Homemade Honey Chocolate for your Honey (gluten-free, cane sugar-free)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Ah, Valentine's Day is just around the bend. I generally tend to be a bit of a cynic when it comes to Valentine's Day, but I do like the opportunity to indulge my desires for tasty chocolate treats. This homemade chocolate is dark, rich, and wonderfully creamy, sweetened with just a touch of raw honey. It isn't too sweet, just the way I like it.
This recipe takes only minutes to make, and then you can use it to make shaped candies, chocolate bars, fruit/nut chocolate clusters, or even to dip strawberries. My favorite iteration of this recipe used darling little heart-shaped silicone muffin cups. I filled each cup with about 1 Tbsp of the melted chocolate mixture, let them cool, and then had darling little hearts.
Make it for a Valentine's Day treat for you and your honey, or, if you're anything like me, you'll make it to nibble on while watching Law & Order SVU alone on the couch.
Homemade Honey Chocolate
yield approximately 3/4 cup melted chocolate - what you do with it depends on you!
I like the combination of butter and coconut oil - the flavor is less "coconutty" and the mouth feel is creamier than when only coconut oil is used. However, if you are vegan or do not tolerate dairy, you can substitute the ghee/butter with another 1/4 cup of coconut oil. The rest of the recipe is also quite flexible. If you can't eat cashews, try using an equal amount of another tolerated nut or seed butter. While the flavor will change, it will still be delicious and creamy (Sunbutter tastes great). The honey could be substituted with another natural liquid sweetener like maple syrup or brown rice syrup if you do not eat honey.
- 1/4 cup ghee or butter (if possible, use pastured dairy)
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
- 1/4 cup raw cashew butter
- 2-3 Tbsp raw honey
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dagoba brand is certified GF)
- 1/2 tsp gluten-free pure vanilla extract (Simply Organic brand is certified GF)
Place ghee/butter, coconut oil, cashew butter, and honey in a small saucepan and heat on low, whisking constantly. Whisk until smooth, thickened, and well combined, but do not let it bubble. Remove from heat and add cocoa powder and vanilla, and whisk again until smooth. Adjust sweetness to taste.
Then, you have some options...
- If forming chocolate in candy molds/silicone muffin cups/etc., pour desired amount of melted chocolate into molds (I used heart-shaped silicone muffin cups). Allow to cool for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Remove chocolate from molds. Store in the refrigerator.
- If making chocolate bars or chunks, pour melted chocolate into a pan or dish lined with parchment or plastic wrap. Allow to cool for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Cut or break into chunks of desired size using a sharp knife. Store in the refrigerator.
- If using to make dried fruit/nut clusters or bark, mix the ingredients into the chocolate until well combined, then pour into a pan or dish lined with parchment or plastic wrap, or drop in small clusters on a lined baking sheet. Allow to cool for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. If making as bars/bark, cut or break into chunks of desired size using a sharp knife. Store in the refrigerator.
- To dip strawberries, dunk your strawberries into the melty chocolate, place on a lined baking sheet or tray, and let chill for a couple hours until the chocolate is firm. Serve!
Reader Comments (15)
They look beautiful, Kim! AND tasty!!
Oh! These are so beautiful! I've actually never thought of using ghee as a base for chocolate, but I bet it would taste so rich and yummy! Looking forward to trying this out!
Hi, Kim ~
I've been following your delicious posts and just must comment on this fabulous creation with wonderful adaptations. I'm trying it (with SunButter of course) this weekend for my honeys 'round here.
Thanks for the recipe.
How lovely. My dad and I had a conversartion not too long ago about this. We were wondering if we could make chocolate with honey as my mother and I are sensitive to refined sugars. We think since it (sugar cane) might be in the grass family that might be why we have issues with it. Your photo looks so yummy!
Kim---This looks great! I can't wait to make this! Quick question: Does this stay hard in the fridge? Every time I make my recipe for chocolate i'ts always soft not hard even frozen. Does it work well for chocolate chips in baking? I can't wait to try it out! Also, do you think earth balance would work for the butter/ghee? :) Thanks so much! Ari
@Megan - Thanks! I'm totally addicted to making everything I can in those heart-shaped muffin cups. :)
@Alex - Ghee makes a great chocolate or fudge base - super rich and nutty. I wish I would have had ghee made for my most recent batch of this chocolate, because the flavor is so much more full and lovely than plain old butter!
@Elizabeth - Hooray for Sunbutter! Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'm glad you like it! I love Sunbutter, so I'm always looking for fun ways to use it in recipes. Using Sunbutter in this recipe makes it taste kind of like a peanut butter cup. You may need a little more sweetener if using the Organic Unsweetened Sunbutter, as cashew butter is naturally "sweeter" than plain sunflower seed butter.
@Tracee - Whoa, I've never thought about grass allergies and cane sugar being related before - that is blowing my mind! I need to look into that, because it makes sense to me...similar proteins cause a potentially similar reaction! I hope you enjoy the chocolates and find the honey more tolerable.
@Ari - Thanks! As for your questions... Yes, it stays fairly hard in the fridge. 'hard" and "soft" are somewhat relative, but it is not mushy, it holds it's form, and you can pick it up and bite into it. But if you hold it for a while, it will start to melt, more quickly than what commercial chocolate does. As for the chocolate chip question, it should work well as chocolate chips. I've never used this exact formulation in baking, but I don't see why it wouldn't work well. I don't ever use Earth Balance, so I'm not sure how it would work. But if you try it, leave a comment and let us know how you liked it.
This looks great! We'd love to have you submit this recipe to our blog!
I just wanted to let you know that I got your calendar for christmas from my mom and I love it!! I have it at work and so many people ask me about it.
Love your blog!
I can't wait to try these...they sound delicious. Thanks for linking up to BSI: Vanilla.
Wendy
Around My Family Table
Guess what? I just found out that coconut oil and coconut does not work for my body :(. Do you think that I could use all ghee here instead?
I'm currently watching Gilmore Girls on the couch with some chocolate (not homemade) and I currently have just a scraping left of my raw leatherwood honey... so I think Monday night will see a repeat of today with a better version of my current snack, thanks to you :)
(Would you believe I've never had honey chocolate?And I'm a (part) chocolate blogger! Wahoo!)
Oh my goodness, these are adorable and surely delicious. I need to make these for my sweetie. I can't do the honey right now but he can :D
@Ari - it should work, give it a shot!
@Hannah - yay! i hope you enjoy it.
@christie - sorry you can't do the recipe, but glad your honey can :)
Do you think this recipe would work as chocolate "kisses?" And could the cashew butter be substituted or taken out?
Hi Morri!
I think this could work as Kisses, if you have a mold of some kind or harden the mixture in the fridge until it is less liquidy, then form into kisses. The mixture is fairly liquidy and I worry that if you merely try to form a "kiss" from the warm mixture you will end up with a puddle :) As for the cashew butter - yes, it could be subbed with any other nut/seed butter. If you want to omit entirely, I would suggest subbing with an equal amount of ghee/coconut oil. It will change the flavor and texture some - it won't be as creamy and more coconut oil will make it a little more melty and brittle. Good luck! _kim