Crunchy Coconut Cacao Clusters

I’m always looking for easy snacks to carry with me on-the-go, whether it’s running errands or out on a hike.

Trail mix might be a classic for hiking snacks, but I often find the store bought versions have more dried fruit than I’d like (way too sweet for my taste). Plus, the dried fruit makes the nuts lose their crunchiness. No one likes soggy nuts.

Enter these crisp morsels which I’ve dubbed Crunchy Coconut Cacao Clusters.

Crunchy Coconut Cacao Clusters are a lightly sweet, teeny bit salty, incredibly crunchy snack that blows trail mix out of the water.

If you have my book, Real Food for Pregnancy, you may have made the Grain-free Granola recipe (if you haven’t, make it!). This recipe is somewhat similar, but I’ve changed out some ingredients, most notably adding in cacao nibs, which adds a nice chocolate note.

Cacao nibs are pieces of cacao beans (or cocoa beans; different spelling for the same thing) that have a bitter, chocolatey flavor and light, crunchy texture. Instead of adding chocolate chips to a trail mix or granola, you can use cacao nibs as a sugar-free alternative.

But, because cacao nibs are kind of bitter, incorporating them into a recipe that has a touch of sweetness — like the honey in Crunchy Coconut Cacao Clusters — helps balance it out.

This recipe also has some collagen powder to up the protein and provide beneficial amino acids for supporting your skin, joints, digestive health, and even uterine health.

Did you know that by the end of pregnancy, the uterus contains 800% MORE collagen than it did before you were pregnant? This is one of many reasons that incorporating collagen rich foods (and/or supplemental collagen) is supportive of your health in pregnancy. And, those benefits continue postpartum to optimize recovery as outlined in this post.

As a postpartum mama myself, I continue to regularly eat collagen-rich foods and I know that’s one of many reasons I’ve had such an easy recovery after baby #2.

The secret to the crunchy factor in this recipe is a low and slow roasting process at 250. That’s two hundred and fifty degrees. A low temperature is key to evaporating the moisture naturally present in nuts, but doing so without burning them and damaging their unsaturated fats.

A low temp means these need to bake for a while, so you’ll need to set aside 45 minutes and visit your oven a few times to turn the mixture and ensure the gooey honey evenly coats every morsel.

I promise you, the effort is worth it. Once you get these out of the oven, the honey will have caramelized and upon cooling and the mixture will have hardened into a crunchy sheet of sweet and salty goodness. After baking, the coconut flakes remind me of those expensive bags of coconut chips that are so popular, but these are even better because they’re studded with chocolatey cacao nibs.

Is your mouth watering yet?!

I’ll be honest, when I first made this recipe, I ended up eating more than my fair share. It’s kind of addictive, but hey, if you’re gonna have something sweet, you may as well have it be packed with healthy fat and protein for better blood sugar balance (see this post for more on blood sugar and what I learned from wearing a continuous glucose monitor).

My recipe for Crunchy Coconut Cacao Clusters is open to interpretation, so feel free to swap in whatever nuts/seeds you like (almonds? Walnuts? hazelnuts?). Try different sweeteners (maple syrup would be good!). Try adding spices (cinnamon? ginger?).

Make it work for whatever your flavor preferences are and report back with your “recipe” in the comments below.

Happy baking!

Until next time,
Lily

PS – Like this recipe? Share it with your friends and family.

PPS – If you’re feeling extra kind, make a batch of this for a new mama friend. It makes a great one-handed snack that you can have nearby when baby decides they don’t want to be put down. Better yet, bring them this AND a meal! Lot of inspiration and 50+ postpartum recovery recipes can be found in this post.