Hey guyssssss.
I am SO excited today. Seriously. SO Excited! I have not only managed to make a delicious Dark Chocolate...it actually tastes like dark chocolate!
So many times I have tried to make Raw chocolate and it's always with coconut oil... and I'm not gunna lie... the taste after a while... phwoar. Well, needless to say you can get sick of it pretty quickly.
I am in love with two brands of chocolate in this world. They are Pana Chocolate and Loving Earth. And this recipe I kid you not, is close to my favourite Dark Loving Earth Chocolate. Ok, clearly theirs has more depth of flavour, but this, I tell you, is close. Absolutely delicious and how perfect is this for Christmas! I got this amazingly cute little mould from Kmart about 3 years ago and I love it. They really have some great things if you get there at the right time. This mould cost $2 and it's silicone so you can freeze AND bake in it! I know right... your mind right now is like KABOOM!!!!!
Anyway...
When you make this recipe, it's really important to maintain the nutritional value of the honey or maple syrup and cacao. When foods get too hot their nutrient content depletes dramatically. Especially when it comes to Raw Organic honey and Raw Organic Maple...you're spending the money to buy good honey and maple..so don't ruin it by over heating it. If you do that, you get absolutely none of the health benefits, and are just ingesting sugar. So I recommend adding the sweetener of your choice at the very last moment to make sure the mixture is as cool as humanly possible. It can be a little tricky because it also has to be warm enough that the honey or maple will somewhat melt and distribute evenly amongst the mixture. But providing you don't heat the cacao butter more than 46 degrees in the first place, you don't have to worry about this step.
So! Things that will be helpful in making this are - Moulds and a Thermometer. A Mould is great if you want to make little chocolates like I have above. These are great because you can wrap them in little cute gift bags for presents, or to hang off your Christmas tree. However, if you don't have a mould, fear not, because you can just line a baking sheet with baking paper and pour the mixture on. You could then chop up some nuts, perhaps add some beautiful dried fruits and sprinkle on top (try grated orange zest!) and then when it's set, break it up into bark chunks. This actually looks super cute as a Chrissy gift as well if you pop the pieces of bark into little cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon. The Thermometer is going to be your friend for making sure you don't heat over 46 degrees, HOWEVER, if you are willing to compromise SLIGHTLY the nutrient value of the cacao butter, you can just place it into a sauce pan, and leave over a light heat until half of the butter is melted. Take away from the heat and then stir until the remaining pieces are melted.
For this recipe I prefer to use the Loving Earth Cacao Butter. The reason for this is it is grated and that means all different sizes. Because some are granule sizes, it doesn't take long to heat at all.
As you can see from the picture, a lot of it is really small so it takes minimal heat to melt which means chances are you won't go over 46 degrees Celsius. But if you want to be extra careful, get a thermometer involved :)
So with Christmas coming at us full steam ahead, I'm making sure this year (like I do every year) that I eat sweets in moderation. And while my whole family doesn't follow my eating principles, I will be making some of these beauties to take with me to my parents to at least have a semi-healthy option.
I seem to add this into every sweet recipe that I do, and today will be no exception. So I stress, Just because there is unrefined sugar in this, it doesn't mean it's a free for all to eat as much of it in one sitting as humanly possible. Honey and Maple while having so many health benefits, is still a form of sugar and will give you the same effects as refined sugar if you eat too much. So go easy. Be mindful when you eat and savour the food and experience it. Doing this makes it likely to stop you from over indulging.
So Enjoy - and if you try the recipe, always to be sure to comment below and let me know how you went!
Recipe
Serves - 12 - (1 Piece per serve)
Time - 10 Minutes -
What you need:
125 grams Organic Raw Cacao Butter
5 Tablespoons Raw Organic Cacao Powder
2 Tablespoons Raw Organic Honey or Maple
1/2 Vanilla Bean
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
What to do:
In a saucepan, melt your cacao butter to no higher than 46 Degrees Celsius to melt and then remove from heat ( If you don't have a thermometer, place over heat until half the butter is melted, turn off heat and stir to melt the rest)
Once off the heat, add the cacao powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir until combined.
Add the Vanilla bean and Honey/Maple and stir until the sweeter of choice has dissolved.
Pour into your silicone mould (no need to grease it) or pour onto your parchment paper. Place in the fridge if it is a hot day (you may notice the top of the chocolate turn white as the butter will solidify before the rest, this is normal and still fine to eat) or if it is a cool day or your kitchen is cool, leave on a table to solidify.
Once the Chocolate has turned hard, place in the fridge for 30 minutes before handling for wrapping etc.
Voila !
