Valentine’s Day is coming. There I said it.
That means boxes of chocolates and pink fluffy bears are popping up everywhere. Yikes.
Are you a big fan of chocolate? I’ll just come right out and say it: I totally am. And around this time of year chocolate suddenly goes on hyperdrive and starts showing up everywhere. This is precisely why for me, Valentine’s Day = Trouble.
Chocolate covered strawberries are one of my favorite things so naturally I’ve been dreaming about them as we’ve started to enter the season of red and chocolate. The other day I was kicking myself for picking up fresh berries and not having any chocolate on hand. The good news? This lead to an amazing epiphany: combine homemade coconut butter with cacao powder, add in a little pure maple syrup, and then dip in some fresh strawberries…. yeeessss.
P.S. Do not ask how many strawberries were eaten in the making of this recipe. The answer is too many.
These coconut-cacao covered strawberries are a breeze to make and I love using my own homemade coconut butter in this recipe. Have you tried making coconut butter at home yet? I highly recommend it because I’ve found it much more economical than purchasing premade coconut butter at the grocery store. (Here’s my tutorial on how to make it if you’re interested.) However, if you do have premade coconut butter, feel free to substitute that instead of making your own. Coconut butter is hard at room temperature so you might need to gently melt it before dipping the strawberries in.
A lot of folks have questions about the difference between the raw cacao powder I often use in my dessert recipes and cocoa powder. The difference is this: cacao powder has no added sugar and because the cacao beans are processed at low temperatures, this powder is full of antioxidants and minerals (like magnesium and iron) that you would find in the cacao bean. Cocoa powder is usually more processed so these nutrients are often lost during the processing. I do think cacao powder and cocoa powder taste slightly differently, but feel free to use cocoa powder in this recipe if that is what you have on-hand.
Also, I recommend adding your own mix-ins like chopped nuts or shredded coconut. I mixed a bit of chopped pecans and shredded coconut with my coconut butter-cacao mixture and then dipped the strawberries right in. If you’re feeling fancy and want to make a prettier presentation, you can also dip the strawberries in the coconut butter-cacao mixture then roll them in the chopped nuts or shredded coconut (or other mix-ins as desired) so the nuts and coconut are on the outside. Make sense?
Enjoy!
COCONUT-CACAO COVERED STRAWBERRIES
PREP TIME
TOTAL TIME
Serves: 4
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups dried shredded (unsweetened) coconut flakes (or sub ⅔ cup coconut butter)
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons cacao powder
- pinch of sea salt
- Chopped nuts or shredded coconut (optional)
- 1 pound fresh organic strawberries
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add coconut flakes to a food processor and process until smooth and flakes have turned into coconut butter.
- Mix coconut butter with maple syrup, cacao powder, and sea salt. Mix in chopped nuts or extra shredded coconut (if using).
- Dip berries in coconut butter mixture and refridgerate until serving.
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