We love making desserts at home because it means quality time with the family, building practical skills, and making something fresh and high quality! Plus, making your own sweets at home is a great way to build a healthy mindset around sugar. This easy chocolate recipe is a great one to try out with your kids. Also, it requires no baking at all!
This easy chocolate recipe has just four delicious, nutritious ingredients, and it’s fast! It takes 5 minutes to make and a bit more time to freeze which depends on the size of your molds.
Why Make Homemade Chocolate?
Most chocolate you buy at the store has emulsifiers (like soy lecithin) and other ingredients that we don’t love. These chocolates have to ship and stay solid on the shelves until they are sold, so it makes sense that companies need to consider that in their recipes. But with homemade chocolate, you can choose the best ingredients and leave out the unnecessary stuff. And, homemade chocolate tastes awesome.
We use organic maple syrup as the sweetener for this easy chocolate recipe because it is a less processed, more natural form of sugar. Maple syrup has minerals and vitamins that more processed types of sugars, like refined white sugar, lose during processing and refining. Maple syrup is one of our favorite types of sugar. Make sure you are getting the real stuff! Not corn syrup dressed up with “maple flavoring.”
Organic, raw (or unrefined) coconut oil is a delicious healthy fat. We choose unrefined or raw coconut oil for our homemade chocolate because it is less processed, and we always try to choose the least processed, most whole form of a food. Coconut oil has tons of benefits, including antiviral effects.
Organic cacao powder is different from cocoa powder because of the processing that the two undergo. Basically, in cacao powder the cacao bean is less processed at a lower temperature and retains more of its nutrients. Cocoa powder is processed at high temperatures and often combined with preservatives, additives to change texture, and sweeteners or sugars. The more highly processed cocoa is, the fewer flavanols (antioxidants) it has. Antioxidants are one of the main benefits we love about chocolate.
For those of you who are concerned about the recent Consumer Reports study about heavy metals in dark chocolate, we currently recommend giving young children very little to no chocolate and treating chocolate as an occasional treat for older children. We don’t think cutting out chocolate entirely is a reasonable response to this data, since heavy metals are found in many other foods as well and dark chocolate does have other benefits. Based on our research, our current recommendation for cacao that is organic and lower in heavy metals is Volupta cacao powder (tested medium in cadmium in report by Consumer Labs) or Terrasoul cacao powder (tested medium-low in report by Consumer Labs).
Once you make homemade chocolate, you’ll never go back. It tastes better than most chocolate from the store. The texture is amazing: smooth and silky, almost like a truffle.
We generally use Thrive Market ingredients to make our homemade chocolate, but you can purchase these ingredients from most grocery stores.
Four Ingredient Easy Chocolate Recipe
Equipment
- Rubber spatula
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup organic cacao powder for best results, use the real stuff, no other ingredients
- 1/2 cup organic unrefined coconut oil
- 1/2 cup organic maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp sea salt plus a pinch more for topping
Instructions
Directions
- Prepare the silicone molds by placing them on a sheet pan so they are easy to move.
- Make sure you have room in your freezer to fit the pan during the cooling stage.
- Add all ingredients in a saucepan.
- Melt on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. Don’t let it boil!
- Once all the ingredients are melted together, remove the pot from the stove and use the funnel to pour the liquid into the silicone mold. (A rubber spatula will help you get as much as you can out of the pot.)**Pouring into the molds usually makes a bit of a mess, but I never worry about it. My kids always end up eating all the little extra bits when it comes out of the freezer.
- Freeze until completely cooled and solid.
- Pop the chocolates out of the mold.
- Sprinkle a bit more salt on top. (We like very salty chocolate!)
- Store in the fridge or freezer. These chocolates are prone to melt easily, so we don’t recommend leaving them on the counter.
- Enjoy!
Notes
While you are waiting for the chocolates to freeze is a great time to deal with the dishes. Hot water will make cleaning out the pan a breeze, as it will help melt off any remaining oil. Shopping List (Recommended Brands): Equipment Ingredients
- Cacao Powder
- Organic raw coconut oil
- Nutiva Organic Raw Coconut Oil
- Thrive Market Organic Raw Coconut Oil (Use this link for 40% off at Thrive Market)
- Organic Maple Syrup
- Sea Salt
This Post Has 2 Comments
Hi! Can you add berries into your chocolate balls? Or flavoring ie: mint, raspberry, etc that is safe?
You could totally explore adding berries and other real flavors. Great idea! Just beware of the flavors that are just “natural” flavors.