HEALTHY EATING
By Fabiola Zefi
Forget about store bought chocolate! Making your own is so much more versatile, especially for those nights where you can’t decide what flavour to have! The only problem here is that I always make so much and eat it so quickly!
Seriously, unless you only want this to end up on your lips, and not hips, then you must give away half of it or just come to terms with the fact that you will devour it all in no time! A little bit of indulging never killed anyone.
The beauty of homemade chocolate bar snaps is that you can make whatever flavours you’d like. Sweet and salty, peanut butter, chili flakes, berries, nuts. You name it! And the beauty of it is that you control exactly how much sugar goes in it, and what kind of sweetener to use. Boy, this keeps on getting better and better. Just wait until you try it!
Ingredients:
- 1 box of unsweetened Baker’s dark chocolate. (trust me, get this and you can make it as milky as you wish if you don’t like dark chocolate)
- 5 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ cup goji berries or any other berries of choice
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- ¼ cup shredded coconut
- 2 teaspoons fresh or dried rosemary or thyme
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
Directions:
- Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in your saucepan. Set a heatproof bowl in the mouth of the pot, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.
- Add and stir chocolate and maple syrup occasionally until it’s all a creamy mixture.
- Lay parchment paper on a large baking sheet and slowly poor chocolate mixture onto it. Note that if you’d like it to be thick like a chocolate bar, then a smaller baking sheet is needed so it doesn’t spread.
- Now you can decide which toppings you’d like on it. I have made as many as 4 different types from one baking sheet of spread chocolate. A part with goji and sea salt, another part I topped with coconut flakes, rosemary and chili flakes and another part with cayenne and sea salt. If you prefer your chocolate milky or peanut buttery, then add about 5 tablespoons of thick coconut cream while the chocolate is melting, or 5 table spoons of peanut butter. Or, heck, mix it all! The toppings are endless, you can add whatever you want once you pour the mixture on the baking sheet.
- Freeze chocolate for 3-4 hours, snap it into pieces and store in the freezer in an air tight container. Goes well with a nice glass of Malbec!
Serves 2-4 depending on the portion sizes.
