Dairy-Free 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 Chocolate

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Quirky Cooking

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 200g raw cacao butter, cut into small pieces
• 50–60g cacao powder or 30-50g Dutch-processed cocoa (to taste)
• 70–100g raw honey or pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or natural extract, or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions

Thermomix Method

Place cacao butter into the mixing bowl and mill 20 sec/speed 8. Melt for 10 mins/37°/speed 2.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula and add remaining ingredients. Continue cooking 10 mins/37°/speed 1. Mix 10 sec/speed 3 so that it is well combined. The chocolate will be a runny texture.

Optional step to make a more ‘tempered’ chocolate: Stir without heat for another 10 mins/speed 2. The chocolate will still look runny before setting, but will be firmer when set.

Pour the chocolate into a lined dish or chocolate moulds, or onto a lined tray for a thin chocolate bark.

Place in the freezer (on a flat surface) to set. It will take a long time to set at room temp and may separate.

Conventional Method:

Place cacao butter into a heavy-based saucepan and melt over very low heat, stirring.

Add remaining ingredients, turn off heat and continue stirring, until ingredients are melted and combined. Allow chocolate to cool to 32C and continue to stir for another few minutes at least, as this helps to Temper the chocolate slightly.

Pour into a lined dish or chocolate moulds, or onto a lined tray for a thin chocolate bark.

Place in the freezer (on a flat surface) to set. It will take a long time to set at room temp and may separate.

Notes

• You can use other sweeteners, but be aware that if you use a granulated sugar you may find that it has a grainy texture. Mill the sugar very fine before adding. The mixture may also separate with other sweeteners – if this happens, stir in 30g coconut cream until the chocolate comes together again.

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 nuts: hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts

– freeze-dried fruit

– 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

– dulce de leche

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.)