Halloween Chocolate!

For many people the word Halloween is synonymous with chocolate!! I love to indulge in a piece of healthy raw chocolate once in a while, and Halloween is a great excuse:)

Don't worry, making raw chocolate doesn't have to be scary, unless you want it to be!

This recipe is yet another incarnation of my raw chocolate chip recipe. It uses mostly cacao butter and just a spoonful of coconut oil to enhance the melt-in-your-mouth quality. It is a harder chocolate that will stay hard at room temperature, as long as your room is less than 80 degrees:)

Halloween Raw Chocolate Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup grated cacao butter, ½ cup melted measure
¼ cup agave, or sub a scant 1/4 cup maple syrup or coconut nectar
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Pinch salt

Preparation:

1. To melt cacao butter, place grated butter in a glass bowl placed inside a pot or larger bowl filled with hot water. I use water that has been warmed on the stove to just below a simmer.

I check the temp of the melted butter with an instant read thermometer. It stays below 90 degrees when melted. Cacao butter may also be melted in a bowl in the dehydrator. Do not allow water to get into the chocolate, as it will "clump".

2. Once cacao butter is melted, add agave, cocoa powder, coconut oil, and salt.

3. Allow mixture to cool slightly, until it starts to appear a bit dull and has thickened. This is also the texture you want to pipe raw chocolate chips.

4. Carefully spoon chocolate into molds. Tap mold on counter to level chocolate. Place lollipop sticks into chocolate and turn once to fully coat stick with chocolate. Tap again on counter to level if needed.

5. Place filled molds into fridge until hard. This should fill two average chocolate molds, depending on size.

6. When fully hardened, turn mold up-side down and gently press back of each mold to release chocolate. Special treat bags are available for lollipops .

All molds, sticks and bags are available at large department stores and craft stores.

This is my favorite chocolate recipe, and it is very versatile. It is awesome with dried fruits and nuts added. Try adding some buckwheaties for a Nestl*s Crunch kind of treat. Great for dipping fruit like strawberries, too!

*****************
A little about the ingredients used in this recipe:

These are some of the ingredients I usually need to purchase online. I do try to avoid doing this, but some things just are not available in the several stores I shop at. I try to get the best quality I can afford at the time of my order. The coconut oil, Organic Nectars agave and cocoa powder pictured are from stores:)


To grate cacao butter, I use the fine shredding blade on my food processor.

The entire pound of cacao butter can be stored in a quart sized mason jar once grated. I cut out the name(for identification), and nutrition label from the package it came in for reference. I find the melted amount to be about 1/2 of the dry grated butter measure.


I hope you will enjoy making some raw chocolate as much as I do. This post will be added as a link to my Healthy Raw Halloween Recipes post.