I have always wanted to make my own chocolate from scratch and hadn’t realised how easy it was. I know we can all go out and buy a chocolate bar but I wanted sugar and dairy free chocolate and to have the pride that I made it!

I am making chocolate spoons for a tea party, a christmas one where I have a few people coming along who can not eat dairy so mince pies and homemade sausage rolls are a no go for them. I  will also make coconut snowballs which are dairy and sugar free (similar to the bounty bars in an earlier post but just roll the mixture into ball shapes not bars).

First of all you need to get your hands on some raw cocoa butter. You will see in the above image what it looks like. This is different to coconut oil as it comes from the cocoa bean not coconut! The melted cocoa butter is mixed with raw cacao powder and a sweetener (in this case maple syrup) to make lovely dark chocolate.

I tried a few recipes and this combination worked out the best.

Ingredients:
50g raw cocoa butter
3 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 pinch sea salt flakes
half tsp vanilla paste

In a heatproof bowl, put two thirds of the cocoa butter over a pan of hot water. Gently simmer the water and do not let the water bubble up and hit the bottom of the heatproof bowl.

The cocoa butter will turn into an oil like consistency and once it is at this stage, remove from the heat and stir in the remaining cocoa butter till it has all melted. Then add the remaining ingredients stirring till combined.

Gently pour the mixture into your clean, dry silicone spoon moulds, or any other type of mould then leave in a cool place to set. This takes a couple of hours. Once set, pop them out of their mould and that is it!

Rather gorgeous on a plate topped with a raspberry. An alternative serving suggestion would be to give people small cups of hot milk or almond milk and get them to stir their spoon in to make a hot chocolate. You may find this recipe a little bitter, try adding more maple syrup or agave nectar to your mixture till you get the right sweetness for your palate. ENJOY!