As I child I loved milk chocolate but with years I have started to appreciate the bitter version too.
I like homemade stuff and I like easy recipes. Real chocolate ticks both boxes 😉
The beauty of real chocolate is that, firstly, it is super healthy and, secondly, it needs only three ingredients. These are cacao (also called cocoa) butter, cacao powder and honey (or any other sweetener to your liking). Of course, you can add any other flavors, such as vanilla, but it is optional.
Are you ready?
Here goes the recipe.
- 1 Cup Cacao butter
- 1 Cup Cacao powder
- 0.5 – 1 Cup of Honey (the amount to your liking)
- Vanilla / orange / mint / raspberry flavor (optional).
- Melt cocoa butter in a water bath. To do that, add the cocoa butter to a glass bowl. Set the bowl over a pan with an inch or two of water (3-5cm). Use medium heat. Take care that the bowl does not touch the water.
- When the butter is melted, add the honey and whisk it thoroughly into the mixture. Add vanilla / orange flavor if you want to.
- Either take the pan off heat or use a very small heat. Add cacao powder in small amounts and incorporate it well into a smooth mixture.
- Use a small ladle or a scoop to pour the chocolate into silicone molds, a glass bowl, or a parchment paper.
- Sprinkle lightly with fleur de sal (light salt) or a bit of sugar on the top, if you like.
- Leave it to harden. It may take a few hours depending on the room temperature.
- Take the chocolate out of molds and store them in a glass container or in the fridge. It may stay for a couple of weeks.
- Enjoy!
Fleur de sal is a special, very fine and mineral rich salt. It can be used on chocolate to give it a more sophisticated taste.
The ingredients: cacao powder, cacao butter and honey.
The process: butter and honey melting and incorporating cacao powder:
The result:
In the batch presented on the top photo, I added a drop of a raspberry thick syrup on the surface of the chocolate molds, hence the glossy appearance. It was not a good idea though, as the chocolate stayed too sticky.
Instead, I am now adding a spoon of the raspberry/strawberry syrup into the melted cocoa butter. It gives a sweet after-taste that my kids like and doesn’t disturb the hardening too much.
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You can buy high quality cacao butter and cacao powder online. For instance, Indigo herbs and BuyWholeFoodsOnline sell them. I am personally very happy with the Nukraft’s quality of the organic cacao butter and cacao powder. They can be ordered here at a very reasonable price.
Enjoy a piece of chocolate. It is really good.