Winter Citrus with Coconut Cream and Ginger Almond Bark

This fresh bowl of Winter Citrus with Coconut Cream and Ginger Almond Bark is a welcome ray of sunshine on a gray winter day. Perfectly ripe oranges, whipped coconut, and crunchy, gingery dark chocolate?  Yes, please!  I couldn’t resist posting another sweet recipe before Valentine’s Day rolls around.  With so many yucky, processed, packaged sweets everywhere you look this time of year, I felt it was my responsibility to provide you all with some healthy yet super delicious alternatives, plus I got the benefit of eating more chocolate 😉  This recipe is really easy and does not take long to put together.  Meaning, this will be a short post because the sooner you start making it the sooner you get to eat it!

There’s some really wonderful citrus this time of year that we should all be taking advantage of.  Blood Oranges are one of my favorites; they are such a beautiful color and have a tangy flavor that sets them apart from their more common cousins.  The deep purplish color of the Blood Oranges is a display of their antioxidant content, and all oranges are an excellent source of Vitamin C and fiber.  They also contain folate – a B vitamin important for the cardiovascular system and the synthesis of DNA and red blood cells.  All you soon-to-be mamas out there, or anyone thinking about having a little one in the near future, should incorporate more folate into your diet since it’s also so important for the development of the neurological system. The other oranges used in this recipes are Cara Caras, a bright pinkish orange with a sweeter taste to balance the Blood Oranges.   Additionally, the phytonutrients in oranges have been shown to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol.

On to the chocolate.  Ginger is such a wonderful little root to incorporate into a healthy diet, and it adds a spicy kind of sweetness to this chocolate bark.  It’s a natural anti-inflammatory, great for circulation, and also a tasty way to support your digestive system.  The almonds add an extra crunch, which for me is never a bad thing.  You can read more about the health benefits of dark chocolate in my last post, Cashew Crunch Berry Sorbet with Cacao Drizzle.

I recently took a culinary class focused around knife skills, thanks to my sweet husband who got it for me as a Christmas present.  For someone like me who is self-taught in the kitchen, it was really cool to learn more about proper culinary techniques.  One of the things I enjoyed the most was supreming oranges.  This is just the fancy name for cutting out the segments individually, removing the juicy fruit part from the white membranes.  There are several videos on YouTube you can find to learn how to supreme; I haven’t yet gotten around to making videos to share with you all, but someday I hope to!

So, let’s get down to it.  It’s nice to supreme your oranges ahead of time so you can focus on the rest of the recipe.  Just drain the juice (but save it to drink!) and set them aside.  Next, melt 2 Tbsp of coconut oil in a pan on low and once melted add your chocolate and coconut nectar.  Then, be sure to taste some and revel in the deliciousness.  Put 1/4 cup of your chopped almonds and ginger aside and add the rest to your creamy chocolate, stir together.  Make sure you keep stirring, you only need to leave it on the heat until it’s melted, if you cook too long it will get weird and thick.  Sprinkle the rest of the ginger and almonds on top and press down gently, then pour it onto a parchment covered pan, spread evenly, and pop into the freezer.

In a separate small pan, melt the rest of you coconut oil with the almond butter and vanilla extract over low heat, stirring frequently. This will be ready pretty quickly.  Now it’s time to drizzle the almond butter on the chocolate – YUM.  You can use a spoon or take a plastic bag and snip a little hole off of one of the bottom corners and pour your almond butter mix into the bag.  Use this to make a zig-zag drizzle of almond butter over your chocolate bark and place back in the freezer. This recipe makes extra chocolate bark, because, you know, it just seems like the right thing to do.  I recommend keeping it in the fridge.  I doubled this recipe when I took the photos, so you won’t end up with quite as much as you see below.

Then, whip up your coconut cream.  I highly recommend using the brand Native Forest, in the green can.  It just whips up much nicer than others I’ve tried and it also is naturally sweeter.  When you pull your can of chilled coconut milk out of the fridge, flip it upside down.  Pour the watery part into a jar to save for smoothies and scoop the solid cream portion into your blender or food processor.  You have to use the full-fat coconut milk to get this rich cream from it, the light kind doesn’t separate the same way. Add the vanilla extract to the coconut cream and whip until no lumps remain, avoid super high speeds to keep it from getting too runny.  Just to be up front, I definitely didn’t create this concept of coconut whipped cream – there are many recipes out there for it so I don’t know who to truly credit for it (but thank you to that person!); this is just my own version of it.

Remove your chocolate bark from the freezer and break it up into different sized pieces.  You could always make the bark to enjoy on its own and get creative with what you add to it. When everything’s ready you just layer the cream over your oranges, top with the bark, and enjoy with someone you love!