate and coconut oil together in a double boiler, stirring constantly. This does not take long at all, especially if your chocolate is chopped quite finely. Once melted, remove from the heat and beat in the vanilla, egg, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and desiccated coconut. Then gradually add to the wet mixture, blending thoroughly. Finally, roll dough into balls (to give you an idea of size, place the tip of your index finger and the tip of your thumb together - each cookie dough ball should be about that big) and space evenly on a cookie sheet.

Ready to go in the oven now

Bake for 8-9 minutes. The final product should look like this when you pull it from the oven:

Still warm!

Let cool slightly, then remove from the cookie sheet and test your will power. Sharing with friends helps!

Enjoy!