Here is my take on homemade Mounds bars — or Bounty if you live outside of US. These beauties are double-coated with crunchy melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate, they are vegan, low-carb, sugar-free, paleo, so extremely easy and healthy! You don’t even need molds for making these bars.
Tips for making the bars
Don’t worry about complicated instructions for tempering chocolate. If you follow the directions above, you actually do the tempering. Quickly and without any thermometers or other hassle! This short-cut tempering should be sufficient for personal use.
Tempering brings several benefits. Chocolate won’t melt in your hands when you eat the bar — it will melt in your mouth instead. Tempering also ensures the delicious sounding and feeling crunch when you take a bite of the bar. Whenever I make something chocolate-coated, that crunch is the most important thing to me. Last but not least, tempering also ensures even color and shiny surface. But like I said, don’t worry about any complicated methods, just follow the simple directions above.
At least for me, the single best piece of advice what comes to tempering the chocolate, is to avoid heating the chocolate too much. If the chocolate is too hot, the texture will be uneven and burned after the chocolate has set. If the tempering fails anyway for some reason and the color of the chocolate coating is uneven, don’t worry, the bars are still delicious! And the uneven surface actually looks decorated and fun 🙂
Dipping the bars in chocolate is done easiest by holding a bar with two forks while dipping it in the melted chocolate. The excess chocolate will run between the tines.
In case you don’t have time for dipping the bars two times, one time is better than nothing, of course. Simply omit the steps 12 and 13 from the above directions. Yes, and you need altogether only 4 oz (115 g) dark chocolate. Alternatively, you can melt 6 oz (170 g) of the chopped chocolate, take the melted chocolate from the heat and add the rest of the chopped chocolate (2 oz = 60 g). Stir until all the chocolate is melted. You can dip the bars once and drizzle the rest of the chocolate over the bars. That’s faster than dipping the bars two times.
Homemade Sugar-Free Mounds Bars – Bounty (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup = 80 ml organic extra virgin coconut oil
- 1/3 cup = 80 ml organic coconut milk
- 1/2 cup = 120 ml Confectioner’s Style Swerve OR other powdered erythritol-based sweetener
- 1 cup = 240 ml unsweetened organic finely shredded coconut
- 8 oz = 230 g dark chocolate (preferably at least 85% cacao)
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut oil, coconut milk and the sweetener.
- Heat over very low heat, constantly mixing until the coconut oil has melted.
- Add the shredded coconut and mix until well mixed.
- Pour the mixture in a 9 X 5 inch (23 X 13 cm) silicone loaf pan. Press the mixture tightly and evenly to the bottom of the pan.
- Refrigerate for 3 hours or until the mixture is solid.
- Turn the pan upside down, gently press the bottom of the pan so that the solid mixture pops out.
- Cut the mixture into bars.
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces, equal in size.
- Melt 3 oz (85 g) of the chopped chocolate for example in a water bath or in a double boiler. Don’t let the chocolate get too hot, heat it gently just until it is melted, stirring every now and then.
- Remove the melted chocolate from the heat. Add 1 oz (30 g) chopped chocolate to the melted chocolate and mix every now and then to get a smooth mixture.
- Dip the bars in the melted chocolate, put on parchment paper or on cooling rack and let the chocolate set.
- When the chocolate coating is completely set, melt 3 oz (85 g) of the chopped chocolate for example in a water bath or in a double boiler. Don’t let the chocolate get too hot, heat it gently just until it is melted, stirring every now and then.
- Remove the chocolate from the heat. Add the rest of the chopped chocolate (1 oz = 30 g) to the melted chocolate and mix every now and then to get a smooth mixture.
- Dip the bars second time in the melted chocolate, put on parchment paper or on cooling rack and let the chocolate set.
| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 33.1 g | 252.9 g | 51.4 g | 2623 kcal |
| Per bar if 8 bars in total: | 4.1 g | 31.6 g | 6.4 g | 328 kcal |
| Per bar if 12 bars in total: | 2.8 g | 21.1 g | 4.3 g | 219 kcal |
| Per bar if 16 bars in total: | 2.1 g | 15.8 g | 3.2 g | 164 kcal |
| Per bar if 20 bars in total: | 1.7 g | 12.6 g | 2.6 g | 131 kcal |
| Per bar if 24 bars in total: | 1.4 g | 10.5 g | 2.1 g | 109 kcal |
My experiences when developing the recipe
I made some experiments with homemade Mounds bars a few years ago. I have a Swedish low-carb cookbook which I don’t consider that great, except what comes to the recipe for Mounds bars — or Bounty, as the brand is in Sweden. The recipe calls among others for erythritol crystals and heavy cream. I wanted to make a dairy-free version, actually completely vegan version. So, I decided to use only coconut milk. I also wanted to use powdered sweetener instead of crystals, because it was important to me to ensure that the sweetener dissolves in the mixture and doesn’t feel gritty or crystallized. And naturally, I persisted in keeping the recipe as simple as possible.
