Have you ever made a chocolate bar at home? I love chocolate so much I even did my Master’s research on it! Cocoa is a antioxidant rich food, and when my kids want candy, I give them chocolate. In this post, I share how to make healthy, dairy-free, soy-free, antioxidant rich chocolate.
Cocoa beans are one of the foods with the highest content of polyphenols, one type of antioxidants that lowers the incidence of death from heart disease. Dark chocolate contains more polyphenols than black tea, red wine, cranberry juice, and apples.
The problem with commercial chocolate is that it’s often processed with high temperatures to the point were antioxidants are damaged. In addition, when you add sugar, processed fats, and dairy (for those who are sensitive), your commercial candy bar is no longer a health food–even though you want it to be!
That’s why when going through the effort of making chocolate at home, I use raw cacao–not cocoa–(no typo here). Raw cacao is processed at low temperatures to preserve the nutrients and antioxidants. This is one of my favorite products.
In this recipe, I used extra-virgin cold-pressed coconut oil and raw organic honey. I also added slivered almonds. You can customize this recipe to your liking. If you have kids around, they will love making their own! You can add hazelnuts, peanuts, sea salt, ginger, or raisin, just to name a few.
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I used a glass tray to make the bar. You can use muffin tins to make individual ones but I found that ingredients mix together better when made into a bar.
MRT-LEAP Modification
I learned how to make this recipe from one of my patients who did the food sensitivity testing. Since then, I’ve been recommending it to my patients who miss chocolate and not sensitive to cocoa, but sensitive to the stuff that come with it such as cane sugar, soy lecithin, vanilla, or milk. If you’re following the program and reactive to coconut, you can replace with grass-fed ghee or butter or even avocado or sunflower seed oil. If you can’t have honey, I’ve made it with maple syrup before.
Homemade Almond Chocolate Bar
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons organic raw honey (2 tablespoons if you like bitter chocolate. 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup if you prefer it sweet)
- 1/2 cup raw Cacao powder
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds or any other type of nut
- Line a small baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the coconut oil. Lower the heat then add the honey and whisk (or stir fast). Stir in the cacao powder and whisk until combined well.
- Pour into the baking dish lined with parchment paper. .
- Let it cool in room temperature for 30 minutes. transfer to fridge and cool for another 30 minutes. Letting it cool slowly will prevent the coconut and honey from separating.
Have you ever made your own chocolate?
