4-Ingredient Homemade Chocolate (gluten, dairy & refined-sugar free)

I grew up celebrating Easter in a small town by the sea, surrounded by copious (read: endless) amounts of real-deal chocolate. The Easter holiday meant we’d be going to the beach for a few days with my family & doing an egg hunt by the ocean. My mom would hide sun-blistered toy eggs in the hot sand, at the bottom of palm trees (as to mark the spot) underneath our sun hats, you name it; that woman was creative! We would wake up and embark on an hour-long search for colorful eggs. My sister and I both squealing every time we found one, teasing to see who’d found more. Such was life back then.

If any of you has remotely followed my blog for, hmmm… even just a week- you’d know by now how I feel about chocolate. I unapologetically share chocolate treat after chocolate treat- all recipes reworked to healthier standards. I now consume dairy-free, refined-sugar free chocolate that tastes, well, amazing!

I literally use three base ingredients: cold pressed coconut oil, raw cacao powder and pure maple syrup. Over the last two years, I have made a few tweaks. I found my chocolate was not as creamy as I wanted it to be. I was kinda missing the milk chocolate creaminess aspect. So… in goes nut butter to the rescue! You can use 1 tbsp of sunflower or almond butter when mixing all the above base ingredients together. The result is a much creamier blend, because with nut butter; a little goes a long way.

Little things you could also add to raw chocolate: chopped walnuts, crispy rice or quinoa puffs, pure vanilla extract, a little bit of mint extract- and the list goes on. You’re your own little master chocolatier and you can play with the flavors and textures you like. What I also love about making my own chocolate: there’s always chocolate in my freezer; I know exactly what goes into my chocolate and I can enjoy all the benefits of raw cacao- sans the sugary calories. It involves 5 mins of active prep time and the chocolate sets in as quickly as 1-2 hours. Give it a go, you will love!

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Homemade Chocolate

Servings: 12 pieces
Time: 5 mins
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Ingredients

1/2 cup raw cacao powder (or good quality-unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/2 cup of coconut oil
4 tbsp pure maple sryup
1-2 tbsp of almond or sunflower butter

Instructions

In a medium saucepan in low heat, combine the coconut oil, the maple syrup and the almond or sunflower butter. Mix well.
Add the cacao powder and give it a good whisk.
Pour into silicone molds (these are the best, because they make it super easy to pop the chocolate out as they’re rubbery and flexible).
Best results if you freeze overnight or for at least 2 hours. Enjoy within 30 minutes of bringing them out, as they will start melting at room temperature because of the coconut oil.

By: Aleyda | The Dish On Healthy