Swolesomefoods: SUPER DUPER HEALTHY CHOCOLATE

Yesterday, I went to the Food Matters Live. It was an amazing event with tons and tons of information packed seminars - around 12 rooms with talks all day long over a course of 3 days.... yup, that's a lot of info! There were a whole host of awesome companies showcasing their products too like Miiro, the makers of a raw and healthy version of magnum ice creams (HALLELUJAH! one flavour was peanut butter, need I say anymore?), lots of healthy chocolate including My Raw Joy, the best tasting raw chocolate I have ever tasted - FACT and Hangry snack bars, genius name right?

Amongst these cool products there were, *sorry, bit of vom in my mouth*, a lot of products containing the new craze in the protein industry: GRUB!

I am scared of a bug near me and even worse on me so erm, the thought of eating one and it being inside of me... no thanks.

You could buy them in the form of flours, proteins, bars, pastas and pasta sauces. GROSS. And can you believe it, CHOCOLATE?! Meal worms and crickets in chocolate. CRIMINAL!

So, I left feeling a little inspired, no not to go catch some grub from the garden to bake with, but to make some super duper healthy chocolate at home. Now, I am leaving the grub out of it, but if you are feeling brave then you go ahead.... no judging here!

Here is a basic recipe for making

RAW CHOCOLATE:

1/2 cup cacao butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cacao powder*
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of agave/honey/syrup/stevia/coconut sugar *

*cacao is the good stuff... try and source it out instead of cocoa

* with the sweetener try using any of the above, you can even use less - experiment with different quantities but remember that a lot of these natural sweeteners i.e stevia is a lot sweeter than regular sugar and it will be sweeter than your honey.

METHOD

1) Grate the cacao butter, this will be easier for melting.

2) Put the cacao and coconut oil in a heat-safe bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stir till completely melted and smooth.

3) Next remove the mixture off the heat and stir through the cacao powder.

4) Finally add your sweetener of choice (FYI it is totally acceptable to taste the chocolate at this point to see if it's sweet enough before adding all the sweetener. Again, no judgement here, go on, have another dunk test :P) Pour your chocolate into ice cube trays or if you have some silicone moulds then even better and freeze.

So that's the basic recipe covered, now lets spice things up a bit yeah?

AWESOME ADD INS:

Fruit: dried raisins, goji berries, coconut, banana, dates or fruit zests like lemon, lime and orange
Seeds: chia, pumpkin, flax, hemp...
Nuts: almonds, brazil nuts, pistachios.. all the nuts!
Superfood powders: acai, maca, baoabab, protein powder, hemp, spirulina, chlorella, green tea, guarana, lucuma...
Spices: cinnamon, chilli...
Flavourings/extracts: vanilla, caramel, almond, peppermint...
Healthy snacks: snack bars, protein bars, granolas, popcorn...