Basically, I started the developing of my homemade Mounds bars from the scratch. I was wondering the amounts of ingredients and just decided to start my research by wildly trying out something. I took a saucepan and combined 1/3 cup (80 ml) coconut oil, 1/3 cup (80 ml) coconut milk and 1/3 cup (80 ml) Zsweet sweetener. I heated the mixture until the coconut oil had melted. Then I added 1 1/2 cup (360 ml) shredded coconut and mixed well. I refrigerated the mixture for a couple of hours, after which I grabbed small handfuls of the mixture and formed bars. Then I dipped the bars in melted dark chocolate and refrigerated them until they were firm and the chocolate had set. The bars were delicious, but they could have been sweeter. Well, my husband and my toddler loved the bars and the batch was soon eaten up.
I still wanted to try out different measures. I increased the amount of sweetener and the shredded coconut. Well, in the end less shredded coconut was better. I tried different ratios of coconut oil and coconut milk, but the original amounts brought the best results.
Then it suddenly hit me that forming bars with hands was actually really laborious. I wanted to simplify the process. I lined a small ceramic baking dish with plastic foil and poured the mixture in there. I pressed the mixture evenly and tightly, covered the dish and refrigerated it for overnight. On the next day I took the dish, took a sharp knife and cut the solid mixture into nice, even bars. All the bars still needed was the chocolate coating. I dipped the bars once in the melted chocolate.
Ceramic baking dish, however, wasn’t the best dish for the bars. I couldn’t remove the mixture or the plastic foil easily, so I had to do the cutting when the mixture was still in the dish because I simply couldn’t get it out otherwise. I switched to a silicone loaf pan and that worked perfectly. Removing the mixture was easy as pie — I just turned the pan upside down and the chilled, solid mixture popped out onto parchment paper where I cut the mixture into bars.
As an extreme chocolate lover, I decided to add another coating of chocolate for the final touch. Yum!
Tips for variations
Well, the Mounds bar is the Mounds bar, how would you vary the recipe except to Mounds Island Orange bar? Then add grated zest (with no white pith!) of 1 large organic orange to the mixture of the coconut oil, coconut milk and the sweetener. Add 2 teaspoons orange flavor to the melted chocolate before coating the bars with it.
Another delicious variation is to add 1 tablespoon organic cocoa powder for a real coconutty chocolatey treat.
1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract gives a delicious hint of vanilla flavor.
For an easy-to-eat and the cutest treat, make the bars as pops!
I’m so thrilled about the coming St. Patrick’s Day, so I made a variation with 1 teaspoon spirulina powder in the filling. What an exciting surprise! No artificial colors needed, the spirulina does the job.
You can pour the coconut mixture in shamrock lollipop molds, refrigerate for a few hours, remove the lollipops and then dip them in melted chocolate.
Well, I’m planning more exciting recipes for St. Paddy’s… Stay tuned!
Update March 5th, 2013: Tip for the pops, how to make pretty round shapes: Instead of rolling the mixture into balls (which results easily to rough round shapes and grainy surface), you can scoop the molten coconut mixture into half sphere mold and press tight into the mold. Freeze for 1–2 hours. Remove the solid mixture from the mold. Glue two half spheres together with melted chocolate. Insert a small lollipop stick or a cocktail stick to the ball. Dip the ball in melted chocolate. Decorate, if you like.
I used this method for the pops, see the photos above.
Update March 12th, 2017: This recipe is still one of my favorites! This time, I used heavy cream instead of coconut milk. Works well, the result is delicious! Photo below.
Hello,
Thanks for the excellent recipe! I modified it slightly by adding 2 oz of cacao butter and replaced powder with granulated Swerve – it did not have a gritty texture. I used Lily’s dark chocolate for the chocolate shell.
Also, I used a silicone ice tray once filling is frozen they fall out of the tray, whole, with a gentle push.
I’d appreciate it if you can post the total and net carbs per gram.
