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  Christmas brings so many good memories of my childhood – but the fondest one is baking Christmas cookies with my mom. If you have been following my health journey lately you know that I can have very little sugar right now.  I started getting sad about not having any Christmas cookies this year, so I decided to figure out my own better-for-you alternative. I made this recipe using Planters Cocoa Almonds.  I found the Planters Cocoa Almonds at my local Walmart – they are not in the normal ‘nut aisle’ but near the Kraft Walmart Hub. I am SO excited to share with you my favorite sweet treat!  Since I am on the low sugar diet, I have been substituting raw honey for most sweet things.  To make this easier I decided to jump in front of the video camera to chat more about #GoNutsForNuts and the Blippar App + the recipe that I put together for you all!

It is no fun at all to be at a Christmas party without anything sweet to snack on! These small little Chocolate Almond Butter bites are SO amazing, and surprisingly aren’t that bad for you. You will have to make your own Chocolate Almond Butter using Planters Cocoa Almonds, and once you have that done you will be able to put them together in just 10 minutes!   Remember, the almonds are not located near the other nuts – I took a picture of where I found them so that you can easily locate them – they were in the deli/dairy section in the holiday sleigh display shown below. If you need more recipe inspirations this holiday, check out the Cooking Up Good website. It has recipes, coupons, and much more! Making your own almond butter is actually very simple as long as you have a food process or blender. I have a Cuisinart Food Processor that I use to make Almond Butter and in just about 15 minutes it was done!  If you have a Vitamix or a Blendtec, you could probably make it faster! Almond Butter is so expensive, by making my own I am saving money, plus there is a nice sweet treat for me to have this Christmas! By using the Planters Cocoa Almonds (and oh my goodness these almonds are amazing just by themselves) – the result is a delicious salty and sweet chocolate almond butter. Here are the ingredients that you will need to make these.  If you don’t have Coconut Oil, you can sub for another type of oil.   We are going to start by making our own Chocolate Almond Butter- but first I want you to take out that smart phone of yours and download the Blippar App. This is a super fun app where you can do some real interesting and helpful things! With the app open, you can simply aim your phone right at the box of any Planters product and ‘blip’ the item. When you do that an image pops up using Augmented Reality and Image-Recognition technologies.  You can pull up gift ideas, recipes, and more. It is so fun and makes your product come to life! My favorite thing about the app was that I could take a selfie with Mr. Peanut! What are my favorite things about this cool app? Taking a selfie with Mr. Peanut, getting recipes, finding holiday gift ideas and much more!  My kids thought it was awesome to watch the screen light up when the phone was aimed at the Planters Cocoa Almonds (to see what it looks like in real life watch my video above). Now – onto the Chocolate Almond Butter! Seriously – this cannot even compare to store bought almond butter! Oh my goodness it is AMAZING!   Simply add 2 cups of Cocoa Almonds in your food processor, turn it on and in about 15 minutes you will have fresh almond butter! There is a small amount of sugar in the cocoa almonds, so you could leave it as is, but I didn’t. I wanted to add a bit more sweetness since this is a substitute for a Christmas cookie. While the almond butter was being made in the food processor, I took 1/3 cup of baker’s chocolate mixed with 1 tsp of coconut oil. I melted them over a double broiler until it turned into a chocolate paste. Once the almond butter was done, I added the chocolate mixture to the almond butter. I then added cocoa powder, honey, vanilla, and sea salt. You could just stop this recipe right here, grab a spoon and dig in. Trust me, you would not be disappointed!

Here is the full recipe for the Cocoa Almond Butter:

Chocolate Almond Butter

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 2 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 22 minutes minutes

Author: Lauren Cobello

Ingredients

• 2 cups Planters Cocoa Almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup Bakers Chocolate melt in pan
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil melt in pan
• 1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

• Blend 2 cups of almonds in food processor to make almond butter. (about 15 minutes)
• While the almond butter is blending; melt chocolate and coconut oil over medium heat with double broiler.
• Once almond butter is done, add chocolate mixture, vanilla, cocoa powder, honey, and sea salt.
• Pulse in the food processor for a minute.

Now that we have the almond butter made, we can start assembling the bites. This is super easy – and you can either do it in the food processor or you can empty the almond butter from the food processor into a large mixing bowl. I prefer to add the almond butter to a mixing bowl – it gives me more space to work with.  I then add more coconut oil, honey, cocoa powder, almond flour, vanilla, cinnamon, rice cereal, and 2 TBSP shredded toasted coconut. You can roll these into small truffle shaped balls. Note – if the batter is too soft to form into a ball, simply place it in the refrigerator to set for about 10-15 minutes.  When you roll them into bites they should keep their shape, if not stick them back in the refrigerator. Once you have rolled them into balls, then roll them into the toasted coconut. Stick in the refrigerator and let them cool for about an hour.  Once they are set, eat and enjoy. They usually stay good for me in the refrigerator for a week.  Or you can place in a  freezer bag and freeze for later. It’s up to you!

Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Almond Butter Bites:

How to make Chocolate Almond Butter Bites with Planters Cocoa Almonds!

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Author: Lauren Cobello

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Chocolate Almond Butter made with Planters Cocoa Almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1-2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup almond flour.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
• 1/2 cup rice cereal
• 1/2 cup toasted shredded coconut - I also like to add a few TBSP of coconut to the mixture before I roll these into balls.

Instructions

• Add all ingredients together and mix thoroughly.
• Shape into bite size balls using your hands.
• Roll in toasted shredded coconut.
• Refrigerate for one hour before serving.

I can guarantee that everyone will love these AND no one will know that they are better-for-you. Another thing you can do with these is package them up in a cute little gift box and give them away as gifts! I hope you enjoy them – let me know what you think!