'Tis the season for chocolate love so thought I would share my favorite raw chocolate recipe.
This was my attempt to re-create Uli Mana's most delicious raw hempseed brownies, which they sadly don't make anymore. I didn't quite hit the brownie mark, but I did hit the super delicious and highly nutritious chocolate truffle-ish mark. Hempseeds make this chocolate high in protein and essential fatty acids, and the raw cacao is high in minerals like magnesium, antioxidants and is a natural euphoric! I have also listed some other fun foods that you can add to further enhance this treat's nutritional benefit.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup cacao butter (melted)
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
3 vanilla beans (scraped insides only) or 1/2 tsp of raw vanilla bean powder
1 cup coconut nectar or 2/3 cup of maple syrup
8 oz cacao powder
1/2 tsp himalayn salt
1 cup ground hemp seeds
Chia seeds, shredded coconut, chopped almonds or other nuts, goji berries(optional)
Slice the vanilla beans in half lengthwise and scrape out the insides with a spoon into a bowl. Grind the hempseeds in a coffee grinder or blender and put to the side. Add the melted coconut and cacao butter into the bowl. Add all of the other ingredients except hempseeds into the bowl. Stir thoroughly until there are no pockets of cacao powder. Add the hempseeds and mix well.
Transfer the mixture onto a cookie sheet that is lined with waxed paper or a teflex sheet and spread evenly with a spatula to make chocolate bark. Set in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes. Remove and cut into the size and shape that you would like.
Alternately, you can put the mixture into candy molds. I use flexible silicon ice cube molds that look like hearts and stars.
Store in the fridge.
You can add any of the optional ingredients before you transfer the mix. I like to add chia seeds and coconut for a high fiber chocolate.
And just a petite caveat- this recipe is a little different every time I make it depending on the different ingredients, so play with it and have fun. Sometimes it is more truffle-like, sometimes more hard chocolate-like.
Bon Appetit!
Thanks to my good friend and fellow ND Cory!