Homemade Chocolate Bar
3/4 cup cacao butter , melted (170g)
1/4 cup agave nectar (65g)
2/3 cup cacao powder (60g)
1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder
1/64 tsp salt , finely ground
Method
Melt cacao butter at around 40-45°C (104-113°F) on a double boiler or in a dehydrator.
Grind salt to a fine powder (e.g. in a mortar and pestle).
Add agave nectar to cacao butter.
Sieve cacao powder, vanilla powder and salt onto butter and agave mix.
Whisk until smooth.
Keep stirring and whisking until chocolate reaches around 31°C (88°F).
Pour into moulds.
Put into the fridge until set.
Store in the fridge or at room temp.
Preparation
Before: 30 mins to 2 hours (to melt cacao butter)
During: 20 mins
After: 30 mins (to set chocolate)
Need: Double boiler or dehydrator
How to make cute little wrappers
DARK CHOCOLATE ENERGY BITES
Good-quality dark chocolate packed with lots of chopped nuts, seeds, and dried fruit make these a favorite, nutritious, and energizing snack. Make a batch, wrap them in gold foil candy paper, or parchment, and place in a drawer - you’re set for the month. We used 74% Guittard dark chocolate here, a mix of almonds, pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts, and dried nectarines. But, as you can imagine, the recipe is very flexible - dates, raisins, dried blueberries, all make good substitutions.
24 ounces dark chocolate, loosely chopped
1 cup chopped mixed toasted nuts
1 cup chopped dried fruit
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
toppings; bee or fennel pollen, dried rose petals, flaky sea salt
To gently melt the chocolate, arrange a stainless steel mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water - simulating a double boiler. Melt the chocolate in the mixing bowl, and stir in most of the nuts, dried fruit, and seeds. Stir well. Pour into chocolate molds, lined muffin tins, or pan - whatever shape, size you like. Sprinkle with any toppings you like and allow to set in a cool dark place for a few hours.
Makes a couple dozen bites, depending on size.
INGREDIENTS
2½ cups (625 mL) semi-sweet or dark chocolate morsels
1 tsp (5 mL) coconut oil
Add-ins: Dried cranberries, banana chips, chopped nuts, pretzel squares, toasted coconut, sprinkles, etc.
DIRECTIONS
Microwave the morsels and oil in a 3-cup (750-mL) Silicone Prep Bowl for 2–3 minutes, stiring every 30 seconds, or until smooth.
Place an even layer of add-ins into the bottom of the Snack Bar Maker wells. Pour the chocolate over the top and smooth out with Mini Mix ‘N Scraper®.
Chill the tray in the freezer for about 15 minutes, or in the refrigerator until the candy bars are set.
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon Sunfood raw cacao butter
3 tablespoons maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon Sunfood Pink Himalayan salt
1/2 cup Sunfood cacao powder
Add-ins, such as
1/4 roasted nuts (we like macadamia nuts or almonds)
Freeze-dried fruit
etc.
Instructions
Prepare your chocolate molds or a small baking tray. We used these chocolate molds for the recipe, but you can also use a baking sheet or a pan of choice if you do not mind the chocolate in a different shape. Simply line a baking sheet (or dish) of choice with parchment paper. It is ideal for the dish to be very narrow as it will result in a better thickness. Set aside.
Prepare a double boiler: Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and place either a fitted glass (or ceramic) bowl or another smaller pot over the water. The key here is to make sure that water does not get into the bowl or pot. Add the cacao butter and allow it to slowly melt, mixing often. Once the cacao butter has melted remove the upper bowl or pot and set it onto a pot holder on the counter.
Whisk in the maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Using a fine mesh strainer, sift in the cacao powder. Whisk again until uniform and smooth.
Pour the melted chocolate into the molds or the lined baking tray. Smooth it out with a spatula and sprinkle any additional ingredients on top. We added roasted macadamia nuts to ours.
Pop the molds or tray mixture into the refrigerator or freezer for about 10-15 minutes to set. Dig in!
Notes
Be sure to fully clean the chocolate molds. Since they are silicone, dust and other small things can stick to it, and you don’t want those in your chocolate!
