Coconut Fudge Bars - Paleo Even!

My birthday was last week, and once again I must share the recipe for my dessert of choice this year. Last year I made Boston Cream Pie, but this year I had some restrictions to work around. Not so much for myself, but for my kids. All three react to dairy at present, and the little girl also can't have gluten. No worries though! I've been pinning all sorts of "paleo" recipes for a while and had a few I wanted to try.

This recipe is based on two that I had com across on Pinterest or Google or somewhere:

Coconut Macaroons

The Easiest, Healthiest, Most Scrumptious Fudge Ever

They turned out AMAZING and were a huge hit with everyone!

Coconut Fudge Bars

Ingredients

Coconut base:

•  3/4 cup almond flour (I buy mine at Trader Joe's)
• 1 1/2 cup dried, shredded unsweetened coconut (ordered from Azure Standard co-op)
• 1/4 cup plus 1-2 tablespoons raw honey 
• 1/4 cup coconut oil 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg white, beaten (optional - you can leave it out if you're sensitive to eggs but I added it so it would hold together well and not be crumbly)

Fudge Topping

• 1/2 cup of virgin coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of honey, to taste (or other sweetener of choice; try date paste or Sucunat/Rapadura, or even maple syrup)
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder 
• A dash of sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Optional: additional cocoa powder, to taste, and/or strongly brewed coffee - also to taste, about 2 - 4 tablespoons. I found that it was very sweet and honey-tasting with the half cup honey, so I tried balancing it out and this worked perfectly)

Directions:

For the base:

1. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper, leaving it long enough to allow a "handle" over the side of the pan.
2. In a bowl, combine the almond flour and coconut.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the honey, coconut oil, vanilla and salt until well blended.
4. Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined; stir in egg white. 
5. Press mixture into prepared pan. Use plastic wrap, a baggy over your hand, or a spatula to get it nice and even. Press it in pretty good.
6. Bake at 200°F 40-50 min. or just until it's browning on the very edges. **Actually I turned the temp up a bit after a while so you might try 250 or even 300, shortening the time as needed.
7. Cool in pan.

For the fudge topping:

1. whisk coconut oil and honey (or other sweetener) in a bowl. If your honey is thick or your oil isn't melted yet, you can do this over a double boiler.
2. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Add salt and vanilla.
3. Taste and adjust sweetener, cocoa, or add coffee as desired.
4. Poor over cooled (or partially cooled, doesn't matter a ton) coconut base. Jiggle the pan to make sure it's even.
5. Store in refrigerator until set and ready to serve! 

Makes about 16 bars.