The Solution to Mastering your New Year’s Intention? Make it This Easy!

This year I have decided to eat more chocolate. Well actually not more. Anyone who knows me, also knows that I have actually been pretty unrestricted in this area for some time now. What I have decided to do is upgrade my stash. You might assume that I am talking about eating dark chocolate, and that would be true, however my usual chocolate is already 70% cocoa solids, organic & free trade. In fact I am fond of telling anyone who questions the magnitude of my consumption that eating this chocolate is one of the ways that I serve humanity, because altruism is, you know, just my thing.

This year though, I am stepping it up and making my own chocolate using raw cacao (not cocoa). This is something that I had been thinking of doing for some time now, but this year I was inspired to finally take the plunge when the talented Alison Nixon gave a chocolate making workshop in my area and I realized how easy it was to do this!

Why cacao and not cocoa you may ask? Cacao has many times more antioxidants than regular cocoa. It is also super high in magnesium, fibre and zinc. In fact if you crave chocolate it may be because you are low in magnesium and cacao would be the ideal way to top you back up! This doesn’t mean that regular cocoa isn’t good for you, but it is different from cacao in that it is heated at high temperatures and as a result loses a lot of its original nutrition. Cacao is the “raw” form of the same bean, but is cold pressed instead of roasted, retaining its living enzymes and making it much more nutritious.

OK, so now you know that it is good for you, but the real reason to eat this chocolate is that it is so yummy, and so creamy! Plus you can make it as sweet or as bitter as you like. The recipe below is similar to the topping of Alison Nixon’s Raw Chocolate Love Bar recipe that was included in the What’s Left to Eat Cookbook that she co-authored. I changed it up a bit but used her portions. This recipe combines the two great loves of my life, chocolate and matcha.

Raw Chocolate Matcha Medallions

• 250g Cacao Butter
• 1 ½ cup (140g) Cacao powder
• ½ cup (50 grams) raw cane sugar (Grind it up super fine in your mixer first) Other sweetener options such as honey, brown rice syrup, etc work as well.
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (or whatever extract flavour you like)
• A pinch of Himalayan salt (or sea salt)
• Matcha and cane sugar mix. Use as much of either as you would like in your topping mixture. Other options are also tasty. Sea salt sprinked on top once they are half set is another favourite. Also popular in my home was raisins, nuts, pumpkin seeds, gogi berries, or anything else that makes you excited.

Instructions

1. Chop the cacao butter into small pieces.
2. Heat a few centimeters of water in a shallow saucepan on low heat. Place a small metal bowl in the water and melt the cacao butter inside the bowl. This ensures that the butter doesn’t get over heated. Make sure that no water (not even a drop!) gets into the bowl. Avoid boiling the water so steam, etc doesn’t make its way into your butter.
3. Pour the melted cacao butter, cacao powder, sugar and salt into your blender for one minute.
4. Pour the chocolate into non-stick mini muffin pans. Just a centimeter high. If you want to make bars, or bark, line a flat pan with parchment paper and pour a thin layer on the bottom of the pan. I used a flat bottomed bread pan to make large size bars. A larger pan is also fine if you are going to crack it up to make bark.
5. Add your toppings
6. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

*Cacao butter and powder and be bought at most health food stores. I used Organic Traditions bags and got two recipes worth of butter. The powder can be added to cereal, etc and the cacao nibs are a super bitter nibble that some like to snack on as well.