For best result, we like to store out chocolate in the refrigerator in an airtight container or bag,
It will last several weeks in the refrigerator (and even longer in the freezer). Allow the chocolate to come to room temperature before eating.
To roast macadamia nuts: place them on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 350F for 7-10 minutes, mixing halfway through. Check on them often during the last 5 minutes as they can burn easily!
We used these chocolate molds for the recipe.
250 g (8¾ oz/ 1⅛ cup) cacao butter, chopped or processed into small pieces
125 g (4½ oz/ 1 cup plus 1 tbsp) cacao powder
90 g (3 oz/generous ¼ cup) maple syrup 1 vanilla pod (bean), split lengthways and seeds scraped out
INSTRUCTIONS
Line a large 35 x 25 x 2 cm deep (13¾ x 9¾ x ¾ inch) tray with baking parchment.
Make a bain-marie by fitting a glass or ceramic bowl over a saucepan of water. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the actual water. Bring the water to the boil then turn it down to a simmer. Very slowly melt the cacao butter in the bowl of the bain-marie. Take the cacao butter to no higher than 40–45°C/104–113°F. If you think it is getting too hot but hasn’t all melted, take it off the heat to finish melting. It is important not to overheat it or the chocolate will taste grainy and be ‘bloomed’, with a white cloudy appearance.
When the cacao butter has melted and is at around 40–45°C/104–113°F, add the rest of the ingredients. This should lower the temperature and we now want to bring it down to 28–30°C/82–86°F; just above or below will be fine.
Blend all the ingredients together with a hand-held blender to get rid of any cacao powder lumps and until velvety smooth and glossy. Do not over-blend or the chocolate will stiffen too much. If it is too stiff, place the bowl back over the hot water and stir gently for a minute or so then remove from the heat. Keep stirring the chocolate gently to cool it then, when around 28–30°C/82–86°F, pour it into the lined tray. Bang the tray on a surface and shake it gently to get rid of any air bubbles and make a nice even layer of chocolate, then refrigerate.
Break up the set chocolate and store in a large glass jar or container in the fridge, where it will keep for at least three months.
To make your own chocolate bars you need chocolate moulds measuring 15 x 7 x 1 cm deep (6 x 2¾ x ⅓ inch). Wash the moulds with hot water, soap and a soft cloth, then dry with a cloth and polish with cotton wool before each use.
Make or melt the amount of homemade chocolate you want to use in a bain- marie (see above). Once the chocolate is around 28–30°C/82–86°F, pour or ladle it into the moulds, one at a time. Each bar (with above dimensions) can take 90 g (3 oz) of chocolate. Shake the moulds slightly and bang them a few times to get rid of any air bubbles and make an even layer. Next, if you want to, add 40–50 g (1½–1¾ oz) of toppings (see left for suggestions) and transfer to the fridge immediately to set. If you are in a rush, place in the freezer. Once set, the bars will fall out easily from the moulds.
SUGGESTED TOPPINGS AND FLAVOURINGS FOR HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE BARS
Wonder berry bar
Goji berries, white mulberries, Incan berries, buckwheat groats, hulled hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds.
Exotic bar
Dried mango, dried pineapple, toasted coconut flakes and cacao nibs.
Fruit ‘n’ nut 1
Chopped dried unsulphured apricots and figs, raisins, Brazil nuts and almonds.
Fruit ‘n’ nut 2
Pistachio, hazelnut, dried cranberry and dried blueberry.
Peppermint
Add 1 tsp pure unsweetened peppermint extract to 90 g (3 oz) chocolate, then fill the mould.
Bitter orange
Add 1 tsp pure unsweetened orange extract to 90 g (3 oz) chocolate, fill the mould, then decorate with cacao nibs
Rose, orange blossom, raspberry, macadamia and sesame. Add a generous 1/2 tsp rosewater and 1/2 tsp orange blossom water to 90 g (3 oz) chocolate, pour into the mould and then decorate with freeze dried raspberries, macadamia nuts and white sesame seeds.
Tips
I have estimated the volumes for this recipe, because we always make it by weight. You may need to tweak your amounts until you’re happy with the result if you make it by volume, but if you follow the weights as specified, it will definitely turn out well.
