Tahini-Chocolate Crunch Candy Bars

There are so many reasons to pack homemade snacks before a big road trip. Firstly, treats you made are way better than what you’ll find at the gas station, and they’re a great way to stay balanced on the road. But having homemade snacks in tow also means you can share some homemade love with the folks you see + meet along the way. (Which becomes particularly important when you’re parking your van in the driveways of friends, ahem.) But also, that nice gas station attendant? The person cleaning at the laundromat? The farmer who let you pick oranges in his yard? That guy too.

But when that homemade treat is a candy bar?! Well, minds are blown and favors repaid tenfold, and eyes turn to heart-eyes. We shared these slice-your-own, just sweet, full-flavor Tahini Chocolate Crunch Bars with friends who let us share their showers, and favorite camping spots this week. We delivered some to the bike shop owner who helped us with an obscure bike part, and we of course delivered a healthy serving to my chocolate maker friends Anna and Robbie at Ritual Chocolate in Park City when we rolled through. (More on this later!)

Everyone loves a better-for-you candy bar. And so that’s exactly what I’m sharing with you this week!

A friend in the chocolate business: Ritual Chocolate

I first met Anna Davies + Robbie Stout on a bike ride. It was only afterward that I learned we all shared a love of chocolate, and I nearly lost my mind.

Shortly thereafter, I visited their tiny little chocolate shop in downtown Denver, and had the occasion of watching their chocolate bars being made. Before this, they had been making chocolate in their 400 square foot studio, with the sound of chocolate grinders lulling us to sleep each night. PVC pipes attached at every angle littered the backyard to winnowing the shells off of roasted cacao beans while a countertop chicken-rotisserie oven in the kitchen slowly roasted cacao beans to perfection.

Today, they have a 12,000 square foot dream-of-a-chocolate factory in Park City, Utah. Their origin bean-to-bar chocolates are my absolute favorites in the entire world. Because the ethics and sourcing of their beans is of the utmost importance, the flavors and terroir come through in each bite, all of their bars are vegan and made with sustainable sweeteners. AND, their tiny business has grown into a budding teenager of a rocking business, they’re still riding bikes and innovating chocolate from bean to bar.

I stopped in to see them last week, to see what they were up to, to learn more about what they have up their sleeves, and to share some of this homemade chocolate bar I made using their 85% Ecuador bars. I loved seeing their impressive factory so much (where they’re still slow roasting beans on site, and packaging each bar by hand) that I couldn’t wait to share their good news with you.

They loved this bar so much, we decided to share it with you along with a little perk this week – 20% off chocolates on their site – for you to try. Chop them up and use them in your chocolate chip cookies, eat them as decadent snacks or after-dinner treats, or melt them into your chocolate crunch bars.

Simply use the code LENTINE20 at checkout!

Need more convincing? Check out my stories on Instagram to learn more about their process, AND, read on for more reasons to consider your chocolate sources (beyond that bag of chocolate chips on the grocery store shelf…)

Chocolate matters.

Truly.

A Hershey’s Bar is absolutely not the same as a bar of chocolate from my friends at Ritual Chocolate or another conscious artisan chocolate purveyor. While both are delicious, only one of them can truly be called “healthful” in any capacity. (I bet you can guess which one.) Let’s dive into why:

• Cacao: as I began to discuss last week, CACAO and COCOA are not the same. And just the way that the origin and production of your flour, your eggs, and your vegetable matters, so too do the practices used to grow great cacao to make a conscious, good bar of chocolate. Large industrial purveyors often overlook the way that cacao beans are produced in the interest of price. Purchasing from a small purveyor, like Ritual, is a great way to guarantee that your cacao has come from a solid source from seed – to bar.
• Percentage: if you’ve ever seen a percentage on the packaging of your chocolate bar, wonderful! That means you’re enjoying a bar where they’re proud enough of their cacao that they want you to taste it! The higher the percentage on the package, the higher the percentage of cacao in the bar (and the less milk, sugar or other additives.) Buy darker chocolates with a higher percentage for more anti-inflammatory, soothing, delicious chocolate.
• “Dark Chocolate” vs “Milk Chocolate” : you’ve probably heard that “dark chocolates are better for you.” The reason is quite simple and they’re related to the percentage above. Dark chocolates have a higher percentage of cacao, while milk chocolates have a lower percentage of cacao. A bar of Hershey’s chocolate has something like 15-20% cacao…which means the rest is milk, added fats, sugars, and stabilizers.  Look for a bar of dark chocolate with all-natural sweeteners to make sure you’re eating the most virtuous chocolate around.
• Sugar: the source of your flour, your eggs, produce, and cacao matters…and so does the source of your sugar. It’s entirely possible to use sweeteners in chocolate making that are less refined, keeping minerals and nutrients intact. Vegan sugar, coconut sugar, agave, evaporated cane juice, honey and maple are all excellent examples of unrefined sugar used in chocolate making.
• Sustainability: like many commodity crops, cacao has been industrialized in the same way that flour has, making it very tricky to find beans that haven’t been adulterated. But, if you read your packaging and purchase wisely, you’ll find yourself a bar with consciousness AND excellent cacao inside. My friends at Ritual Chocolate support heirloom genetics and sustainability for the farming community. They forge long-haul partnerships with farmers setting the bar for the highest standards of environmental, flavor, economic and social aspects, and you can taste it in their chocolate.

Making your own chocolate

…is easier than you think. In fact, this homemade chocolate crunch bar is just the thing to whip up if you’re sharing candy with little people this weekend because it’s easy and fun to make, delicious to eat, and lovely to pack for a spring picnic, to enjoy as an after ride treat, or to take along with you for a hike (if you’re not going to be hiking in the scorching sun.)

There’s no need to worry about the involved tempering process, and no complicated equipment either. Before you dive in, a few notes.