Many thanks,
Joanna
You may want to clarify in the recipe to use sugar free chocolate, otherwise this is not truly a sugar free recipe. For most people, that doesn’t matter, but I know when I first started baking things (many years ago) for a diabetic friend and I followed recipes such as this, it caused problems for her when she ate what she (and I) both thought were sugar free foods. It sounds yummy though, and I can’t wait to try it.
Dark chocolate which contains 85% cocoa doesn’t really contain much sugar (=carbs) so it’s okay for most diabetics.
Hi, I love this recipe (Bounty bars remind me of my childhood!) and just started making it last night, but I’m concerned about the sugar from the dark chocolate. The recipe calls for 8oz. of 85% dark chocolate (I used the nutritional info from the Lindt chocolate in your link). There’s 12.5g of sugar in a 3.5oz bar. So that means a little over 25g of sugar for the entire recipe. If the recipe yields 14 pieces (just going by what my cut up bars look like now), that’s almost 2g of sugar per piece. Am I calculating that correctly?
Do you have any recommendations for chocolate that could work around this? Can I use 100% dark and sweeten it with Stevia or Erythritol? Thanks so much for the recipe – I’m very excited to make it work for my family!
Hi! The nutrition info is below the recipe when you scroll down, but yes, you are correct that the chocolate plays a big role in the carb count. I think 100% chocolate might be a bit too strong, however if you combine 100% chocolate with cocoa butter (or maybe coconut manna would work as well?) and sweeten that with powdered erythritol or stevia, that might work. How does that sound? (This is actually something I could experiment as well. If I do, I certainly will comment the result!)
That sounds good. I’ll give sweetening with manna and powdered erythritol a try! Thanks so much for your reply.
You’re welcome! Hope it works!
Went nuts when I saw the picture of these and read the ingredients; Mounds are my favorite candy, and I have been missing chocolate on keto. I ordered the sweetener (powdered Swerve) from Amazon and set out to make these today. The process of making the filling was quite easy and made the house smell wonderful. I chilled in the fridge for five hours and the mixture was definitely solid. However, it totally shattered/crumbled when I went to cut it (I used a very, very sharp knife with a large blade). Fewer than half of them held together well enough to be dipped, and even some of those broke in the process of being dipped or removed from the parchment after setting. All in all, I am disappointed with how they held up. If I make these again, I will just pour the melted chocolate on top while they are in the pan, and then pop out and cut. My boyfriend was happy that I brought him a big plate of crumbled coconut filling, though, so at least there’s that. Can you provide nutrition info for the whole batch in the event that I try with candy molds/ice cube trays? Thanks!
Hi Ann, sorry to hear it went crumbly! I wonder if decreasing the amount of shredded coconut would help them hold better together? The nutrition info is below the recipe.
Hi Ann,
I would advise you to use an ice cube mold and freeze the filling. Later it would be easier to take the cubes out of the mold, and because the filling is frozen, when you dip in the chocolate, the chocolate hardens quickly.
Worked well for me.
Regards,
Hagar
Hi Hagar, thanks for the great tip! That’s actually what I also do 🙂
Hagar how many hours did you leave it in the freezer? I’m going to try it this way
Hi Elviira,
My first attempt to make keto candies was rendered a success. However, I would like to let you and the other readers know, that the bounties came out extremely sweet with the advised amount of swerve. For the chocolate coating I used an 85% cacao organic chocolate.
When you go keto, one of the things that change quite dramatically is the need / ability to eat sweet foods. So, of course I understand this is a matter of taste, but personally, for my next batch, I would cut the sweetener by at least half.
For my candies I used a silicone ice cubes mold, to which I poured the coconut mixture. Then threw the mold into the freezer for the night. They kept their consistency when taking them out of the mold. 100gr of chocolate was enough for dipping the bounties once. After they rested on the rack for a couple of minutes, some of the now hard bottom coating broke when removed from the rack, so I dipped the bottom once again. One coating was thick enough for me.
One question I have for you: are you aware of an online website in Europe (except Amazon UK), where you can get sweeteners like Swerve? If yes, I would appreciate it if you could share this knowledge.
Thanks!
Hi Hagar, thank you for sharing your experiment! Yes, the less sweet you prefer, the better! I haven’t found Swerve anywhere in the Europe (I live in Finland and prefer to order LCHF stuff online because everything is so bloody expensive here), but I buy erythritol crystals at https://www.lcw-shop.de/lcw-low-carb-sparpaket-5x-erythrit-1000g.html and powder it myself with a high-speed blender (Blendtec).
