3 Ingredient Raw Chocolate

Making your own chocolate is a healthier and more delicious alternative to store-bought chocolate.

By using minimal heat to make the chocolate, you preserve all the nutrients found in raw cacao powder.  

Raw cacao has one of the highest antioxidant levels of any food and is also a good source of magnesium, iron, zinc and more. Cacao may also have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and depression.

Oh, and in addition to being a much healthier option, this raw chocolate tastes AMAZING. Seriously, you won’t want to go back to store-bought chocolate after being able to make your own so quickly and easily!

And just to show you how easy it is, I made this short video of a basic chocolate recipe. Once you have created this base, you can customize it with any taste you want – or just eat it plain to get all the taste of the cacao.

Ingredients

120g cacao butter

70g raw cacao

6 tbsp coconut sugar, honey or maple syrup

a pinch of unrefined salt

Method

Melt the cacao butter in a double boiler until it melts. Water should be hot but not boiling. Cacao butter melts at about 32 degrees Celsius and nutrients are preserved up until 48 degrees Celsius. Chop the cacao butter into smaller pieces if you want it to melt faster.

Pour into a bowl and sift the cacao powder into the mixture.

Add the sweetener and stir until everything is incorporated.

Add the salt and any extra taste you are using and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the mix into silicone moulds or anything made of paper – you can use cupcake papers as well. If you have a silicone cake pan, you can use that to create a chocolate bar.

Place the chocolate in the fridge for at least 10 minutes until it is set. The chocolates can then be removed from the forms and stored in a sealed container in the fridge.

Variations

You can add anything you want to your chocolate such as essential oils  like mint or lavender, lemon, lime or orange zest, rose water, nuts, coconut, grilled sesame seeds, goji berries or anything else you fancy.

Where to buy the ingredients

You can find cacao butter, raw cacao powder and coconut sugar in most organic stores.

I usually buy them online on www.iherb.com. You can use code WIV403 to get up to $10 off your first order.

I buy coconut sugar from Sagana, a Swiss-based company that works directly with farmers in the Philippines to provide a fair livelihood.

Make Your Own Chocolate!

If there’s one thing we all associate with Easter, it must be chocolate.

This Easter, why not try making your own? It is actually really simple to do – and a much healthier option to most chocolate you can buy, especially Easter bunnies.

Both cacao butter and coconut oil are great sources of healthy fats and I find they work very well together in this recipe. If you do not have cacao butter, you can also just use coconut oil, although the cacao butter is what gives this chocolate that irresistible, melts in your mouth taste.

Dark chocolate is increasingly being touted as a healthy options due to the high cacao content. When cacao is used raw, unsweetened and unprocessed, it has one of the highest antioxidant levels of any food and is also a good source of magnesium, iron, zinc and more. Cacao is can help prevent depression as it contains tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin, the happiness neurotransmitter, and it also has positive effects on cardiovascular health.

And of course, it is delicious, especially when you make it yourself. Since I started making my own chocolate, I no longer want to eat store-bought chocolate – this takes the taste experience to a new new level!

INGREDIENTS

60g extra virgin coconut oil

25g cacao butter

2-3 tbsp honey, maple syrup or brown rice syrup

4-5 tbsp cacao powder (full fat)

a pinch of sea salt

Any taste you would like to add to your chocolate. I am hooked on mint essential oil at the moment but have also tried lemon zest, rose water and just plain chocolate – all with great results.

METHOD

Melt the coconut oil and cacao butter in a double boiler until they melt.

Add the honey and stir until everything is incorporated.

Sift the cacao powder if it is lumpy into the mixture.

Add the salt and any extra taste you may be using and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the mix into silicone molds or anything made of paper – you can use cupcake papers as well. If you have a silicone cake pan, you can also use that to create a chocolate bar.

Place the chocolate in the freezer for at least 10 minutes until it is set. The chocolates can then be removed from the forms and stored in the fridge or simply kept in the freezer.

If you have difficulty finding cacao butter, you can order it online from iherb – use code WIV403 to get $5-10 off your first order – they ship anywhere in the world.

If you are around the Geneva area, you can now find cacao butter in Biofrais.

I would love to hear from you – have you already tried making your own chocolate? Are you tempted to try?