Recipe: For your Valentine or for you!

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Author: Raevyn Tsornin, February 2018


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This being February and the all important hallmark holiday of Valentine's Day, I was thinking "Hmmmm, chocolate." After all, chocolates are a traditional gift on Valentine's Day. My 20 year old son has long since been telling me that anything less than 85% dark chocolate isn't "that dark". So I have periodically been looking at recipes to make my own dark chocolate. I finally settled on this one http://tasty-yummies.com/how-to-make-homemade-dark-chocolate/ I like the recipe and I love the list of health benefits with link to reasearch.


HOW-TO MAKE HOMEMADE DARK CHOCOLATE

Prep time 5 mins Cook time 5 mins Total time 10 mins

you will need:
a grater
a wire whisk and a rubber spatula
a double boiler (or pan and glass bowl)
candy mold or something to use as a mold (I used silicone ice cube trays)
candy or meat thermometer


gluten-free, paleo, keto, vegan, FODMAP-friendly (depending on sweetener choice), dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free
Serves: 2 - 3 ounce bars approx 85% dark
Ingredients

  • 1 cup organic cocoa butter, grated and tightly packed (120 grams)
  • ¾ cup unprocessed organic raw cacao or cocoa (92 grams)
  • 1 tablespoon honey* and approx 5 drops of liquid stevia
  • 1 teaspoon unsweetened vanilla paste (vanilla powder or vanilla extract)
  • pinch sea salt (optional)


Instructions

  1. Melt the grated cocoa butter in a double boiler or a glass bowl on top of a small pan with an inch of water (make sure water isn't touching bowl) over medium heat. Heat until melted and try to keep it at or under 115ºF.
  2. Remove the pan or bowl with the melted cocoa butter from the heat and let it cool to 95ºF. Once cooled to 95ºF, add the cacao (or cocoa), sweetener of your choice, vanilla paste (or extract) and pinch of sea salt.
  3. Make sure all ingredients are very well incorporated and that the mixture is very smooth and glossy. I start with a whisk and switch to a rubber spatula. Work quickly. Be very careful that no water or liquid gets in to the melted chocolate mixture or in the molds, as it can cause it to seize up or it will, at the very least, it will affect the texture of the chocolate.
  4. Allow the melted chocolate temperature to drop to 88-90ºF before you pour it into the molds. I first place the molds on a cookie sheet, so they are on a flat, level, moveable surface. Let set for several hours at room temperature until hardened and then remove from molds.
  5. You can also place the chocolate into the fridge to harden more quickly but I prefer the slower, room temperature method for the best texture.


Grating the coca butter simply makes smaller, more uniform pieces that melt evenly and more quickly. As the cocoa butter melts, the temperature goes up faster so be careful as you get to the end of the melting. As I was feeling lazy and cut my pieces into chunks instead of grating, this took approx 10 minutes to melt and the temperature went a little high as the last pieces melted completely. Then it also took longer to cool. IMPORTANT POINT HERE: the low temp on the candy thermometer was 100* so I switched to the meat thermometer to have an accurate temperature.

Once you add the cocoa powder and sweetener, the temperature cools quickly! I was pouring slowly and gently in to rubber molds (squares and dachshund shapes) and my chocolate began to get too cool. When this happens, it begins to be lumpy. I heated it in the microwave for 10 seconds and it was great to pour again.

Let it cool completely or removing it from the mold is a disaster. And it is not necessary to spray your candy mold with any cooking spray or oil.

The chocolate was very dark! And yummy.

  • I used honey but you could easily use another sweetener. It would also be easy to add nuts, coconut, put the sea salt in the mold before pouring chocolate, or possibly pour a little chocolate, layer in caramel, then fill the rest of your space.