Food for the Gods; RAW Chocolat recipe / zelf rauwe chocolade maken

Raw chocolat ~ Food for the Gods / Rauwe chocolade - Voedsel voor de Goden

The ancient Mayan's honored raw cacoa as a sacred food and used it as a medicine,
recently it has been (re)discovered by the west as a 'superfood' - and new investigation of the plant proves to us, how right they were.  


Raw cacoa contains incredible amounts of magnesium (Cacao may actually be one the highest natural plant-sources of magnesium; the 'relaxer mineral'. Magnesium fights acid buildup, neutralizes toxins, calms sensitivity to pain, quiets nerves, builds strong bones and teeth and is essential for many other functions. Over 80% of people living a 'standard' western lifestyle, are chronically deficient in Magnesium), anti-oxidants, zinc, Chromium, Phenethylamine (PEA;  is found abundantly in raw cacao beans. PEA is a adrenal-related chemical that we produce in our bodies when we fall in love <3 PEA is heat sensitive, so much of the PEA in conventional cooked and processed chocolate therefor is unfortunately missing),Omega 6 Fatty Acids, Vitamin C and a lot more incredible elements that just naturally make many of us crave it ;)
 
After making my own raw-chocolat recipe the last time, I put a little bowl of the end-result on my little bohemien home altar (that is dedicated to life and All That Is :) - just to get a fitting picture of this yummy magic for you ;) 

Raw-chocolat with a cup of macachino ;)

For those of you who do not (yet) know what the difference between 'normal' and raw chocolat is, I found this incredibly clear explenation on elementsforlife - a blog all about raw chocolat. Knowing there is no way I can top such a clear description, I will give you a copy of theirs - saying right away; all honors of the next piece of info go to Dan and Paula, 2 raw-chocolat magicians from Wilthshire England :)

(start quote) The generally held view is that raw chocolate, in the context of what we do round these parts, relates to two key aspects. Both fundamental to raw chocolate and both fundamentally different to your average chocolate product.

Low Temperatures

First up is the nature of the cacao itself, how it's produced and how it's processed. Specifically, when it comes to temperature through the processing. Typically, from bean to bar, your average choccie has gone through the mill, so to speak, being heated to temperatures as high as 200°F two, three, sometimes more times.
The processes involved include:

• Roasting the beans
• Extracting the butter & powder, through high temperature/pressure mechanical processing
• Conching - essentially kneeding and mixing the cocoa butter and powder at temperature
• Tempering -  heating and cooling the chocolate to manipulate the crystal structure

Now anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition will realise that all this heating and cooling of the cacao will destroy nutrients, lots of them.
With raw cacao by contrast, the beans are never roasted, the extraction of the butter and powder is done on a small scale, under low temperatures, conching is not done and tempering is typically skipped also. See my blog post "To Temper or Not To Temper, That is the Question" for more thoughts on this topic.

No Added Junk

The second key aspect of raw chocolate is that you don't add all the junk to your chocolate creations that is generally added to conventional chocolate. By this I mean, we don't use dairy, refined sugars, added fats or packers. Basically nothing artificial will go near a raw choclate creation.
Instead, here at Elements for Life we use Sweet Freedom (a low GI syrup made from fruit extracts), raw honey or Coconut Palm Sugar (a low GI sugar made the the nectar of the coconut palm) in place of cane sugar or artifical sweeteners. A variety of superfood ingredients, such as lucuma and maca can also be added to change the flavour and smoothness of your raw chocolates. There's certainly no need for any additional fats, no packers or bulking agents.

Suitable For Everyone

We're all fairly used to being told chocolate is bad for us. When it comes to conventional chocolate, I'd agree. But raw chocolate is a different beast all together. With minimal processing carefully carried out under low temperatures and the lack of the junk being added to the finished products, raw chocolate gooides are generally suitable for a wide range of detary considerations.
With the absence of dairy, raw chocolate is suitable for vegans and lactose intolerance. The use of low GI natural sweeteners raw chocolate is a good choice for diabetics. Without any added wheat or gluten, raw chocolate products such as our award winning Yummy Scrummy raw chocolate brownie are perfect for coeliacs.
Lastly, I certainly believe that raw chocolate is far superior in flavour than your normal junk laden, nutrient-sparse poor substitute we've been fed for years.
- See more at: http://www.elementsforlife.co.uk/blog/2012/jul/cacao-properties/what-is-raw-chocolate#sthash.PdvP4Olh.dpuf

Low Temperatures

First up is the nature of the cacao itself, how it's produced and how it's processed. Specifically, when it comes to temperature through the processing. Typically, from bean to bar, your average choccie has gone through the mill, so to speak, being heated to temperatures as high as 200°F two, three, sometimes more times.

