Super Cashew Coconut Honey Fudge

I’ve been meaning to make my own decadent, fudgy *chocolate* for ages. I love love love dark chocolates. That’s an understatement. I love the darkest of dark chocolates. It’s not even beyond me to nosh on the unsweetened ones; chocolates so dark there literally isn’t any sugar, milk or additives. And it’s a bit hard to find a great bar of The Good Stuff, especially in these unprecedented times at the grocery store (and everywhere.)

So, I set off to make my own.

Homemade chocolate?

I set out to riff on the naturally sweetened Honey Mama’s bars of cult fame. I peeked into my pantry and to my pure bliss, found everything I need to create my own practically unlimited supply of fudgy, rich, almost brownie-like chocolate…right in my own kitchen. (A silver lining, for sure.)

Before I dive into the recipe, I want to give a little plug to my friends cacao, cocoa and chocolate. There’s more to chocolate than just candy. Chocolate has some pretty rad functions (besides being delicious,) that make it worth hunting down in it’s most unadulterated forms and consuming en reasonable masse, particularly in these unprecedented times.

Cacao and cocoa and chocolate!

Chocolate, in the sweet bar form that we know it, is a lovely mixture of milk, sugar and cacao solids. Cacao is the ingredient that imparts the “chocolate” flavor, and it comes from cacao beans, grown on the cacao plant in equatorial regions of the world. It’s worth noting that cacao and cocoa are different. Cacao is the raw, unadulterated liquor extracted from fermented and dried cacao beans. Cocoa is the toasted and ground product that results when cacao is processed.

Raw cacao and even cocoa unsweetened cacao is just about as super as superfoods can get. Cacao and cocoa are jam-packed with antioxidants, flavinoids, and all sorts of other compounds that work wonders; boosting our moods; reducing inflammation; giving our brains a bump; energizing our bodies; protecting our cells; heightening our senses; bolstering immunity and clarifying thoughts, emotions and bliss. (As if enjoying something chocolatey wasn’t value-add enough, I’ve been working on sharing even more of these amazing chocolate ups with my friends over at Guittard Chocolate. Stay tuned!)

Let’s make a super-chocolate bar!

This is exactly what my body and brain are needing right now. Ya know? All of it. And this recipe is just that; a super dark, powerful cocoa (I used Guittard’s Cacao Rouge), blended with cashew butter, raw honey, coconut oil and coconut shreds.

A few recipe notes: you’re going to want a high-speed blender or a food processor for this recipe. If you don’t have one, no worries; simply halve the recipe and use a broad bowl to work the ingredients together using the back of a spoon. (Doing this with a full batch is a lot of spooning.) I used cashew butter here because I love the creamy texture, but if that’s not your jam you could substitute any nut butter. I also love this recipe with coconut manna or coconut butter. Lastly, I strongly recommend using a local raw honey if you can find one. Not only for its super-nutrients and immunity-boosting benefits, but also for freshness.

Without much more ado, this quick-and-easy, wholesome CHOCOLATE bar.