Paradise is...

Just get me started and I could wax lyrical for hours about the marvels of butter. It's a natural product (unlike margarine), a source of calcium and vitamins A and D and, best of all, it tastes fabulous. And although I wouldn't use anything else in my cakes or icings, it's equally wonderful in savoury cooking - sautéed mushrooms anyone? - or simply slathered (or thinly spread depending on your preference) on a slice of hot toast or fresh, crusty bread. As my Dad succinctly put it the other day, butter is 'God's gift' (Dad does love his butter). The chef Valentine Warner is another man who extols the virtues of butter. I was watching a repeat of his food adventures in Scandinavia and while in Stockholm he visited a cafe and made cinnamon buns with two bakers. Upon tasting the buttery cinnamon buns warm from the oven at the end of the episode, he exclaimed 'Life is short...' and they all finished together 'so enjoy as much butter as you can!'. Men after my own heart.

Paradise Bars in progress

So we're all agreed that butter is wonderful and you'll find many of my blog posts describing cakes and sweet treats made with it (where would buttery vanilla fudge be without it?). Now this is all very well, but what if you're allergic to or intolerant of dairy products / lactose? Or what if you just don't like eating dairy for moral or other reasons? Well then, this post is for you. But this is no low fat and generally taste-poor treat. It's full of yummy coconut - oil, creamed and desiccated - and with Halloween just gone it seems timely to feature a coconut recipe (I have fond memories of bashing the hairy little fruit with a hammer on the concrete garage step every Halloween to release the sweet flesh). Hand on heart as a true butter-believer, give this one a go: they're called Paradise Bars; dark chocolate coconut bars, a deeply delicious improvement on the overly sweet, sickly Bounty bar. It's a recipe I've been wanting to try ever since I bought the Hemsley sisters' cookbook 'The Art of Eating Well' (in any new cookbook I head straight for the sweet section). No.1 Sister beat me to the punch and was raving about them and I had all of the ingredients sitting in the cupboard, so really, it was always just a matter of time.

Bars ready for chocolate dipping

Regular readers will remember my flat-tyre misadventure in July - a hard week at the office followed by a flat tyre and rush hour traffic all combining to create the perfect storm (that being my near nervous breakdown). If memory serves, I coped with the wait for assistance by sitting in my car and imagining all of the lovely things I could bake if I were safely home and well rested. Not even four months later and the same tyre (long since repaired mind you) failed me again (damn dastardly nails). Blissfully unaware of the hour change on the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend, I awoke early, got up and was pottering about for a couple of hours before I realised that my phone and television were both telling me a different time to the kitchen clock. Once my confused (still sleepy) mind had cleared, I realised that my day had suddenly gained a whole 60 minutes. It stretched out before me with no big plans, just lots of lovely time to play with.



Freshly dipped coconut bars

I jumped into the car to get the Sunday papers and had barely travelled 20 metres before I felt the sluggish pull of a flat tyre (I can now tell instantly why a car is behaving like a sullen teenager, dragging itself unwillingly along at my command). Thankfully this time I was only around the corner from home so I went back in and rang the roadside service. According to the helpful man on the phone, someone would be with me in the next 45 minutes or so, the perfect amount of time required to get my Paradise Bars started.

It's a very simple process with an equally simple list of ingredients (see below), all of which combine to make a chocolate snack that feels wicked (because it tastes so good) but which doesn't send your blood sugars rocketing. The creamy coconut and vanilla centre is filling and the dark chocolate coating is delectable. This is by no means a low calorie snack but at least those calories aren't empty (yes I'm looking at you chocolate digestive) - they have a nutritional value and will keep you going for much longer than other sweet snacks. But to be honest, if you were unaware of the nutritional benefits, you would taste these and immediately place them on your 'so good they must be bad' list (they really don't taste like a 'healthy' treat). To heavily paraphrase the hit song from the 60s (which plays in my head every time I think of these bars), if paradise is half as nice as these luscious little bars, I know which I'd rather have.




Paradise Bars (adapted from The Art of Eating Well)

Ingredients (Makes 24 bars)

200g bar of creamed coconut (you'll find it in health food shops or in the Asian section of the supermarket - e.g. Patak's Creamed Coconut comes in a box of 4 x 50g sachets)
6 tbsp coconut oil (semi-solid at room temperature, so it comes in a jar rather than a bottle and can be found everywhere now)
4 tbsp of water (this gives a wonderfully soft centre, but feel free to reduce this amount or leave it out altogether if you'd prefer it to be drier)
3 tbsp of honey (the best organic honey you can find if you want an extra nutritional boost)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
150g desiccated coconut
250g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids - the original recipe states 85% but I find it too bitter. Don't be frightened of the 70% if you're not normally a dark choc fan. It contrasts well with the sweet creamy centre)

Method

Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment.

Place the unopened sachet(s) of creamed coconut in a bowl of warm water to melt them, massaging the packets every so often to help it along. When it's soft all the way through, pour into a bowl and add the coconut oil, mixing the two so that the oil melts.

Add the honey, vanilla extract, salt and water and mix well (give it a good stir to make sure the salt is distributed throughout). Stir in the desiccated coconut until it forms a doughy consistency and there are no dry coconut flakes remaining. Pour the dough into the prepared tin and chill for at least 15 minutes until hard. Once solid, turn the dough out onto a chopping board and cut into 6 horizontal slices by 4 vertical, then place in the freezer while you melt the chocolate.

Break or chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt very gently over a bowl of hot water (use water from the kettle rather than keeping it on the hob; that way it won't simmer or boil, which can upset the chocolate). The safest method is to make sure that the bottom of the chocolate bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally as it melts, taking it off the heat once it has almost all melted. Leave it to cool for a few minutes, then start to dip the frozen coconut bars one by one - using two forks, dip the bar, let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl, then place the bar on a parchment-lined tray. Leave enough space between each one so that they don't stick together and once completed, place the tray in the fridge.

The bars will keep well in a sealed container - about a month in the fridge or longer in the freezer.