The cacao butter will melt faster and more evenly if you grate it first. Even better (and faster) if you can buy it already kibbled.
If you want to keep your cacao butter raw, the best way to melt it is in the dehydrator. Not only will this ensure that the temperature doesn’t get too high, it reduces the chance of splashing water into it, and if you use a glass bowl, it gets wonderfully warm and helps to stabilise the chocolate’s temperature.
If you don’t want to use agave nectar, you could use coconut nectar, maple syrup or your favourite liquid sweetener. Just remember that the flavour will change noticeably, and you may need to adjust the quantity to ensure that the chocolate sets properly, as each sweetener has a different water content.
Sieving the dry ingredients into the mix ensures that there’s little to no lumps in your finished chocolate, which is important. Nothing spoils a mouthful of chocolate like a lump of undissolved cacao powder!
This recipe makes a very dark chocolate, so if you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, then this probably not the recipe for you.
Vanilla bean powder is just fresh vanilla beans air-dried and ground into a powder using a spice blender or coffee grinder. You can make your own or you can buy it from your local health food shop. If you can’t get your hands on any of this, you can just scrape out a fresh vanilla bean or two into the mix. I wouldn’t recommend using vanilla extract in this recipe, as it will definitely upset the balance of ingredients, and your chocolate may not set properly.
I’ve found that grinding your salt as finely as possible produces the best results. Either you can buy very finely ground salt, or you can grind it yourself in a mortar and pestle. Having it this fine will ensure that you don’t get a nasty salt bite in a piece of chocolate somewhere. Eeewwww!
I use pink Himalayan crystal salt in my chocolate because it contains lots of trace minerals that are good for you, and apparently it tastes better too.
You should find that when you add the dry ingredients to the liquid ones, that the temperature drops to around 33°C (92°F), which is very close to where you want to get to, so it shouldn’t take too much more whisking to get it down.
The point in starting with warm chocolate and then bringing it down to 31°C(88°F) is to bring chocolate into temper. Having your chocolate “in temper” before you put it into the moulds ensures that you get a nice hard setting chocolate, with a lovely sheen on it and a good strong “snap” sound when you break it.
If you’re making chocolate on a warm day, you may struggle to get it down to the right temperature. You may need to move to a cooler spot, help it along with some ice-packs around the outside of the bowl, or turn the air-conditioning on. You’ll also want to get the chocolate into the fridge quick smart so it can set before it starts to separate out.
Chocolate moulds are most definitely not necessary for this recipe. Just use any flattish container you have, and don’t pour it too thick. I enjoy my chocolate best when it’s thin and delicate rather than thick and chunky. But if you can use chocolate moulds, I highly recommend it for the “authentic” experience.
Variations
This raw vegan chocolate recipe is an absolute delight for variations. The only limit is your imagination.
Add cashew pieces and sultanas (about 1/4 cup for each) to the mix once it reaches temper, for homemade fruit and nut chocolate (my favourite).
Add chopped activated hazelnuts (about 1/2 cup) to the tempered mix , for homemade hazelnut chocolate.
Add 1/4 tsp of orange essential oil and 1 tsp of finely grated orange zest, for homemade orange chocolate (can I have two favourites?)
Add 1/4 tsp peppermint essential oil, for homemade mint chocolate.
Add whatever nuts, dried fruits or essential oils you prefer and see how it turns out. Be brave!
Use the tempered mix in Easter egg moulds, for homemade raw vegan chocolate Easter eggs.
Pour (or scoop) the mix out of the Easter egg moulds before it sets fully for hollow eggs, or fill them with raw caramel sauce, berry sauce, or vanilla cashew cream, and then melt the two halves together for soft-center raw vegan chocolate Easter eggs. Yum!
Fill pitted medjool dates with raw almond butter, and then coat with chocolate for an out-of-this-world raw vegan snickers bite. O.M.G.
Drop or pipe small amounts of the tempered mix onto baking paper and freeze for homemade raw vegan chocolate buttons and bits.
Grate it over your latest raw or vegan masterpiece, like my nut-free chocolate cheesecake.
