Raw Chocolate for Molds

Raw chocolate bar

It's easy to make good tasting raw cacao sauce, but it's tricky to make raw cacao that will solidify into a nice even texture or hold the design of a mold.

I was resorting to using coconut oil and agave in my raw chocolate recipes but even though I was mixing the sauce evenly, it would never solidify completely. The agave remained a liquid after everything else solidified or the chocolate would melt instantly in my hand. Instead I decided to give cacao butter and powdered maple syrup a try.

Cacao butter (cold pressed oil of the cacao bean) is more dense and remains a solid better than coconut oil. The taste of it really lends to a deeper overall cacao flavor as well. The maple syrup powder is a great powdered sweetener that lends for a nice smooth solid chocolate bar and I like the flavor of it too. Other great options for powered sweeteners are stevia or xylitol, depending on your dietary needs or flavor preferences.

The recipe:
2 tbsp raw cacao butter, melted slowly
3-4 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
sprinkle sea salt

Melt the cacao butter slowly, place in a mixing bowl, add in everything else and mix well. Pour mixture into a chocolate mold or you can cover a plate with wax paper and pour on that. Place in fridge and wait for it to solidify. Chocolate should shrink a tad and separate from the mold and be easy to pop out. If you are just pouring on wax paper on a plate, just break up the chocolate into pieces. Makes around 2 chocolate bars using this mold. Keep chocolate stored in fridge.

This recipe is easy to multiply or add flavors to. Add 1/8 tsp of peppermint extract for mint chocolate or other extracts like orange or lavender  Other flavor additions could be shredded coconut, nuts, cacao nibs, coffee, ginger, dried fruit etc.

 Sea salt, mint, and coconut almond

HAVE FUN