Sunday, April 07, 2013

Recipe for DIY Bounty bites aka homemade Mounds candy bars

Bounty Bites / Bounty kompvekid

Some home-made candy bars for a change. If you live in the US, then you'd think of these as Mounds, the candy bar produced by Hershey's. Everywhere else - including UK and Canada - you'd recognise these as Bounty, the candy bar produced by Mars Inc. A dense and sweet coconut centre, enrobed with either dark or milk chocolate.

I used milk chocolate (the American equivalent would be Almond Joy without the almonds :)), and made small cubes instead of the traditional oblong bar shape. I must admit we ate half of the coconut cubes before we even dipped them into chocolate :)

There are links to several homemade Bounty/Mounds recipes at the end of this post - do check these out as well.

DIY Bounty bites aka home-made Mounds candy bars
(Kodune Bounty)
Makes about 3 dozen

Bounty bites / Bounty kookosekommid

Coconut filling:
300 g desiccated unsweetened coconut flakes
300 g sweetened condensed milk
150 g butter, at room temperature

Chocolate glaze:
300 g dark or milk chocolate

I used the mixing bowl of my standing mixer, but you could also simply use your hand muscles to prepare the coconut mixture.

Place the butter and coconut into the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly - about 1-2 minutes. Add the condensed milk and mix for another 2-3 minutes, until thoroughly combined.

Line a small baking sheet/tray/tin with a parchment/baking paper. Transfer the coconut mixture into the tin and press into a block about 2 cm/0.8 inches high. Cover and put into the fridge for about 3 hours or freezer for about 1 hour.

Remove from the fridge/freezer, transfer the coconut block onto a cutting board and cut into 2x2 cm (0.8 x 0.8 inch) cubes. Like this:

Bounty bites / Bounty kookoskuubikud

Now there are two ways to proceed. First, cover a small tray with parchment paper and put aside.

If you prefer your candy bars at room temperature, then melt and temper your chocolate (here's a good article about tempering the chocolate or see my instructions below), dip each coconut cube into the melted chocolate until coated, then place onto the prepared tray. Cool completely, then keep in a cool place until ready to serve.

If you want to avoid tempering the chocolate - or simply like your sweets cold - then you can simply dip these into melted chocolate to coat, then place onto the prepared tray and put into the freezer. The butter and sweetened condensed milk keep these blocks from freezing completely, so you can always just grab one candy bar and enjoy straight from frozen. (This is how I enjoyed them, but then I also like my brownie bites straight from the freezer).

Why and how to temper the chocolate? The Internet - and food blogs - are full of detailed instructions on how to temper chocolate - and why. The latter is easy - unless you temper the chocolate, the chocolate-glazed candy bars/bites will lack the shine and the snap, both very desirable elements. "How" is trickier and indeed, tempering can be a hit-and-miss. I've followed this simplified seed-technique for tempering. Place about 2/3 of your chopped up chocolate (or, indeed, chocolate pellets - and NOT compound chocolate!) into a heat-proof bowl and place the bowl on top of a small saucepan, where you've brought about 5 cm/2 inches of water into simmer. Let the chocolate melt slowly, stirring as you go along. Remove from the heat, stick a chocolate thermometer into the bowl. Now add the "seed chocolate" or the chocolate you put aside at the beginning in two or three installments and keep stirring the chocolate and cooling it. Once all the added chocolate pellets have melted, you must continue stirring the chocolate, until it registers 28 C on the thermometer - that will probably take about 15-20 minutes of active stirring, so be patient! You can then gently re-heat the chocolate - either over the waterbath, on top of a hot water bottle or by hovering your hair-drier over the chocolate - until it's about 30-31 C (best temperature for working with chocolate). 


Other foodbloggers making these:
Batoniki a la Bounty by Ania @ Strawberries from Poland (recipe in Polish)

Similar recipes:
Nourishing and scrumptious "Mounds" candy bars by Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet
Homemade Bounty by Dagmar @ A Cat in the Kitchen
Homemade coconut Bounty candy bars by Christina @ Scientifically Sweet
Mounds candy bars by Elena @ Elena's Pantry
Homemade Bounty bars by Louise @ Lick that Spoon
Homemade Bounty by Eva @ Made by Eva
Easy homemade Bounty bars aka Mounds by Marie @ Not Enough Cinnamon
DIY Bounty barres by Emilie @ Emilie and Lea's Secrets (recipe in French)
Isetehtud Bounty šokolaad by Sandra @ Sentjurin Food Production (recipe in Estonian)
Kookoskommid šokolaadis ehk kodused Bounty'd by Teevi @ Ampsukas (recipe in Estonian)
Kookostrühvlid by Silja @ Jagatud rõõm (recipe in Estonian)

10 comments:

Roxy said...

I bet Ezra would love those...

Léa said...

Thank you for sharing our recipe of home made bounty bar.

Silja Luide said...

Ohh, ma armastan Bounty't, eriti seda punase paberiga ehk tumeda šokolaadiga varianti! ma ise olen saanud üsna lähedase tulemuse Odense kookosmassiga (http://siljafoodparis.blogspot.com/2011/12/kookostruhvlid.html). Hea lihtne teha ka!:)

Aga proovin kindlasti lähiajal ka niimoodi Bounty't teha:) Ja aitäh, et jagad ka teiste retsepte - mulle hullult meeldib see põhjalikkus, millega Sa iga teemat käsitled!

Michelle James said...

Hi Pille,

I'm not sure if we have been in touch before but I am a Producer on the US travel show House Hunters International. I found your website when looking for expats who might be interested in being a part of the show, I hope you don't mind me contacting you?


I thought I would reach out to see if you or anyone you know might be interested in taking part in House Hunters International?! Ideally they should be outgoing and fun, aged under 45 and have bought a property within the last few years or are renting a property.


House Hunters International is a half-hour TV show currently airing on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV) in America. The series is designed to de-mystify the international home-buying / renting process, by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where expats and their real estate agents tour 3 homes. At its core, House Hunters International is a travel show concentrating on the idiosyncrasies of the locales and what makes them special and different.


Here are some examples of the show that you can watch on Youtube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYI3L3lC-c - Barcelona from LA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOiump3__Mo - Vienna from California

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tblIVLw0coE – Panama from Pennsylvania


Please do get in touch if you or anyone you know may be interested in the show.


Best wishes,


Michelle


Michelle James
CASTING PRODUCER LEOPARD FILMS
1-3 St Peter's Street, London N1 8JD - +44 20 7704 3300
michelle.james@leopardfilms.com
www.leopardfilms.com

Anonymous said...

wow looks soo good :))
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come check out http://themichellec.blogspot.dk

XO

Unknown said...

Nothing really beats making your own candy at home. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

Jeff @ Cheeseburger said...

I like this one frozen. This gets me going to the fridge every few minutes.

Pille said...

Roxy - will Ezra's mom make these for him? :)

Léa - thank you for sharing your recipe. I did small changes, but yours was my starting point.

Silja - lisasin Sinu postituse ka nimekirja.

Michelle J - will keep my eyes open for any such families.

Michelle C & Joshua - thanks!

Jeff - same here. Straight from the freezer :)

Johanna said...

Oh I need to make those, too!!!

Ania Włodarczyk vel Truskawka said...

Pille, thank you so much for your comment :) It made me happy, especially that I'm your old, regular reader :)

And that homemade Bounty was sooo good! Thanks for the recipe :)