Chocolate. Often when I sit down with a client, it’s the one thing they ask if they have to give up. My answer is usually, unless there are some adverse reactions with chocolate, “no”.

We have this tendency to vilify foods sometimes. This food is ‘good’, this is ‘bad’, this is a ‘treat’, this is a ‘splurge’, this is a ‘cheat’. We infuse it with so much importance, with emotion, with guilt, and make it more than it is.

I think, if we just sit in the moment, and enjoy the food we’re eating, for what it is at the time – try our best to eat a real, nourishing version of what we want to eat, with real ingredients, food can provide what it needs to. Sustenance, nourishment, pleasure, satisfaction.

And now, back to chocolate.

I find that if I eat commercial chocolate, that tasty, yet waxy, glossy chocolate, then I end up with heartburn, or some sort of digestive discomfort (TMI? Not for a nutritionist!). But I find that there are some ‘healthy’ chocolates out there that don’t taste like anything to me, so what’s the point?

Making your own chocolate is a good way to tailor the taste with the ingredients and ratios so that you get exactly what you want. That’s a pretty sweet deal. This is my recipe for my favourite little raw chocolate almond cups. I make a bunch of them, keep them in the freezer and sit down and enjoy them when I feel like chocolate. No guilt, no cheating, no deal making, just savouring the moment. I hope you make them, and enjoy them too.

Raw chocolate almond butter cups – makes 2 dozen

  • 1/3 cup coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup cacao butter, grated
  • 2/3 cacao powder
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup

For the filling

  • 1/2 cup almond butter, raw or roasted, depending on preference.
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
  • pinch sea salt

In a bowl, mix the filling ingredients. Set aside. In a glass bowl over simmering water, melt the coconut oil and cacao butter. Turn the heat off and add the cacao powder and maple syrup. Line candy muffin cups with liners, and fill halfway with the chocolate filling. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until the chocolate has hardened, then in each cup, place a small disc of filling, pressing down into the hardened chocolate. Cover with the remaining chocolate syrup and refrigerate again. These can be frozen in freezer bags up to 3 months, or kept in the fridge for a few days.

 

%d bloggers like this: