Chocoholics’ Alternatives

Posted by Katarina Nolte at 3:39 am

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Raw chocolate base:

- 1 cup of raw organic cocoa powder
- 1 cup of raw organic carob powder or plain raw almond meal
- just over ¼ cup of either raw organic cocoa butter or raw organic coconut oil
- just over ¼ cup of raw organic agave nectar

Cocoa butter: the chocolate will have more aroma and flavor but you have to spend some time shaving it and then warming it (115 degrees tops) before it becomes liquid.

Coconut oil: it’s liquid at 75 degrees and the idea is to use your homemade chocolate as a sweet spice complementing your fruit bowls, shakes, smoothies, raw cakes, bars, mousses, ice creams, sorbets, and your flavored and frozen protein power yogurts.

Carob: doesn’t taste great, sour aroma.

Almond meal: make sure it’s plain and raw. It will dry out your chocolate so use more coconut oil or cocoa butter with it.

Soaked nuts: in place of carob powder or almond meal, you can soak some plain raw nuts. Walnuts or almonds are great for this. Soak for an hour+, grind, and add them to the mix.

Raw chocolate is basically cold chocolate. You will make the best tasting raw chocolate at a room temperature of 80+ degrees, so summertime is great for making really yummy raw chocolate but not that great for serving it to guests because it melts so quickly. If you do a fantastic job, however, your homemade delicacy will be eaten like it’s the last meal.

Here is what you do to get it to stick and set: VitaMix is really cool for tons of raw food variations, but this is chocolate. You’ll want to use your hands and put love into your edible creation.

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So take a stainless steel bowl, a fork, a knife, molds if you like (silicon is best) or a plate if you don’t care about shaping it, a measuring cup and a large whisk (good luck finding one that doesn’t fall apart).

Start with the powders/nuts, stir, add the liquids (agave and oil/butter), stir some more. You will see crumbs forming, so break the crumbs with the fork and keep stirring and squeezing (with the fork).

If it’s too soft you have too much oil/butter. In this case add tiny bits of cocoa powder while stirring. If you are going to have shapes you’ll want your chocolate to look shiny and melt in the mouth.
If you are just making chocolate to be used as a sweet spice over the following couple of weeks, don’t worry about it. Keep it as is and keep adjusting this recipe to your personal tastes and types of use.

Once your mix becomes a sticky mass you can either start stuffing it into your molds or spread it across a plate. The next step will be to tap the chocolate so it sets. This process gets rid of air and makes your chocolate dense which is particularly important if you are shaping it.

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Inner layer spices: raw organic maca and/or mesquite powder (sprinkle over the mix while still in powder form), a sprinkle of Himalayan pink salt, and a tiny dash of lime or lemon.

Fillings: these are a possibility if you are using molds. Raw organic butters are a perfect fit, anything from coconut to hazelnut.

Outer layer additions: some raw chocolates, truffles, bars and brownies are spiced with hot pepper, ginger, black of white sesame seeds, goji berries (and other superfood wild berries), coconut shreds or shavings, and of course, cocoa nibs.

After an hour in the fridge, you can take your chocolate and slice it, shave it, stir it into your own homemade whipped cream (add a crushed berry or two), protein power yogurt (whey+yogurt+chocolate+fruit), a fruit or protein power shake, a raw brownie, mousse, cake or ice cream, and much more.

After some raw and semi-raw food experimentation you will realize that truly healthy foods prepared with love, care and appreciation, really do taste best, and that the wonderful flavors and aromas are based not on spices and techniques invented in a sterile laboratory, but on nutritional value. The reason for this is that our taste buds have been evolving over tens of millions of years and are there to let our brains know what’s good for us.