Tag Archives: cacao butter

Best and easiest raw chocolate recipe ever

10 Aug
best, easiest, yummiest raw chocolate recipe ever

best, easiest, yummiest raw chocolate recipe ever

Having now taste-tested/gorged myself on the many new brands of raw chocolate popping onto the shelves at my local health food stores, and in the spirit of the current financial crisis, I decided to find the easiest, tastiest recipe to make my own.

There are loads of recipes for raw chocolate on the internet, and loads of raw recipe books with some great ideas in them. The ultimate recipe I looked for would, as usual, not involve too many strange ingredients, no fancy equipment and wouldn’t take too much time. But i found that even following the most basic recipe, it’s very expensive to set up! However once through the financial pain barrier – and even in mid mix – I can guarantee it is worth it. Particularly as I am not only satisfying my chocolate addiction, I am also adding lots of really important nutrients and antioxidants into my system without the dairy found in classic cooked chocolates. As per an earlier blog, some of these include sulphur (the beauty mineral), magnesium (balances hormones), PEA (molecule of joy), neurotransmitters and aphrodesiacs…

As I discovered, the key is to get the basic mixture just right for your taste and then adding whatever extras you like; raisins, goji berries, almonds, orange zest, chilli, peppermint oil, cinammon, sunflower seeds…

KATE MAGIC
I started with Kate Magic’s basic recipe, which is based on an equal ratio of fats, sugars and chocolate. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, Kate Magic is something of a raw chocolate guru and fountain of knowledge on raw food lifestyle. She shared this recipe with me at one of her raw chocolate talks in Camden.

The key ingredients:
200g of ground cacao nibs (or 150g of cacao powder)
200g of coconut butter (or cacao butter)
200g of natural sweeteners (agave syrup, date syrup, Lucuma powder, zylotol)

How to make it
1. Mix cacao with melted cacao/coconut butter and add sweeteners to taste.
2. Put in cake tin.
3. Pop in fridge.
4. Cut into pieces

SUNNY RAW KITCHEN and CHOC CHICK and BUZZLE
These recipes are so similar – I’ve combined them all. Hence I also would say that if you follow this formula, you can’t go wrong.

The key ingredients
1 cup (100-150g) coconut butter
3/4 cup raw cacao powder
4 tbsp agave nectar (or honey)
2 tsp vanilla (orange, mint would be good too)

How to make it
1. Put coconut butter in a bowl and place in another bowl of hot water, stirring until liquified.
2. Stir in other ingredients until smooth.
3. Pour onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and pop into freezer for 5-10 mins. Alternatively, you could put mixture into little moulds.
4. Leave to set in the fridge for 1 – 2 hours or in the freezer for half an hour.

Top tips from Choc Chick
1. Around 70g of powder (4tbs) and 100g of butter makes approximately 2 trays of chocolates (slightly less powder makes the mix easier to pour but equal amounts make a slightly harder chocolate – so experiment to see what suits you).
2. Keep the heat low so as to not overheat and take care not to boil the butter as this will damage the nutritional benefits of the raw chocolate
3. Enjoy yourself or place in gift bags for the perfect gift!

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Brief history of the raw chocolate revolution

15 Apr
The first raw chocolate bar in the UK - clearly packaged with male consumers in mind

The first raw chocolate bar in the UK - clearly packaged with male consumers in mind

While cacao has been around in Mayan and Aztec cultures since time began (200BC), it was only ever consumed in its cooked form, often as a hot drink given to armies on their way to war.   

The key ingredients of raw chocolate are raw cacao butter and/or cacao powder.  Both are produced through a compression process, apparently only invented in Ecuador a few years ago.  It’s this revolutionary process that ensures the integrity of the vital nutrients is kept intact until they enter our hungry digestive systems.

As you may have seen on Willy’s Wonky Chocolate Factory, the cacao that usually goes into our ‘normal’ chocolate is put through a heating process, killing off some of the vital and beneficial nutrients we desperately need in our hectic lives. While Willy’s chocolate is absolutely delicous too, raw chocolate has many healthy and nutritious bonuses as well as completely satisfying flavour.

Amongst other raw food pioneers, the rather dubiously named Shazzie’s Naked Chocolate brand claims to have produced the UK’s first ever raw chocolate bar in 2003. Before that great day, we raw food types lived with the best that carob could deliver, which, to be frank, wasn’t much to talk to about. 

If cacao in its cooked form is considered a nutritious boost for big tough soldiers on their way to conquer civilisations towards world domination, I wonder what they’d do with raw chocolate.

Viva La Revolucion

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