Make Your Own Almond Joys

It's getting to be that time of the year.  Thanksgiving is two days away, and Christmas is coming in just over a month.  It's time for comfort food, curling up in jammies on the couch, and cool nights spent sipping warm cider.  This week I will be pulling out the decorations from the crawl space, roasting a turkey, and starting on the holiday sweets.  I am going to be making some tried and true recipes (which I'll be telling you about later), but also a couple new ones like Homemade Almond Joy Cups.

I found the recipe for these at http://www.sophistimom.com/homemade-almond-joy.  It seemed simple enough, so I decided to do a test run tonight while dinner was baking.  Here's what you'll need:

 

Homemade Almond Joy Cups

 

3/4 cup dried, flaked coconut

3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 bag of milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup toasted almonds

 

1.  Mix the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla together.  (The original recipe said in a food processor, but I just mixed mine in a bowl with a spoon.)  It should be thick and sticky.  If it's too thick, add more milk.  If it's too runny, add more coconut.

 

2.  Line a mini-muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

 

3.  Melt about half of the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, in 30 second intervals, stirring well after each.

 

4.  Pour about a teaspoon of melted chocolate into the bottom of each liner.  Shake the tray (or bang it on the counter a few times!) to distribute the chocolate.

 

5.  Put in a heaping teaspoon of the coconut mixture in each cup and top with an almond.

 

6.  Pour more melted chocolate over the top of each cup.  Shake (or bang) to distribute evenly.  Melt more chocolate if necessary.  (I ended up using almost the whole bag.)

 

7.  Refrigerate until set.

 

8.  Enjoy!

 

I thought these were pretty good!  The hubby wasn't a huge fan, but it was because they were too chocolaty and he doesn't really like chocolate.  I know what you're thinking, "who doesn't like chocolate?"  He likes some, just not the straight up, milk chocolate kind.  But it works out - I get to eat everything he doesn't want :)