Chocolate Is Healthy

Eat.Drink.Better posted this amazing raw chocolate truffle recipe, made from nut pulp (from making nut milk), raw nut or seed butter, raw cacao powder, raw agave nectar, vanilla, salt and some shredded coconut.   Raw chocolate truffles make a wonderful dessert to enjoy at home, or package up an assortment and give them as gifts to both vegans and non-vegans.  They’re fun and easy to make and can be stored in the freezer.

Raw Chocolate Truffles : Eat. Drink. Better..

Cocoa butter, also referred to as cacao butter, is made by pressing cacao nibs to separate the cacao “butter” from the protein and fiber.  For cacao butter to be raw, this process cannot take place at or above 112 degrees Fahrenheit.  The cocoa “butter,” a naturally occurring fat, separates and solidifies.  It is yellow in color and has a mild, chocolate scent.

Cocoa butter retains the antioxidant properties also found in dark chocolate, but has even more uses.  You can use it for making chocolates or chocolate desserts like ice cream. Despite being high in saturated fats, cocoa butter does not raise cholesterol levels the way other saturated fats do. You can also massage cocoa butter into your skin to help soften and retain moisture.  It’s commonly added as an ingredient in soaps and lotions.

When you’re shopping for raw cocoa butter, look for a producer who ensures there are no contaminants or other unwanted stuff in the product.  It’s commonly sold by the pound and you’re guaranteed to find many uses for cacao butter.

Glamour published this great raw, vegan chocolate mousse recipe made with cacao powder and avocado, and sweetened with dates and agave nectar. This recipe shows there’s so much more to avocados than guacamole!  If you like this, you may enjoy this as frosting for a vegan cake. It looks simple and fabulous.

Raw Chocolate Mousse
Courtesy of Susan Powers of Rawmazing

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dates soaked until very soft with pits removed
2 avocados
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup almond butter
3/4 cup cacao powder
1/2 c agave nectar

Preparation:

In food processor or blender, combine all ingredients and blend or process until smooth. Refrigerate, then enjoy. You will not believe how good this is!

Afternoon Snack: Would You Try This Raw “Chocolate Mousse”? (P.S. It’s Made With Avocados!): Vitamin G: Health & Fitness: glamour.com.

Have you ever dreamed of being a chocolatier?  Treehugger posted a great review of the Navitas Naturals Organic Chocolate Kit.  This looks like a fantastic gift for the chocolate lover with delicious results. And, Navitas Naturals Chocolate Kits are 100% organic, kosher, vegan, gluten-free, and raw.

The DIY chocolate kit requires no special equipment. The process involves some simple slicing, melting, mixing and freezing, and your chocolates are done in minutes!

The kit contains all organic, raw superfoods including premium cacao, maca, lucuma and mesquite.

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

“All I needed was two smallish bowls, a spoon, a knife, and ice cube tray. Shave and stir, drop in the super berries, pour into ice tray molds, slide into the freezer to set. Within minutes (just like the box promised). Pop them out and there were a dozen perfect little dark chocolate candies. Move out of the way, Whitman’s. Forget, Frangos. So long, Sees. And bye-bye to pre-packaged natural equivalents.

For ten bucks and ten minutes, you, too, can be a chocolatier. No one will guess it’s so easy. As I said, I’m predisposed to chocolate, so when I taste tested one and liked it, and gobbled another, I recognized my bias. The chocolate tasting party would be the judges. “You made these!?” they exclaimed.”

DIY Superfood Chocolates: Good and Good for You, Too? : TreeHugger.

The majority of my travels have actually been centered around food, so we thought this was an inspiring article about the boom in culinary travel.   You will find raw, culinary abundance when you travel in places like Central America.   If you plan it right, you’ll not only get to try the jungle termites that taste like carrots (been there, ate that), but visit cacao farms to view chocolate in its original state.  We think chocotourism is the perfect way to learn about local cultures, cuisines and the environment. And it helps illustrate where our food comes from.  Many culinary tours involve not only trips to markets and farms, but also food preparation using local ingredients.

Here’s a snippet of this culinary tour, which we think still needs more chocolate.

“The rest of the food for meals in the Playa Nicuesa’s family-style dining room come from local providers—eggs and meat from small farms, fresh fish caught daily in the Golfo Dulce by the lodge’s resident angler, Tomás. Breakfast and lunch are accompanied by chilled guava juice from one of the cas trees. Fruit plates—bananas, pineapple, mangos—are served with the sauce of another guava, the arazá. Grilled beef comes with a peppery condiment from the tamarindo tree, red snapper with a salsa of chopped mimbro, onions, and cilantro. One dessert consists of coconut meat dipped in pungent chocolate that’s been coaxed from the seeds of the indigenous cacao trees. The lodge bartender has even invented a cocktail that mixes Costa Rican rum with cane sugar, crushed ice and Playa Nicuesa’s homegrown lemon grass, lemon leaves and oregano.”

Culinary Ecotourists Turn Wilderness Foraging into Dinner: Scientific American.