“Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t!”
Oh man, I’ve been having way too much fun reliving my past watching Almond Joy commercials on YouTube attempting to receive some inspiration about writing this post for Gluten Free Chocolate Almond Joy Bread. Not sure I accomplished the inspiration part, but man I sure got a good laugh out of watching old episodes of this 80’s commercial jingle.
What happened to the days of good old commercial jingles anyway?
I don’t know if it’s because I hardly watch commercials anymore (who needs to with online streaming) or if advertising companies have just lost their touch for tapping into the human part of the brain that stores away obnoxiously repetitive commercial jingles. Whatever the case, it’s been a long while since I’ve heard anything close to “Sometimes you feel like a nut!”
Here’s the funny part. I remembered that jingle without even having to Google it, and I HATED Almond Joys and Mounds as a kid. Like really hated them. As in I considered it a public offense to ruin any type of food by putting the likes of coconut in it. Who does that?!
Yeah, the days of being a picky kid, turning my nose up to anything with texture or actual flavor, are long behind me. Good for me! Maybe I can be considered a grown up now…or maybe I can just grow a few inches in my mid thirties and people might take me seriously too. That may be a slight longshot, though.
Anyway, point is; I like coconut now!
It just dawned on me, I feel almost as though I’m writing a slightly different version of “Green Eggs and Ham” only with no rhyming and with coconut as the culprit. Although I still would not could not with a fox, and will not shall not in a box…I do like coconut, I do!
In fact, I like it so much that I add it to a lot of my baked goods in the form of coconut oil, coconut flour, coconut milk, and plain old coconut flakes. You know what the best form of coconut is? Toasted sweetened coconut flakes. Mmm, I love those!
So when I had the itch for developing a few healthy treat recipes, it being the new year and all, I figured why not coconut and chocolate??? Chocolate makes anything good and, thanks to annoying jingles of the 80’s, we all know that it pairs well with coconut.
What I came up with is this decadently sinful, but actually healthy, Chocolate Almond Joy Bread. Not only are these mini loaves just dang cute, they are secretly healthy. Well, healthy in the fact that there is no sugar. What?! No sugar?! Yep, that’s right. And you would even know it.
I’m telling you, my children went through a loaf a day for three days straight. And they only stopped eating it because it was gone and I wasn’t making any more. I had already moved on to the next baking project.
Side note: my poor children hardly get to eat anything more than once even if it is there favorite thing. I am constantly spending time coming up with new recipes, so I don’t have time to make the old ones. Yeah, yeah…boo hoo for them…NOT! I just remind them that most kids don’t have moms who bake almost everyday like I do.
Haha! I’m just trying to make myself feel better in the case that my children have psychological issues in the future stemming from their mother’s awful behavior of neglecting them their favorite foods.
So back to the bread. Not only is it gluten free and sugar free, sweetened with honey, but it is dairy free as well. I used coconut oil and coconut milk in place of butter and regular milk. You can add dairy free chocolate chips to the batter for an extra little treat.
My favorite part of this bread is the topping. The coconut and almond topping drizzled with honey is delightful! Usually I’m upset when my toppings fall off of my bread after I turn it out of the pan. In this case, I was trying to “accidentally” flick off pieces here and there just so I could eat them. Again, toasted coconut is my favorite!
So now you have two healthy bread recipes in a week that your family will love you for. Have you checked out my Maple Cinnamon Applesauce Bread post over at Capturing Joy?! It’s amazing!
What’s your favorite 80’s commercial jingle?
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup coconut milk (original flavor)
- ⅓ cup honey, plus more for drizzling
- 3 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
- ½ cup natural almond butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ⅓ cup potato starch
- 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground flax
- ¾ cup regular or dairy free chocolate chips (optional)
- ½ cup sweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour with buckwheat flour 4 mini size loaf pans. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk eggs together. Add applesauce, coconut milk, honey, coconut sugar, almond butter, and vanilla. Stir until thouroughly combined, making sure that almond butter is smooth and mixed throughout the batter.
- In a separte smaller mixing bowl, sift together coconut flour, buckwheat flour, almond flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and flax. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into loaf pans*, filling ⅔ way full. Top each loaf with sweetened coconut flakes and sliced almonds. Drizzle about 2 teaspoons of honey on top of each loaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes in pan before removing to cooling rack.
This looks downright delicious! yum!
Thanks Marie!!!