This recipe was inspired by the excellent chocolate energy bars in Superfood Kitchen by Julie Morris. The best thing about these chocolate bars (other than the chocolate) is that they’re chilled. I store them in the freezer and eat them semi frozen on hot, lazy summer mornings (which, admittedly, are rare in New York City as of late). The bars come out of the freezer cold, creamy, chocolatey, gooey, chewy, super sweet and sour from the cherries, and crunchy from the almonds and coconut. They're also reminiscent of a dessert I ate as a child growing up in Croatia and Serbia. When I was growing up, my mom often made little chocolate cakes called “čupavci,” which are rectangular pieces of yellow sponge cake dipped in melted dark chocolate and then rolled in finely shredded coconut. It’s essentially an Eastern European version of the Australian Lamington, and it’s absolutely fantastic. This is not that, of course, but it does recall some of those old, familiar flavors.

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