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Dairy Free Raw Chocolate
You may have noticed I’m a bit of a chocolate addict – good chocolate, that is, not the cheap ‘chocolate-flavoured’ stuff – I love REAL chocolate, with cacao butter and 70% organic cocoa and natural sweeteners. As I mentioned in my first post about making my own chocolate, I really try and avoid refined sugar, dairy and soy, and they are in most chocolates, even a lot of the ‘healthy’ ones. So I started making my own. They were okay, but not quite the right texture.
Then I found this gluten-free, dairy-free recipe for Raw Chocolate made with cacao butter and raw cacao. I played around with the recipe, and this is what I came up with. It’s very simple, and you can add in whatever additions you like to make all sorts of delicious variations! You can use more or less sweetener and cacao to taste. I like mine really dark, so just reduce the cacao if you don’t want quite so much of a dark taste.
If you’re making chocolate in your Thermomix, make sure your bowl, blades, lid and lid seal are REALLY dry before you begin – water and chocolate don’t mix!
Dairy Free Raw Chocolate
Ingredients
- 200g raw cacao butter
- 50–60g raw cacao powder (or to taste)
- 100g raw honey or pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or natural extract
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
Thermomix Method
Chop cacao butter roughly with a knife on a chopping board, to approx. 1-2cm cubes. Place cacao butter into mixing bowl. Mill 20 sec/speed 8.
Melt cacao butter for 10 mins/37°/speed 2, scraping down sides of bowl with spatula towards end of cooking time to ensure all the cacao butter is melted.
Add remaining ingredients to mixing bowl and continue cooking 10 mins/37°/speed 1.
Mix chocolate 10 sec/speed 5 to blend honey or syrup in, then pour into lined dish or chocolate moulds or onto a tray for a thin chocolate bark.
Place in the freezer immediately to set, as it will separate if you set it at room temperature.
Conventional Method:
Chop cacao butter roughly with a knife on a chopping board, to approx. 1-2cm cubes. Place in a heavy-based saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring.
Add remaining ingredients to mixing bowl and continue to warm over low heat, stirring, until ingredients are melted and combined.
Pour into lined dish or chocolate moulds or onto a tray for a thin chocolate bark.
Place in the freezer immediately to set, as it will separate if you set it at room temperature.
Notes
- You can use other sweeteners, whatever you prefer, to your own taste. Just be aware that if you use a ‘sugar’ like Rapadura or coconut sugar, you may find that it separates. (If this happens, stir in 30g coconut cream until mixture comes together.)
- You can replace half the cacao butter with cold pressed coconut oil if you want to make a cheaper chocolate – but just be aware that it will melt really easily and needs to be kept in the freezer.
Additions
If you’d like nuts or fruit in your chocolate, sprinkle them over the lined tray or in the chocolate molds, then pour chocolate over the top. Place in the freezer to set.
Here’s some ideas for additions:
– activated nuts (soaked then dehydrated), or roasted: hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts
– raw cacao nibs
– sprouted, dehydrated buckwheat, made into little chocolate buckwheat ‘cakes’
– dried fruit: cherries, blueberries, apricots, ginger, cranberries
– pretzels (chocolate drizzled over salty gf pretzels is delish!)
– a mixture of above fillings!
You can also stir into the chocolate:
– shredded coconut
– spices: cinnamon, chilli, cardamom, ginger…
– edible essential oils: peppermint, orange, lemon, cinnamon… just a few drops
Swirl through the chocolate:
– nut butter (or pour a little chocolate into a mold, let it set, add a dab of nut butter, then pour chocolate over to fill molds; or fill with chocolate hazelnut spread )
– sunflower seed butter
Ice Magic
Here’s one more thing you can make with your fresh batch of chocolate!
Mix 100g of the chocolate with 50g of coconut oil, add a little more honey or maple syrup if you think it needs it, and melt 2 mins/37C/speed 2, or melt in a saucepan over low heat. Pour into a jar and keep it in the pantry, and you have instant ‘Ice Magic’ for whenever you want it!
It hardens immediately when you pour it over ice cream or sorbet, and the kids love it. Ok, so do the adults.
(If it’s cold weather and it hardens in the pantry, just set the jar into a bowl of boiling water to melt it before using.)
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Hi Jo,
I’m planning on using this recipe to make Easter chocolate for my kids. Is there a way to make it closer to milk chocolate? Would adding in something like cashew butter or coconut milk powder work? I’ve been looking online for a vegan milk choc recipe but none of them use cacao/cocoa butter and so I don’t think they’ll be chocolatey enough..
Hi Bernadette, adding nut butter to raw chocolate makes it a lot creamier and more like a milk chocolate. The recipe for Nutty Chocolate in our Life Changing Food book and app is really delicious and turns out very like milk chocolate – have you tried that recipe?
Thanks for your reply! No, I haven’t tried that recipe. Does it set like regular chocolate?
Hi Bernadette. Yes, this chocolate does set like regular chocolate but keep it in a fridge or freezer because it melts more easily that the regular chocolate:-). Enjoy:-)
How much do you add when adding spices like ground chilli or cardamom. And how much coffee grind would you add if using it to flavour (when combining with spices and on its own)?
Thanks
Hi Sam, I have not experimented with coffee so not sure about the quantities there but with any other spices, I would suggest starting off with a pinch and add more if needed… Salt is also a must as it balances it all out. Good luck:-).