Hi Elviira,
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, indeed. The lesson I am learning now from ordering food items from outside the EU is that one needs to do it in very small packages, according to the law up to 21€ excluding shipment… Thanks for your idea, I will certainly try!
Greetings from The Netherlands!
Hi, my first batch is in the fridge 😉
I read in a comment before, and this happened to me also. The mixture falls apart easily. And I kept your amounts exactly. Will it be harder to break when cooled over night? Secondly, melting the chocolate the way you described was a breeze. Perfect. Exept, the chocolate started setting when I was only half through my bits. And the excess chocolate is not dripping through the fork’s spines. The chocolate is to thick and started clotting right away. Is there a way to keep the chocolate (more) fluid for a longer period of time? I included a picture in the link of my first ones. They came out quite nice don’t you think?
Hi Lucienne and thanks for your comment! Your chocolate hearts look absolutely adorable! (Much better than mine, actually!) I’m sorry to hear that the mixture was falling apart that easily. I tested the recipe many times and chose the optimum amount of ingredients, but it can be that different brands are behaving in a different way — and need different amounts of other ingredients. And as we are talking about natural products, there is some variation within the same brand from batch to batch… which make things even more difficult to predict. Anyway, I wonder if a bit more coconut oil would help keep them better together? At least that I would try out first.
But the chocolate then, I think I simply would place the too-early-setting chocolate back in the water bath until it’s easy to handle again. How does this sound?
Thank you for your prompt reply. I will try to add some more coconut oil next time. About the chocolate… I’ll let you know how that worked out 😉 My concern about warming the chocolate again is it may not set as good as the ‘tempered’ version. Because with only time dipping the crunch effect is enormous! Thanks again Elviira!
Adding a small amount of coconut oil to melted chocolate helps it stay liquidy longer and helps with the tempering/shiny crunch. I learned this years ago at an old job involving lots and lots of chocolate!
Awesome, thank you for the tip!
Great!
🙂
These sound so yummy. I’m going to make them very soon.
Hi Libby! Great, hope you like them!
I started making these tonight but had to leave them in the setting in the refrigerator stage and will finish tomorrow.
Question about the chocolate, is 8 oz really required? One whole bar is only 3.5 ounzes and I have just under a bar and a half.
What is a water bath? Does that mean I put the chocolate in a bowl and put the bowl in water in a saucepan?
I threw the regular Zsweet in the food processor to make it more powdery and it seemed to work ok, although probably not as powdered as it comes from the company, which is what I expected. I will let you know how the final product comes out.
Hi Deana, if you would like to dip the bars two times 8 oz chocolate is preferred. 4 oz is enough for dipping them once. Personally I prefer thick chocolate coating so I like to dip the bars twice. What you can also do, is to spoon the chocolate slowly over the bars if there is not enough chocolate for dipping.
Yes, water bath is exactly that. My method of using water bath you can see here: https://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/chocolatey-strawberry-pops/ (Tips for making the pops). It has been working well for me so far. The most important thing is not to heat the chocolate too much that it becomes hot. Otherwise the coating is uneven in texture and in color.
I’m curious how your version turns out and how you like the bars!
Oh my goodness just finished these and they are so delicious I had to stop myself from eating the entire batch!!! Big hit with the kids as well 🙂
A few questions (for next time because there WILL be a next time!) The pieces of the coconut mixture did not hold together very well. A couple of them completely fell apart and the others I handled very carefully. Because of this I ended up just spreading them out on parchment and drizzling the chocolate over them. I also only used 4 ounces of chocolate since I wasn’t dipping and it was plenty enough in my opinion. So do you have any suggestions to keep the coconut mixture more solid? They were in the fridge overnight so it wasn’t that they weren’t cold enough. Also, since I only used 4 oz of chocolate, do you know what the new net carb calculation would be?
Thank you again for your wonderful recipes and always being so helpful!
Sorry it’s me Deana! Posted this from my phone so didn’t realize it came out as anonymous 😉
Hi Deana 🙂 Wonderful that you like the bars! I’m so happy to hear that!
If you feel that the bars break too easily there are two options to improve the consistency: either reduce the amount of shredded coconut or add more coconut oil. So, what I would try next is to reduce the amount of shredded coconut by 1/4 cup (60 ml) hoping it helps.
