Coconut Bars

My DIY nature is pretty rampant. It’s  to the point where whenever I see something I like I don’t think about buying it I try to figure out how to make it. That is what leads us to today’s experiment. I was on a the Primal Toad Blog and saw a review of a product called CacomoJoe Joe Bars. They are an organic 100% paleo bars. I though they would make an awesome alternative to Lara bars. Not that I don’t like Lara bars and if you want to save some money my buddy at Florida Hillbilly has a homemade recipe for them here. So of course I wanted to try to make my own Joe bars.

To make my bars I got two coconuts,coconut oil,  almonds and  coco powered. I went with whole coconuts because all the shredded stuff I could find was sweetened. The almonds are raw unsalted. I went with an unsweetened coco powder. The only sweetness will be what the coconut has naturally.

I didn’t want to waste the coconut water so I used the Buck Hoodlum to cut a hole in the coconut so i could drain it out.

I just set the coconut on a glass and moved on to the next coconut the cut it open. Once they were drained I moved on to the next step.

The coconut split very easily with the Hoodlum. Both split with on strike on the middle.

Some of the coconut meat came out easy while some was a pain in the ass. There is a special tool to getting it out but I don’t believe in unitaskers so I used the hoodlum. My method was to use the back of the knife to crack the shell and make it loose. Then cut and pry it out. Once all the meat was out I cut it into smaller pieces to fit in my food processor. I’m bad about measuring so I added a handful of almonds, filled the rest with coconut. I added a half tbsp of coco powder and two of coconut oil. I processed till it had a  creamy texture.

I poured my mixture into a glass dish and added some pumpkin spice to half of cinnamon to the other half. I baked it  at 350° for 15 minutes. At which point my apartment smelled amazing.

The finished product was too crumbly to really be called a bar. They don’t hold their shape well. The taste on them was OK but would have been better with some honey. Definitely edible though the recipe needs to be tweaked. I will most likely eat this batch and just buy some of the Cocomo Joe ones. I don’t have the time or resources to perfect my recipe over years. Joe has put in the hard work and made a great product. I might comeback to this again but for now I’m calling this one done.

Do you have any ideas on how to make your own coconut bars? Let me know in the comments.