Hi,

starting a new thread to share with you on some of my recent research. My latest raw food research and experimentation has been directed at chocolate candies, mmmmmm, candies....

BTW, I've not tried this with carbo, but if you don't like cacao and try it with carbo, please let me know how it comes out, I'm wondering is it would come out like carmel chocolate or "caramac bars" (or whatever they are called).

Anyway, first step is making the chocolate, for this you require:

- 2-3 table spoons of raw cacao butter
- 2-3 table spoons of raw cacao powder
- 1"-2" of vanilla bean
- tiny pinch of salt
- agave necter to taste
- hot water (hot tap water is fine)

Tools:
- spoons
- a big shallow bowl with a flat inside bottom
- a smaller taller bowl which fits in the big bowl

Chop the raw cacao butter in to small chunks (helps it melt quicker), place chunks in the small bowl after running small bowl under hot tap to heat and drying throughly, place small bowl in big bowl after putting hot water in big bowl. It will take a while to melt, you want to stir it once in while with a plastic spoon (a metal spoon will conduct heat a way quicker and cool the butter we are trying to heat) and also replace the water with hot water.

While the cacao butter is melting, you can add the salt, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them, and the agave necter - taste and adjust until you have the desired sweetness. Once all the cacao butter has melted, add one table spoon of raw cacao powder, stir this in, add the other table spoon of raw cacao powder. Keep stirring the chocolate powder in until you're left with a silky smooth liquid chocolate.

This will make about 10 of the candies below.

Now, let's do something cool with it!

For the next recipes we'll require:
- little paper muffin cups (the size of a peanut butter cup).
- raw almond butter (best using a jar that's almost empty)
- raw walnuts
- liquid raw chocolate (from above)

First, let's make some Almond Butter Cups. These are like peanut butter cups, but I think they are much better (but I like almonds more than peanuts). Anyway, take some mini-muffin-cups and spoon a little bit of liquid chocolate into the bottom of each one and place them in the freeze for a few minutes until firm. Now take your almost empty almond butter jar at try to strape the thick chunks of almond butter out of the corners, place a dollup of almond butter on the now firm base and spoon some more chocolate until the almond butter is covered and place back in the freeze until hard.

Next, some walnut clusters. Take the raw walnuts and some mini-muffin-cups, crush the walnuts into smaller chunks and place in the muffin cups. Spoon some of the liquid chocolate over the walnuts. Place in the freezer until hard. You'll know when they are ready because they will come away from the paper very easily and don't leave a mess.

You might be able to use coconut butter instead of cacao butter, but the melting(/mess) point will be much lower. I think next time I'll put the almond butter in the freezer for a little while before so it's much firmer, if it's too runney it will end up like almond butter sandwiched in two pieces of chocolate.

Anyway, I'll try to post some pictures before they all get eaten!

Ian.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2006 11:17PM by sodoffsocks.

The pictures didn't come out that good, they got some condensation on them because I took them straight out of the freezer put them in sun light, so the don't look nice and shiney, but they taste great!

Thank you! Now they won't throw me out when I show up at the family Thanksgiving! I'll be the one with the chocolate - how could they?


Life Is Good!

alive!

Hey sodoffsocks!

Genuinely, thank you for posting! I would like to ask where you buy the cacao butter that you use in your chocolates? Thanks!



Life Is Good!


alive!

Hey Alive!, you are most welcome.

I bought my raw cacao butter from Natures First Law (which i know some of you don't like): [www.rawfood.com]

They tasted great, I think the almond butter cups where better than the walnut clusters. Sorry to say I ate them all myself without getting a second opinon! Next time I might try and make some rasberry nut cream/paste for a filling, or maybe a date truffle filling. Lots of possibilities!

Cheers,
Ian.

Ian,
Thanks for sharing your choccie candy recipes with us.

If this is of any help with your choccie creations - I was at the raw Fresh Festival (UK) yesterday and they had a chocolate demo on stage (as well as truly amazing food). Amy (raw chef) said something about it being important to not add any water to the chocolate, as it spoils it in some way. Also, they have to be covered up in the fridge / freezer if you use raw cacao butter, otherwise they go white on top. Another bit of advice she gave was to not overblend (she was using a vitamix).

Amy added various stuff and gave some tips. She used raw agarve, but said lucuma is nice to sweeten choc. I know the Brigton (UK) raw choc co use lucuma to sweeten their choc bars and they taste nice.

Apparently, adding cashews makes it more like milk choc.

Enjoy your raw choc heaven. I bought some raw choc yesterday at the event (it is sitting in my fridge - not for long though.
John

Hi Ian,

So any more news on the fabulous choccie creations?

I have now remembered why the raw chef said not to use water in the raw choc and it was because it can make it separate. She was using coconut oil/butter in her choc and not cacao butter (personally I would probably prefer the raw cacao butter for a more rich and intense choc taste). I'm not sure if it would still be a problem with cacao butter to add water. Anyway yours didn't seem to separate.

Have you made any more choccie variations?
John

Hey John,

the coconut oil/butter can make some nice chocolates, the have an almost instant melt in the mouth quality. I have some friends that prefer the coconut oil based chocolates to the cacao butter based chocolates.

I've not had a chance to make any more, but I did try somebody else's raw vegan chocolates. They where very similar to mine, but they had added a little almond butter to the chocolate which made the chocolate a little softer. They had also adding some dehydrated rasberries to theirs, which added nice crunchy suprise flavour (kind of like the walnut clusters, but with dehydrated berries instead). I was pretty impressed.

The oil (either coconut or cacao) will not combine with water if the chocolate liquid get contaminated. The water will form droplets and bubbles in chocolate as it sets - it doesn't effect the taste, but it does detract from the finish and appearance.

I want to make a flavored nut cream filling for some of the cups. Maybe cashew and strawberries with a little agave. Mmmmmm.

Cheers,
Ian.

Those looked awesome!!!!!!!
Lisa

Hi Ian,

Those chocolates look so delicious. Thanks for sharing your recipes.

I will try it sometime in the future when I have more time. BTW I think a hazelnut paste in the center would be great. Or, how about white chocolate candies?

Therese

Thanks Ian, that inspired me to make my own:



Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]