If you use 4 oz chocolate the nutritional breakdown for the whole batch is: 20.7 g protein, 200.9 g fat and 29.9 g net carbs. I use 85 % Lindt chocolate and used that in my calculations.
Hope your next time making these bars comes soon 🙂
I just got my Zsweet in the mail from amazon and cannot wait to make these! Just to clarify, when you say coconut milk you do mean the kind in a can correct, not the less concentrated kind in a carton that they sell next to the almond milk?
Hi Deana, thanks for your comment! So Amazon finally got some powdered Zsweet… They were running out of that so long…
The powdered type I use tastes so much better than other sweeteners from Zsweet (my personal opinion).
Yes, the coconut milk should be that one sold in the can. Hope you like the bars!
OK I am a little confused. In the recipe you call for “Zsweet sweetener” then you say “or powdered erythritol”. Then in your own recipe comments you mention “erythritol crystals”. Are these all the same thing? I bought regular Zsweet and it says “granulated” on the bag. Is there a different “powdered” version? If so, is it like powdered sugar that has corn starch in it? If so, I can’t use corn starch. If the granulated I bought isn’t going to work then I will return it as I bought it specifically for this recipe.
Hi Deana! Sorry for my confusing writing. In the ingredient list there are links to the products I use to make it easier to find the correct product or a substitute for that. World is full of sweeteners, some of them very good and some of them rubbish… I have chosen those which I like most and which work best.
Actually, the only sweeteners (in addition to liquid stevia) I use are pure erythritol crystals (http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Erythritol-100-Pure-Natural-Sweetener-1-lb-454-g/579?at=0&rcode=IRA341) and powdered Zsweet (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004PXBBN8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004PXBBN8&linkCode=as2&tag=locasosi-20). That powdered type is the only sweetener I use from Zsweet, it contains both powdered erythritol and stevia and thus is a bit sweeter than pure powdered erythritol. None of the sweeteners I use contains corn starch, expect some brown sugar substitutes in my very early recipes.
Unfortunately I haven’t used granulated Zsweet so I cannot say how it tastes and works. If it’s pure erythritol, it should work in those recipes where I have used erythritol crystals.
If I have listed “powdered Zsweet”, “Zsweet for baking” or “powdered erythritol” it would be best to use powdered sweetener, because crystals or granules might cause “gritty” feeling in the mouth. So if you make these bars with granulated sweetener, it could be that you can feel the granules in the ready bars. However, I cannot say for sure that this is the case. The mixture is anyway heated first, so if you try this recipe with granulated sweetener, I recommend to heat the mixture over very low heat so long that the granules melt. Actually, a few years ago I made these kinds of bars with erythritol crystals (crystals = granules), and they were all good. No gritty feeling there.
Still one thing, I have noticed that powdered Zsweet works better than pure powdered erythritol. Pure powdered erythritol tends to leave gritty feeling especially in frostings. Powdered Zsweet, however, dissolves perfectly.
Sorry for my lengthy explanation, I hope you found it helpful anyway! And please ask more if I left something unclear.
I contacted Zsweet and asked why the powdered is unavailable everywhere I look; amazon, iherb, and netrition. They just said it’s “out of stock”. Ok… So I asked if I put it in a food processor will that bring it to a powdered form. They said yes definitely try that. It won’t be as powdered as the form they sell, but closer than granulated. I am going to do that and make these ASAP! I will let you know how they turn out.
Hi Deana, I have been wondering the same how powdered Zsweet is sold out everywhere else except here in Finland. It has been out of stock for many months! However, the company which imports it here into Finland seems to have it. I should get my order today, I hope they still have it…
I’ve also tried to make powdered version from erythritol crystals (granules), but I used immersion blender. It didn’t work very well. Hope you have better luck. Yes, and please tell me how you like the homemade Mounds bars if you try them out!
you are awesome and a mind reader. I was thinking this weekend about bounty bars. I love bounty bars. Do these bars come close to the original in matter of taste?
Diana, thanks, nice to hear 🙂 I think they are otherwise quite close, except the dark chocolate coating is stronger tasting than in the original ones. For taste even closer to the original bars, you could use sugar-free milk chocolate or not that dark chocolate (56–70 % cocoa), if it suits your lifestyle.
I just love this idea..Mounds candy bar are one of my favorites…no way you can mess up coconut for me ! This is so easy..great Easter basket treats…
Thanks so much for all you do !
Adeline, thanks for your nice comment! The combination of coconut and chocolate is simply heavenly… Great to hear you like my recipes!