Chocolate Almond Butter Bombs

I had lost 50 pounds on a low carb diet and plateaued. I joined a gym and after a year, I gained 10 pounds. Yes, I’m sure most of it was muscle, but it’s not the direction I was intending to go. It was suggested to me to log all of my food intake using a tool like MyFitnessPal. I was reluctant since, quite frankly, I viewed it as a pain in the ass. Since I didn’t have any other ideas, I started logging everything I ate as meticulously as possible. I was shocked how many carbohydrates (and calories) I was consuming in a day. Yes, I was eating lots of low carb foods like pistachios, but I was sometimes polishing off half a bag in a day. I knew I had to make changes and fix my macro-nutrient ratios. I needed ideas for doing a “fat fast” to kickstart my weight loss again, so I purchased Dana Carpender’s Fat Fast Cookbook: 50 Easy Recipes to Jump Start Your Low Carb Weight Loss. It has lots of great recipes that are 80% - 88% fat. One of these recipes helped change my life: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombs. With the introduction of these little babies (after a few modifications), I was able to melt off another 50+ pounds.

I (anecdotally) don’t seem to lose weight as quickly with peanuts or peanut butter. Almond butter doesn’t seem to stall me, so I swapped the peanut butter for that in the recipe. I use a combo of Truvia and EZ-Sweetz as the sweetener, which work incredible well together. I also bought peanut butter cup silicone molds to make it easier to mass produce. They work a lot better than paper cups. She used 85% Lindt, but there are much better dark chocolate bars. I started using Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa until I discovered Trader Joe’s the Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar. There’s simply nothing else like it. Most of the ingredients I get at Trader Joe’s. Their coconut oil has a mild coconut flavor which works really well in this recipe. Their macadamia nuts are like boulders compared to the ones sold at the supermarket.

I make these in large batches, so I’m essentially doubling what’s in the original recipe. I had to buy a total of three silicone molds to handle the volume.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons (84 g) Trader Joe’s organic coconut oil
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 packages (4 bars) Trader Joe’s the Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar
½ cup (130 g) Trader Joe’s creamy almond butter, unsalted
2 tablespoons Truvia
48 drops EZ-Sweetz
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2½ bags (approx) Trader Joe’s macadamia nuts, unsalted

Directions

1. In a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup, add coconut oil. As you can see in the picture below, I don’t attempt to measure by volume. Instead I use a kitchen scale to determine the correct amount.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Add the sticks of butter. Break them in half so they fit better.
3. Break the chocolate bars into pieces and add.
4. Add the almond butter. Again, I use the scale rather than measure by volume.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Put the Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave for 3 minutes. Remove and stir with a spoon. You could use a hand mixer, but I usually don’t bother. Getting the almond butter to break down and dissolve into the mixture is the most difficult part of the process. Add the sweeteners and heavy cream and mix.
6. Take a silicone mold and put it on a rigid tray or sheet. This will make it easier to transfer to the refrigerator or freezer later.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Pour chocolate from the Pyrex measuring cup into each well so that they’re ⅓ to ½ full.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Add macadamia nuts. I usually put one large nut and two halves in each well. I like to use as much macadamia nuts as possible. This allows me to stretch this recipe to about 80+ chocolates.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Cover the macadamias with more chocolate.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Transfer the silicone mold to the freezer if there is a stable flat surface available. If not, put the silicone mold in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets. It can then be transferred to the freezer without fear of spilling the contents.
11. Repeat for the next two silicone molds. On the third silicone mold, only do half of the wells first to ensure you have enough chocolate mixture left. Continue to make the rest as your supply of chocolate allows.
12. After a few hours in the freezer, remove the silicone molds and pop out the finished fat bombs quickly. Store in a freezer safe Ziploc quart bags in either the freezer or refrigerator.