Angela’s “Super-Chocolate”
Raw Chocolate Truffle-Bar Recipe
The Best Dark Chocolate Ever!
A Rich Raw-Chocolate Truffle-Bar,
Chock-full of Pecans, Pine Nuts, and Goji Berries… with a dash of Chili!
You want the perfect energy bar? The perfect chocolate dessert? The most explosively flavorful chocolate you’ve ever had? This is it, baby… 
Make this Raw Chocolate Bar, cut it into pieces and store in a jar in the fridge, and grab a delicious morsel whenever the mood strikes!
The most delicious way to enjoy superfoods, ever!
I’ve fiddled with various raw chocolate concoctions over the past few years, but this weekend I took my first stab at making a raw chocolate bar… and hit pay dirt with a great recipe! Feedback has been so positive that expletives have usually been involved, so I can’t quote what’s been said.
Exploding With Flavor…
I made the recipe again and tweaked it to make it “smoother”, and I’m posting the recipe below. This is chocolate that utterly explodes in your mouth with flavor! I’ve made it with a combination of pecans & pine nuts, but you can use whichever nut combinations you would like: use any combination of raw peanuts (”jungle peanuts”), walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, pine nuts, pistachios… and anything else I may have left out.
Don’t Leave Out The Goji Berries!
The recipe also has goji berries in it. If you can help it, don’t leave these out. It is true that the goji berry and raw chocolate are together absolutely a marriage made in heaven — two of the greatest superfoods on the planet right there in one delicious mouthful.
In this recipe, I’m using two different fats — raw cacao butter and raw coconut oil. This recipe is rather “soft”, rather truffle-like, even fudgy, not hard and brittle. If you would like it firmer, use less coconut oil and more cacao butter, which is extremely hard when it cools.
Add Some Chili For Heat…and Your Heart!
Did you know that cayenne powder has saved people from heart attacks? Add a little cayenne to your teas, your smoothies… and your chocolate… for better heart health! I’ve included cayenne (chili powder) in the recipe below — not much, but it’s there as a layer of flavor contributing to the amazing “zing” of flavor that will fill up your mouth when you taste it! You can add more if you want more heat, that’s for sure, but the small amount in this recipe will not burn your mouth.
Raw Honey and Rapadura
I’ve also used two different sweeteners — raw honey and rapadura, which is whole, unprocessed cane sugar (cane juice that has been dehydrated, retaining all natural minerals in the cane). In this natural state, I’m not phobic about sugar any more than I am phobic about the good fats that your body needs. The sugar feels (and functions) completely differently in your body compared to processed white sugar, similarly to how processed table salt is toxic while natural sea and crystal salts are nutritious and therapeutic.
I will eventually experiment with recipes using other raw sweeteners, such as agave and yakon, but for now these are the two sweeteners I’ve started with. I like the balance used below — the raw honey gives a creaminess to offset the graininess of the rapadura.
Super Nutrition, Superfoods, Super Flavor, Super Fun!
Every component of this recipe has something nutritional to offer. You could live on this stuff, no kidding. But the flavor and nutrition is so intense, it’s not the sort of thing you’re going to “gorge” on. It will just give you intense flavor, intense energy, intense mineralization, and intense pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction (hey… eat it and tell me if it doesn’t… ). And who doesn’t want more of that?
I think in today’s culture so many of us are looking for that pleasure/happiness/satisfaction in our food, but end up feeling so guilty because we’ve been guilt-tripped to believe that healthy food is supposed to be boring and dull!
Well, this recipe’s gonna change your mind pretty quick on that account. There is simply no reason to feel guilt or deprivation when you’re eating healthy! This recipe is rich in the nutrition most people’s bodies are absolutely craving. So make it and enjoy… guilt-free!
Warning: If you like very mild milked-out chocolate, this is probably not gonna be your cuppa tea. But if you’re like that, let me know… I’ll see if I can come up with a recipe more for your taste buds. In the meantime, give this one a try!
Vanilla Bean — Add It If You Got It…
The only thing missing from this in my opinion is vanilla bean… only because I didn’t have any. But if you have some handy, slice a 1-2″ piece open and scrape the beans into the recipe. It’ll add another great layer of awesome flavor!
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If You Prefer Milk Chocolate…
…be sure you check out this recipe for Cashew-Almond “Milk Chocolate” Bars, made with raw cacao! It’s a milder, chewier chocolate bar when you don’t want something so intense.
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Angela’s “Super-Chocolate” Raw Chocolate Truffle-Bar Recipe
Amazing Raw Chocolate Truffle Bar with Goji Berries, Nuts, and Chili
- 1 cup raw nuts (I used 1/2 chopped pecans, 1/2 pine nuts…use whatever combination you like)
- 1/3 cup Goji Berries
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (cayenne)
- 1/3 cup cold-pressed coconut oil (best quality you can find or afford — it does make a difference in taste & texture)
- 1/2 cup raw Cacao butter (I slice off about an inch length of a brick of the Navitas Naturals cacao butter and that hits the measurement closely)
- 1-1/2 cups raw Cacao powder
- 1/2 cup raw honey (heaping)
- 1/2 cup Rapadura sugar (whole, unprocessed cane sugar from the dehydrated juice)
- a good dash of quality salt (I use “himmy” salt — Himalayan Crystal Salt — but there are other good salts, such as Celtic Sea salt)
Measure the nuts and chili powder into a bowl and mix.
Gently melt the coconut oil. Unlike the cacao butter, it’s generally soft enough to measure first. When melting the fats, just get it melting good and then remove from the heat. We are not raising the temperature to cook it — we only want to liquify it. Pour the coconut oil back into the 1/3 cup container.
Gently melt the cacao butter the same way. It reveals a lovely sunny golden color as it melts, like butter. Remove from heat to finish the melting — we only want to liquify the fat, not cook it. Now we’re done with the heat. Turn if off and work somewhere cool.
Add the coconut oil into the pan. Add the nuts. Add the raw honey. Add the rapadura sugar. Add a few shakes of the salt. Add the vanilla bean if you have it. And mix it well.
I then pour the chocolate out into a ceramic dish — it’s oval but roughly 8X8. A glass one would work well. Avoid non-stick chemically treated pans. Just pour into a shallow medium-sized glass or ceramic container that will allow it to set with a thickness about 3/4-1″. Don’t sweat the dish… you can’t screw this recipe up.
Pop it into the fridge. It sets pretty quickly. Then cut into small pieces and slip out of the container with a metal spatula. If you’re a bit sloppy with the cutting process, no worries — just mold the leftover chocolate bits into little bite-size truffles! I store the chocolate in a large glass jar between layers of waxed or parchment paper and keep it in the fridge (just for firmness, not to prevent spoilage…this stuff is not going to spoil on you. You’re going to eat it years before it would ever go rancid!).
And there you go! I’d love to hear your comments if you make the recipe!
Update 12-April-2009: I made this recipe with raw Macadamia Nuts… Wow!
I *love* the texture of the macadamia crunch! Don’t leave the nut chunks too big, as the macadamias are quite hard. Delicious!!!!
Happy choco-vibing, folks!
Nothing like some raw chocolate to put a smile on people’s faces…
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