This is a fun little recipe that takes the all-time favorite candy bars and cleans them up!  

If we're being honest, I just didn't really want to totally recreate the whole bar shape of original Almond Joys.  So I didn't.

If you think about it, those candies should be quite simple, anyway: almonds, coconut, chocolate, some fat to hold it together.  So I'll claim my spot as a simplification genius since the candy industry found a way to screw that up, as they tend to do. 

I used this granola-ish finger food as a presentation for a blogger meet-and-greet at Cotone Clothing + Beauty Bar here in Austin, Texas and it was a huge hit!  Proof that we're all suckers for a little bit of chocolate.  Even if it's the healthy kind. ;)

Use this as a sub for the nasty traditional granola, add some almond milk to it to make a cereal, or grab some as a snack that'll actually satisfy.  

Or, ya know, take red Solo cup shots of it as a party appetizer.  That's what we did at Cotone!

paleo-game-day-desserts

Almond Joy Party Mix

Prep time: 5 minutes   Cook time: 30 minutes   Total time: 35 minutes

Yield: ~6 cups

Directions

Ingredients

  1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.

  2. Mix together all dry ingredients (coconut, almonds, cacao powder, sea salt) in a large bowl.

  3. Pour coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla over the dry ingredients and mix slowly until evenly distributed. Try pouring half of the liquid, mixing, and then pouring the rest to mix it in evenly.

  4. Spread the mix evenly in one deep roasting pan, or two cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and mix around, and bake for another 15 minutes.

  5. Remove from the oven and immediately place on the counter to cool. While the mix is still hot, sprinkle the chopped baking chocolate over the top so that it melts into the rest of the ingredients. Serve once cool.

  6. Store in a sealed container and eat throughout the week as a cereal, granola, or snack. Also works as great party "granola shots" in little mini red Solo cups!

4 cups shredded coconut

2 cups slivered almonds

1/4 cup cacao powder

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt

1.5 oz baking chocolate, chopped