Home made Chocolate Chunks (or chips)

I like to use chocolate in a lot of things. And although I do buy dark chocolate chips, sometimes grain sweetened chocolate chips, for baking, I prefer to use my own if I have some. I try to keep some of my home made stuff handy for ice creams, raw desserts, granola bars, smoothies, etc… I like doing this, not only because it is cheaper, but also because it is refined sugar free and I can choose how dark or fruity or nutty, i want the chocolate to be. Here is a very simple recipe that I tweak every now and then depending on what I am going for.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz or 85 gr of raw cacao butter
• 2 1/2 oz or 70 gr of raw cacao powder
• 2 1/2 TBS agave nectar

Steps:

• In a double boiler melt the cacao butter
• turn off the heat and add the cacao powder and agave and whisk well
• pour in a shallow dish with some parchment paper and set in the freezer for about20-30 minutes
• pull out and cut into desired pieces
• store in a container in the fridge until ready to use
• easy right?!

Advertisement

Fruity Fudge Disks

Need I say more? Fudgey, chocolatey goodness. Yet again. These little disks are rich and creamy and make me so happy.

Being a chocoholic is slightly dangerous. I never run out of ideas on things to create, and I have a much too willing husband to motivate me in creating more. He loves chocolate almost as much as I do. I say almost because if he craves chocolate and there isn’t any around, he forgets about it. If I crave chocolate and there isn’t any around, well I make it.

I used mini muffin tins here, because, why not? But you could use anything you have on hand. I recently made a batch of chocolate in my ice cube trays. You do not need fancy little chocolate molds, although they are cute looking.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup shaved raw cacao butter (I used a sharp knife and thinly shaved the cacao)
• 1/2 cup raw coconut butter
• 1/2 cup hazelnut butter
• 1 cup raw cacao powder
• 1/3 cup raw agave
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup dried fruit (I mixed goji berries, mulberries and dates)

Steps:

• in a double boiler (Or a glass bowl over some steaming water) melt the cacao butter
• once melted turn off the heat and add the coconut butter and mix until melted and creamy looking
• transfer everything but the fruit to your blender and blend until well combined
• pour in a bowl and fold in the dried fruit
• lightly grease your mold with coconut oil
• pour mixture into your molds and put in the fridge to set at least 30 minutes or freezer to speed up the process
• store in the fridge.
• I have no idea how long they will last, i’ve never been able to let one sit long enough to find out….

Gianduja Chocolate

Fudge-y, rich, nutty and decadent, this chocolate reminds me of my childhood. Growing up my parents didn’t usually keep sweets in the house, we would go across the way to my grandma’s house who had a cupboard with a nice stash of treats for us every time we came over. And one of them were gianduja chocolates. They came in a bar shape, “lingots” in french, wrapped in gold paper with the word gianduja written on it. I loved these little gold treats. My grandma, a true Cordon Blue, always had nicer taste in food, and same went for the sweets she got us. We didn’t get the typical french kid candy, Haribo and Kinder, we got Lindt and Werthers, and yes, gianduja 🙂

This recipe is not mine. My sister in law found it and passed it on to me. You can imagine my excitement when I saw the words Gianduja and then realized that this recipe was raw and free of refined sugars. A healthy alternative to one of my childhood favorites that still tastes amazing?? Heck yeah! I couldn’t wait to try this. Thank you Viviana for finding this recipe 🙂

As usual, it’s hard for me to stick entirely to a recipe, no matter how great it originally is 😉 I barely tweaked this one, mainly because of what I had on hand but also because it called for twice the sweetener that I chose to put in.

If you have all the ingredients, this is so easy to make for full fudgey chocolate satisfaction.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cacao butter, melted
• 2 tsp pure vanilla powder
• 1 tsp hazelnut extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 raw cup honey
• 1 cup raw cacao powder
• 1/2 cup raw hazelnut butter
• 1 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts

Steps:

• In a double boiler melt the cacao butter
• add that to your blender with the vanilla and hazelnut extract
• blend well
• add all other ingredients except for nuts
• blend
• pour in a bowl with hazelnuts, mix well
• lightly grease a 9 inch pan with coconut oil
• pour chocolate
• put in fridge to set for about 20-30 minutes
• cut in desired shape
• try not to eat it all in one sitting