Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Homemade Chocolate: Yes You Can...

Why buy commercial chocolate made from cocoa beans loaded with lead, lots of sugar (which is most likely refined, even worse), milk powder (a source of MSG) and soy lecithin (as the name says, made from soy)? Sometimes they also add "natural flavors", which we all know are far from natural. And to add insult to injury, the natural & beneficial cocoa butter is often replaced with a lower class fat, if not a hydrogenated one (which will clog your arteries).

After reading this, do you still want to eat store-bought chocolate?

Since I cook & take control of what I eat, I also take control of my treats and will make my own chocolate. It's really not as hard at it seems. You basically need raw cocoa powder, some good fat (like coconut oil) and a wee bit of natural sweetener (because cocoa powder is quite bitter). You can also add flavors like vanilla extract or spices like cinnamon, depending on your personal taste.

This first recipe is for making carob chips. Just use cocoa powder instead of the carob. Since you need to make a solid piece of chocolate first, you can choose to break it into pieces or not. Note that there are only 4 ingredients involved, can't beat that!

This 2nd recipe is with cocoa powder, and uses Rapadura as a sweetener (vs agave syrup for the first one). I think the Rapadura can easily be replace with coconut sugar (lower GI). The recipe has 5 ingredients which include a pinch of salt (which you can probably omit).

As I said earlier, making chocolate is really not that hard. Then you can also make chocolate fudge and truffles.

You can find plenty of inspiration, recipes & ideas just by browsing the web...Enjoy your chocolates ;)!

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