Ingredients

Except for the chocolate coating, these Bounty Bars are nothing but coconut. Actually, several different forms of coconut:

Desiccated coconut is a no-brainer. You need coconut meat for a coconut filling. I would highly recommend using desiccated (sometimes called macaroon) coconut because it's the finest shredded coconut out there. It’s usually “powdery” because it’s in such small pieces, unsweetened, and contains no additives. You could use shredded coconut if that's all you can find. But the consistency of the coconut filling won't be the same as in the original Bounty bars and might crumble.

Perhaps a little bit harder to find, coconut butter is another essential ingredient in these raw Bounty bars. Coconut butter might be a little bit confusing because different brands call it different names. The common name is coconut butter, but it can also find it under the name coconut manna, coconut meat puree, coconut cream concentrate, or whole coconut flesh puree. Coconut butter is essentially pureed coconut meat (just like peanut butter is pureed peanuts).

A more common ingredient is coconut oil. I don't normally use virgin coconut oil, because it makes everything taste and smell like coconut. But as you might have guessed, virgin coconut oil is perfect for these Bounty Bars. So if you have it on hand, use it.

Coconut nectar is a syrup that looks like honey but has the consistency of brown rice syrup. The taste is very difficult to describe. It's almost like a very light maple syrup with a hint of floral. It's quite pricey so if you don't already have it on hand, substitute it with honey or maple syrup.

Coconut cream is much thicker and more paste-like than coconut milk. You can either buy coconut cream itself, or use the cream that rises to the top of a can of coconut milk. The easiest way to separate the coconut water from the coconut cream is to put the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight. After it's sufficiently cold, the cream will rise to the top and the water will stay at the bottom. Also, stick with coconut milk that doesn't contain emulsifiers and stabilizers (aka ingredients that inhibit the separation).

For coating, you can use whatever chocolate you like. If you have time, try this homemade tempered chocolate.

Technique

When shaping the bars, make sure you press the coconut filling together as much as possible. Believe it or not, it does make a difference in how compact the Bounty Bars stay after you take them out of the fridge. Also, if you have the time, try to make them look as much as the original. Stick with the same dimensions, round the edges, smooth out the surfaces ... you get the point.

The colder the coconut filling is, the easier it is to coat it with chocolate. Once the warm chocolate hits the cold coconut filling, it hardens pretty quickly. So chill the coconut filling before covering it in chocolate.

Tools You'll Need

1. Cookware Set (Calphalon, Stainless Steel) | 2. Mixing Bowls (Set of 3, Pyrex, Glass) | 3. Measuring Cups (Set of 6, Bellemain, Stainless Steel) | 4. Measuring Spoons (Set of 6, 1Easylife, Stainless Steel)

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