A quick-and-easy, WHOLESOME chocolate bar for a healthy body and brain.
Jump to RecipeI’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.
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.
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!)
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.
Flavors are FUN, yes, but they also are the mechanisms by which our bodies nourish themselves. Flavors basically tell our bodies what the food is giving us – on a nutritional and energetic level. Our bodies then prepare enzymes to break those components down, assimilate them, and turn them into fuel for our vibrant lives. We can’t eat just one flavor and get all of the things we need, so learning to track the flavors in our foods helps us to be sure that we’re really getting all of the things we need in our meals. This particular recipe has three of six flavors. The more flavors we can enjoy in any meal or food, the happier and more balanced our bodies will be. If you’re wanting to learn more about how the flavors we eat fuel our bodies – energetically and nutritively, check out this little blog post.
A quick-and-easy, WHOLESOME chocolate bar for a healthy body and brain.
Sift your cocoa powder or cacao powder. This is important as it prevents chocolate lumps in your finished bar!
Combine the cocoa, cashew butter or coconut manna, coconut oil, raw honey, coconut shreds and a pinch of sea salt to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment or high speed blender.
Blend on high until a nice chocolate-y dough forms.
Plop the dough out onto one half of a large piece of parchment paper, then cover with the other half. Use a rolling pin (or a wine bottle, or something flat) to roll and press the chocolate out into a flat disk or square.
At this point, your honey fudge is ready to eat! BUT, I highly recommend popping it into the freezer or fridge to firm up for 10 minutes. When it’s firm, dust with remaining cocoa powder, slice into slivers and enjoy!