This past week I was visiting my family and my dad was raving about these carob* covered raisins he had tried. He had googled a few recipes to make it on his own, but it just wasn’t working out for him. I looked up a few recipes and had the same problem. I could only find 3 and none of them seemed like they would work out well. So, I took to the kitchen with my favorite problem solver – coconut oil! According to my dad (who’s honest, I promise), the results were awesome. He called me the next day to tell me he had eaten all of them and was already making more!

I didn’t actually measure the ingredients as I made this. I tend to view cooking like painting, it’s a creative process and you can always add a little more yellow, or blue. Feel free to also substitute the carob for cacao powder (that’s what I would do!) and add a little sea salt, cayenne, stevia or cinnamon. You can also sub out the raisins for your favorite nut, pumpkin seeds, or other dried fruit. The combinations are endless!

Carob Covered Raisins

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs coconut oil
• approximately 2.5 tbs carob powder
• approximately 2 tbs raisins

Directions:

1. Melt the coconut oil by placing the closed jar under hot running water (or use straight from the jar if it’s warm out and the coconut oil is already liquid).
2. Measure the coconut oil and put it in a large bowl. Add the carob powder and stir until the oil is saturated with the carob powder. You can add more or less carob powder depending on how rich you want the coating to be. You do want the mixture to stay wet, you don’t want any dry powder or carob chucks.
3. Add the raisins and stir until they are completely coated. If you have more of the coating, just add more raisins.
4. Place the raisins on a plate, piece of wax paper or tray. Keep them spread out to keep them from sticking. If you like, you can sprinkle some carob powder on them at this time to give them a different appearance.
5. Place the raisins in the fridge. After about 10 minutes they should be good to go! Store them in the fridge to keep the coating from melting. If it’s cold in your home, you can leave them out.

Enjoy!

*carob powder is sometimes used as a replacement for chocolate for people who are sensitive to caffeine or other properties of chocolate. It has a very unique taste to it, and while it looks like chocolate, the flavor is very different. It’s also low in fat, high in calcium and high in fiber. You can read more about carob here.