Homemade chocolate hearts
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, so here comes the first of a couple heart-shaped recipes!
I’m sure you’ve all heard of “milk chocolate”, but did you know that there’s milk in so many chocolates that don’t have the word “milk” in the title? In order to find milk-free chocolate, you need to look at chocolates that have a cacao content of over 85%. And unless you’re in a specialty store, once you find some nice dark chocolate, there probably won’t be a lot of variety.
Another thing that some people have to think about are nut allergies, specifically peanuts. As most chocolate making facilities also produce at least one variety of chocolate containing peanuts, people with severe allergies often can’t take a chance.
Now, imagine you could make your own chocolate, any time you want. Ah, now I really have your attention! And imagine that you only needed 3 or 4 ingredients, that it takes just 5 minutes to make, and that there are limitless ways to flavor it?
No, no, it’s not April Fool’s Day yet, but it is almost Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d share a quick homemade chocolate recipe with you! All you need is coconut oil, raw cacao and some kind of sweetener.
I use a small silicone heart mold which makes 15 chocolates that are about 1/3 ounce (15 g) each. I have the hardest time making up my mind over things, so picking one flavor or type of sweetener was too difficult for me. Instead, I made three, half batches of chocolates, varying the ingredients slightly for each one:
- Batch 1For the first batch, I used maple syrup as the sweetener, and added some coarse sea salt.
- Batch 2For this batch, which was my favorite, I used rice syrup as the sweetener and about 1/4 teaspoon of raw licorice powder!
- Batch 3And finally, I used some raspberry-flavored stevia drops in the last batch. Stevia is VERY sweet and has a distinctive flavor that takes some getting used to.
Now you know all you need to know to create your own milk-free, nut-free, homemade chocolate! Quick, easy and delicious!
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp (60 ml) - coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp (30 ml) - sweetener (maple syrup, rice syrup, agave... take your pick! If you use stevia, you will need MUCH less than this amount! So add a very little, taste, add, taste...)
- 6 Tbsp (90 ml) - raw cacao
- Flavorings - sea salt, licorice, raspberry, caramel, mint, vanilla... the choices are endless. Just remember that if you are these are powdered or in liquid form, yo umight need to slighlty adjust the oil/cacao amounts above - but not by much.)
Instructions
- Put the coconut oild and sweetener of your choice in a bowl and microwave on low heat for about 1 minute. You only want to melt the coconut oil, nit cook or boil it.
- Add the raw cacao one tablespoon at a time. (I sifted mine using a small sieve, to be sure that there were no clumps.) Stir well so that all the cacao dissolves.
- Add any extra flavoring you want, such as sea salt.
- Pour the chocolate lquid into whatever mold you are using and freeze. Depending on how large the pieces are you'll need to leave them in the freezer anywhere from 30-60 minutes.
- Pop the chocolates out of the mold and store them in the freezer. When you are craving some homemade chocolate, take out the pieces and let them sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Then eat away!