Love Almond Joy Bars? Homemade They Are "Almond Ecstasy"!

I, like most human beings, love good chocolate bars, though I prefer the small "snack size" ones to the full-sized ones because I get feeling a bit sick if I eat a whole full-sized bar.  However, I almost never buy chocolate bars because for health sake they are best eaten in moderation and they because they are a relatively expensive luxury (I am, after all, Po' Papa Joe).  I really like good European chocolate bars (the chocolate is so much creamier and I like the Hazelnuts they tend to put in their bars), but if someone offers me a choice from a wide selection of American chocolates I tend to pick out the Snickers bars first (I'm partial to the combination of salty caramel, peanuts, and chocolate) and then I look for the Almond Joy bars.  The Almond Joy bar is made with a coconut confection topped with an almond and then dipped in milk chocolate.

The Almond Joy bar has a long and storied history, and for most living Americans it has been part of the candy landscape all their lives.  An American Armenian named Peter Paul Halajian started a successful candy company in New Haven Connecticut in 1919.  The world had just come out of the devastation of World War I which killed 9 million people, as well as the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 which killed over 50 Million people.  The world, it seemed, needed a little chocolate!

Coconut was exotic and popular at the time.  Remember that scene in the malt shop from "It's A Wonderful Life" where the young George Bailey blurts to the adoring young Mary "You don't like coconuts? Say, brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from? Lookit here. From Tahiti, the Fiji islands, the Coral Sea!"--he was a real charmer with the ladies--you can see why she wanted to marry him ☺.  Because of American's infatuation with it early on he developed a coconut confection covered with chocolate and named it the "Mounds Bar".  A variation, called the "Dream Bar" was created in 1936 which had diced almonds in the coconut, and that was replaced 10 years later by the "Almond Joy" bar.  A famous advertising jingle during the 1970's promoted both Mounds and Almond Joy in tandem by quipping "Some times you feel like a nut...some times you don't.  Almond Joy's got nuts...Mounds don't".   Even today it is the 10th most popular chocolate candy in America with over $65million in sales annually.

I found myself with some extra homemade sweetened condensed milk that needed to be used and that started the creative juices flowing.  I opened my cupboard and saw raw almonds and I thought of dipping those in the sweetened condensed milk, but as I tried it they ended up a bit too gooey to handle.  I went back to the cupboard and noticed the shredded coconut and suddenly "Almond Joy" popped into my head.  With due respect to the Hershey company which currently owns the "Almond Joy" brand, the resulting confection tastes much better (just ask the residents of our home who keep going back for more) than the store-bought variety (I modestly upgraded the branding on mine to "Almond Ecstasy").  That's because I used darker chocolate, heart-healthy coconut oil, and because the sweetened condensed milk make them richer.  And the great news is that they are far less expensive than the store-bought variety.

Here is how to make these decadent delights:

• 1 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk (try my homemade variety-it's easy to make, better for you, and far cheaper)
• Raw Almonds
• Dried Shredded Coconut
• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil

Prepare the dipping chocolate by placing the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a glass bowl and microwaving on high, 30-seconds at a time, and stirring until smooth.  Next microwave the sweetened condensed milk on low (I use my time-defrost setting), stirring every minute, until it is thick and bubbly (about 4-6 minutes).  Dip an almond in the warm sweetened condensed milk, then roll it in shredded coconut, and drop it into the chocolate.  Use a fork to turn the nut until it is completely covered with chocolate and then take it out and lay it on a baking sheet covered with parchment (I use my wonderful silicone baking sheet--these are definitely worth getting).  Repeat the process until all the sweetened condensed milk and chocolate are used up.  Then put the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate covering is hardened.  

These are too good to keep all to yourself so find someone to share them with because if you eat them all yourself you might, in the immortal words of Joe Jr. "blow up like my aunt Roberta, you know".  If you can keep your family (or yourself) from eating them all at once store these in an airtight container for occasional indulgence.

Have fun and enjoy!