Homemade Chocolate

Traditional chocolate is super easy to make - it only has three ingredients; cocoa butter, cocoa powder & sugar. Everything else is extra. Original base recipe from Sweet Simple Vegan.

I wanted to use my Easter egg molds that I never use and since we are stuck at home for Easter (the old COVID-19 pandemic) and I knew I had the ingredients I thought lets give this another go. I had tried making my own chocolate before but didn't like the way it turned out. This recipe was enough for all my egg molds plus a bit extra to join them together. What extras you add if really only as limitless as your imagination. I used rose water infused rose petals, rum infused raisins, salty crushed peanuts and sprinkles but I love the idea of mint essential oil or chili powder for variety also!

Homemade Chocolate 

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup raw cacao butter
9 Tbls maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Pink Himalayan salt
1 2/3 cup cacao powder


Method

In a double broiler* melt your cocoa butter.

While that's melting prep your molds, whatever you're using make sure it's on a flat tray that can be easily transferred to the fridge.
Add into the mold any extras you want to change your chocolate flavor (I used rose water infused rose petals, rum infused raisins, salty crushed peanuts and sprinkles).

Once melted take off melted cocoa butter from stove and place on a heat proof surface or pot holder.
Add in the maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt and whisk together.
Lastly whisk in your cocoa powder making sure you sift it into the bowl. This will make a huge difference to smooth vs lumpy chocolate.
Pour chocolate into desired molds and  place in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
If using egg molds like I was that need to be melded together you can do this two ways.
1. Just fill one tray first (make sure the other tray mirrors your extras) and once hardened fill the second tray and place the first harden tray upside down on top to they fuse together when cooling.
2. Fill all trays, wait till hardened then use a small amount of chocolate mix to fuse together and harden again in fridge.


Note
*A double boiler is very easy to make if you haven’t got a specific one, just heat sauce pan of half filled with water until boiling then bring it down to medium heat and place on top of stainless steel bowl or sauce pan that fits perfectly on top inserting a little bit without touching the water. This will help you melt butter or chocolate etc without burning it.