On Friday
night, as I waited to collect Mountain Man from the train station, I had some
time to kill so decided to try my hand at making raw chocolates. I have
never made them before, but always planned to.
I
have no doubt that what I made was pretty basic and master chocolatiers would
laugh at my efforts, there are all sorts of clever things you can do to make it
even more impressive. However, as a first attempt, I'm pretty chuffed and
they taste mighty fine if I do say so myself!
I'm told that the bag of very expensive raw cacao butter in the baking
cupboard has been there for 2 years. I made lip balm, once...and then
just kept meaning to make chocolate. Another nutritional therapist friend
of mine beat me to it last week and made her own, posting the recipe on facebook and inspiring me to give it a
go (when I saw how simple it was). So, I made some chocolates.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
If
you're wondering why you'd bother making chocolate, when there are plenty of
options in the shops, home made raw chocolate is different. For a start,
there's no soya or milk powder or other weird fillers in chocolate you make
yourself (why is soya used in chocolate?) Secondly, you can put whatever
you want into them and have fun experimenting. Thirdly, raw cacao is
super rich in health giving nutrients as it has not been heated to the point
where nutrients are damaged. So those promises of chocolate being full of
mood boosting chemicals, antioxidants, healthy fats and minerals are true, but more true
with raw chocolate than the highly processed varieties we tend to see in the
shops.
I
have no doubt that what I made was pretty basic and master chocolatiers would
laugh at my efforts, there are all sorts of clever things you can do to make it
even more impressive. However, as a first attempt, I'm pretty chuffed and
they taste mighty fine if I do say so myself!
Ingredients:
60g raw
cacao butter
60g raw
cacao powder
40g
coconut sugar, milled to a fine powder in a nut or coffee mill
Filling -
I used
2 dsp
pumpkin seeds, toasted and milled
3 dsp Super Life breakfast topping, also milled
To
make:
Melt
cacao butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the
bowl doesn't sit in the water)
Once
melted, add in the cacao powder & sugar
Mix
thoroughly, then add whatever filling you fancy and keep mixing until it's smooth and gorgeous
Pour the
mix into silicone sweet/chocolate moulds, or as I did onto a baking sheet (because
I completely underestimated how many moulds I'd need)
Put the
moulds into the fridge and ignore for at least an hour
Eat and
rejoice at how good raw chocolate tastes. YUM!
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