Loveable Chocolate

Feb 14, 2014

Chocolate is delicious, indulgent, and full of beneficial compounds. Today’s episode is all about how to love chocolate and enjoy it healthfully without any guilt or worries.
The pleasure and power of chocolate is tremendous—but it certainly isn’t worth the suffering and exploitation that goes into a lot of modern chocolate production. The enslavement of adults and children who harvest and process chocolate is a real and ongoing problem. The first step to enjoying chocolate healthfully is to make sure that the chocolate you buy hasn’t been produced through the suffering and enslavement of others.
The Food Empowerment Project has published a comprehensive resource to help you choose chocolate that’s harvested and manufactured without slavery and without cruelty to animals. They’re working to put pressure on the companies that are using slave labor and other unethical practices to produce their chocolate, and the list is updated when companies change their practices. Support their efforts by boycotting all chocolate companies that cannot ensure that their products are made without slave labor.

Homemade Chocolates: Base Recipe

My base recipe for homemade chocolates comes from Raw Food Real World and is as easy to make as it is delicious.
You’ll need:
  • 2 1/4 cups cocoa powder
  • 2 1/4 cups maple syrup
  • 1 cup extra virgin coconut oil

To make the chocolate, blend these ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender. (If it’s very cold, you may need to warm the coconut oil until it becomes a liquid.) Once you’ve mixed the base, you’ll treat it differently depending on what you’d like to create.

Chocolate Bark

For dark chocolate bark:

  1. Add any desired ingredients (see lists below) and stir them in by hand.
  2. Spread the resulting mixture on a pan lined with waxed paper (about 1/4″ thick)
  3. Chill until solid. Break into pieces and peel away the waxed paper (if this is challenging, submerge the bottom of the pan in warm water for 15-30 seconds and try again.) Store in the fridge or freezer.

 

For Spiced Maca Bark:

  • 1 tsp powdered Maca root
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon powder
  • 1/8 tsp dried ginger root

 

For Salted Almond Bark:

  • 1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped (mix this into the chocolate)
  • Coarse sea salt (sprinkle this on top of the bark after you’ve spread it on the waxed paper)

For Blueberry & Cardamom Bark:

(Inspired by this video)

  • 1/2 cup dried blueberries
  • 1/4 cup raw cashews
  • 1-2 tsp cardamom powder

For Goji Berry Bark:

  • 1/4 cup dried currants or blueberries
  • 1/4 cup dried goji berries

Truffles

For truffles, the base recipe is slightly different. You’ll need:

  • ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted
  • ½ cup unsalted raw cashews
  • ½ cup Maple syrup
  • 1 cup cacao powder, plus more for dusting
  • Pinch sea salt

To make the truffles, blend the ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender. Then, put the bowl in the freezer to firm up for about 15 minutes. (This will make it much easier to work with the chocolate and shape it into truffles.) Meanwhile, put a few tablespoons of cocoa powder in a small dish. When the mixture has chilled, form the truffles by scooping out about 1 TBSP of the mixture for each truffle and rolling it into a ball between your hands. Drop the truffle into the bowl of cocoa and roll it around until it’s fully dusted. Repeat until you’ve used up all of the chocolate mixture (and look at those gorgeous truffles you just made!)

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

For chocolate covered strawberries:

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • pinch of salt
  • one 16oz container of organic strawberries

Mix the first four ingredients together in a food processor or high speed blender. Wash the berries and dry them thoroughly. Dip the strawberries into the chocolate mixture and lay them on a pan or plate lined with waxed paper. (You may want to spoon extra chocolate over each strawberry if you can’t get enough coverage just by dipping.) Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.