We asked one of our lovely customers, Nicki Hughes to create a guest recipe for us, as she's always posting some lovely photos on social media and always spreading the raw chocolate love!
In true Nicki style she broke with convention and who are we to disagree, so here we present Nicki's Raw Chocolates!
Ingredients
- 140g of cacao butter
- 80g of cacao powder
- 2-3 tbsp of agave or sweet freedom or raw honey
- 1-2 tbsp of coconut oil
Directions
Simply follow the basic raw chocolate recipe that Dan & Paula created.
- Melt your cacao butter and coconut oil slowly over a ban marie
- Once the butter is melted, stir in the raw cacao powder well
- Add your sweetener of choice and mix it in really well
- Taste it to get to the sweetness you prefer
- Spoon or pour the chocolate mix in to the moulds
- Enjoy!
This makes three full trays, so halve the amount if you don’t have enough chocolate moulds. If I have any left over, I just pour onto a saucer and scatter with some seeds and dried fruits to make a slab. Make sure you use a spatula to get every last drop out of the bowl.
Fillings and Toppings
You can quickly and simply add some fillings and mine always depend on my store cupboard supplies. I rarely make plain ones. A filling or topping can always be found!
My favourite filling is to soak dried morello cherries in kirsch for about 30 minutes, then blot well in kitchen paper. If there is any moisture left, it will leak out of the chocolate. Fill the moulds half way then pop the fruit in, and top up, just like this date and nut filled raw chocolate recipe. This works better with the deeper ones like the large flower moulds. Smaller and less expensive fruits can also be used – cranberries or just berries. You don’t need to soak in alcohol – green tea is a good soaker too!
Covering the tops of the mould with mixed nuts is always an easy but effective addition too.
Nicki's Top Tips
- Raw chocolate is meant to be made with love and kept as cool as possible as it’s a ‘raw’ product. So please don’t melt the butters over boiling water. Be gentle. Just in a bain-marie over hot water. Slowwwwwwww!
- Try not to add too many ingredients to each batch. It can make the chocolate very grainy
- Get all your ingredients out before you start. Weigh everything out, then assemble
- Shaving the cacao butter into shards will ensure a speedier melt
- Use a pallet knife to drag over the top of the moulds after you have filled them, so you get a nice smooth bottom
- Experiment with the amounts of syrup and coconut oil. Different makes can give a different finish. The more coconut oil, the quicker the chocolate will melt as they are more ‘truffle-like’. Keep them in the fridge
- Play and experiment
- Buy in bulk. It works out so much cheaper, but start small with the Elements for Life raw chocolate making starter kit if you are unsure. Good value and a great gift too
About the Author
Nicki is an experienced freelance holistic therapist who works on the Somerset Levels. She advocates eating ‘clean’ and having been sensitive to dairy for many years, she enjoys making Raw Chocolate. Her clients are often looking for alternative health foods and don’t want to give up chocolate, so she encourages them to try this great superfood. Treatments in Nickis bespoke treatment centre are quite exceptional. Remember to ask her for some Raw Chocolate!
You can connect with Nicki on Facebook ~ Twitter
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