SuperFoods Dark Chocolate

Healthy and Powerful!

Over the past 6 years I have been attempting to make the perfect chocolate (for me). I have longed for something rich and dark without too much sweetener. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and I am always striving for a healthier snack, so I have made many, many batches of chocolate (many have failed but I ate them anyways).

I finally have perfected my favorite chocolate base, it’s 80% dark, and I do use real sugar,. After much experimentation I’ve found that cane sugar alternatives just don’t lead to the same delicious results. Syrups change the chocolate to a softer texture rather than a snappy bar, and coconut or date sugar add too much of their own flavor, so they mask the intoxicating flavor of the original cacao. Think of cacao as you would a fine coffee or tea, you don’t want to add a flavored creamer if you want to taste the original source blend.

After my base chocolate has been crafted I then pour it onto my mold (lined cookie sheet) and then add the superfoods, berries, dried fruit and toasted seeds, nuts (or both). The skies the limit and this chocolate can take quite a bit of added nutrient dense foods for the highest quality energy bar you can imagine. Don’t be intimidated by the process. Once you wrap your mind around the steps you can easily make a batch on the fly. The most complex part is setting up the double boiler and weighing (rather than measuring) ingredients.

This recipe makes just under 3 lbs-1312 grams-of the chocolate base (this weight does not including superfoods or nuts)

I use real cacao paste, cocoa butter and superfoods like goji berries, Incan berries, and dried fruit like unsulphered apricots in addition to toasted nuts and seeds. You can purchase many of the ingredients from a company called Navitas Organics or find them in your local health foods store, probably in the bulk section.

Begin by getting all ingredients ready with a separate bowl for each to weigh accurately using a digital scale. Have a digital thermometer on hand for accurately heating wet ingredients (cacao paste and cocoa butter)-must not exceed 120° F.

Set up a double boiler on your range top, large pot on bottom with water (1/4 fully or reaching to bottom of upper pot), smaller pot or bowl that fits inside larger snugly but doesn’t allow water in base pot to reach over into your melting chocolate. If. your upper pot is too small (doesn’t fit snugly) steam may get into chocolate and the batch will be ruined.

*IMPORTANT-Water is the enemy of chocolate making-never use wet implements to melt ingredients in or to stir with.

Ingredients- weighed in grams for accuracy and this recipe begins with just the chocolate base-nuts and fruit are added at the end.

• Cacao paste-1050 gms

• Cocoa butter-238 gms

• Fine ground or powdered sugar-113 gms

• Salt-5 gms (or more to taste, I use Himalayan Pink salt for the additional minerals)

• Spices -your custom flavors totaling up to 15 gms-

  • Spice options-ground vanilla bean (not an extract unless it is glycerin), cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, cayenne, peppermint, citrus, or lavender oil (must be food grade, not essential oils)

Directions

• Add cacao paste to double boiler and bring bottom pot water of water to boil-then reduce heat to simmer (remember water below must never spill into or add steam into chocolate). As cacao paste melts use a rubber or silicone spatula to stir frequently, scraping sides of pot and bottom to distribute melted paste. Temperature of the chocolate should never reach above 120°.

• After cacao is completely melted slowly add cocoa butter wafers and stir into batch evenly as they melt.

• After cacao and cocoa butter are completely melted and combined, slowly shake sugar in while stirring until it is fully blended into batch. You can now officially call this chocolate!

• The tempering process of chocolate includes keeping temperature between 110°-120° and stirring until all ingredients cacao, fat (cocoa butter), and sugar are completely blended.

• Shake in spices slowly while stirring to thoroughly distribute throughout chocolate.

• Prepare cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper so it runs up sides to contain melted chocolate.

• Pull upper pot with melter chocolate out of double boiler and dry outside of pot thoroughly.

• Slowly pour melted chocolate onto lined cookie sheet and scrape inside of pot clean.

• Gently shake cookie sheet to get a nice, even layer or chocolate.

• Add toasted nuts, seeds and superfoods to your chocolate base. I don’t weigh these ingredients out necessarily, I just distribute as much as I like and to cover the batch evenly. I like each bite to be full of nutritional goodness so be generous with these ingredients.

  • Addition options-Toasted hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts or seeds like hemp, sunflower, or sesame, or mix of any. Dried and diced fruit like apricots, peaches, apples, mango and/or goji, Incan, dried blueberries, cranberries etc. In other words your favorite flavors!

*Cooling chocolate-At this point you have to be patient! Chocolate poured this thick, with all the additional ingredients added, takes time (at least 6-8 hours) to cool depending on the time of year and temp of your house. This step cannot be sped up by putting it in the fridge, it would ruin the entire batch. Chocolate should NEVER be refrigerated or frozen.

After the chocolate has been completely cooled you can pull the entire parchment lining out of the cookie sheet and score and then cut the chocolate. You can also just break it apart for different sized chunks.

I use glass mason jars (pints and quarts) to store my chocolate and place them in a dark cabinet at room temperature. If stored too cold the chocolate may bloom, or turn a powdery, dull color. If stored too warm it will get melty. Both conditions can be remedied by remelting chocolate in double boiler and pouring again into a mold, but the quality won’t be as nice as it originally was and it will change the texture of the added fruit and nuts.

Enjoy as a energetic snack and as an aphrodisiac with your lover~ It’s quite a vitality producing food!