The processes involved include:

• Roasting the beans
• Extracting the butter & powder, through high temperature/pressure mechanical processing
• Conching - essentially kneeding and mixing the cocoa butter and powder at temperature
• Tempering -  heating and cooling the chocolate to manipulate the crystal structure

Now anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition will realise that all this heating and cooling of the cacao will destroy nutrients, lots of them.

With raw cacao by contrast, the beans are never roasted, the extraction of the butter and powder is done on a small scale, under low temperatures, conching is not done and tempering is typically skipped also. 

No Added Junk

The second key aspect of raw chocolate is that you don't add all the junk to your chocolate creations that is generally added to conventional chocolate. By this I mean, we don't use dairy, refined sugars, added fats or packers. Basically nothing artificial will go near a raw choclate creation. Instead, here at Elements for Life we use Sweet Freedom (a low GI syrup made from fruit extracts), raw honey or Coconut Palm Sugar (a low GI sugar made the the nectar of the coconut palm) in place of cane sugar or artifical sweeteners. A variety of superfood ingredients, such as lucuma and maca can also be added to change the flavour and smoothness of your raw chocolates. There's certainly no need for any additional fats, no packers or bulking agents.

Suitable For Everyone

We're all fairly used to being told chocolate is bad for us. When it comes to conventional chocolate, I'd agree. But raw chocolate is a different beast all together. With minimal processing carefully carried out under low temperatures and the lack of the junk being added to the finished products, raw chocolate gooides are generally suitable for a wide range of detary considerations. With the absence of dairy, raw chocolate is suitable for vegans and lactose intolerance. The use of low GI natural sweeteners raw chocolate is a good choice for diabetics. Without any added wheat or gluten, raw chocolate products are perfect for coeliacs.Lastly, I certainly believe that raw chocolate is far superior in flavour than your normal junk laden, nutrient-sparse poor substitute we've been fed for years.

(end quote)"

~ ꒰ღ˘‿˘ற꒱ ~

My own personal raw-chocolat adventure started about 3 years ago, and by now I have probably been cured for life from eating the oldfashioned, overheated, full of sugars and chemicals 'normal' chocolat! The last time I tried a piece of it again, I was wondering what I ever saw in that stuff before. Truly, once you start going raw in cacao, how can you ever return? The chocolat-flavor is just SO much richer and deeper and the effects on your body are actually healthy (if you don't over-do it of course, which can be a challange once you really discover raw-chocolat haha) ;) Now the prices of these bars are currently still at the least tripple the prices of the old recipe chocolat. Which is weird when you think about it, because the raw-version really needs a dozen times less processing from the cacao-plant to the stores where it will be sold. But like with anything good; I am sure prices will lower once more and more people ask for it ;)

To lower the costs you might like trying to make your own! Ingredients will still be a bit pricy but in the end you will certainly safe some money during the whole proces, compared to buying these prefab bars or balls of raw chocolat goodies they sell in the organic store. PLUS; you get to make your own flavors!! :D

I will start giving you the basic recipe, with which you can just free-style by adding whatever kind of filling (nuts/raisins or other) you like to put into it :) On top of that I will give you my secret 'food-for-the-Gods' raw-chocolat recipe which is really - really - really the most amazing chocolat version I have ever created, it was kind of by accident, but luckily I wrote it down while making it and so I can share it here with you now :)

BASIC RAW chocolat making recipe:

your need:

a pan filled half way with water

a soccer that fist inside the pan

a ceramic or glass bowl that fits inside the pan

a slighly bigger ceramic or glass bowl  

a small and low springform or icecube-tray

Ingredients:

- 100 grams Raw cacoabutter

- 8 (modest) tablespoons of raw cacoa-powder
- 3 / 4 tablespoons of natural sweetener (coconutblossomsugar/maple sirop)
  OR a pinch of green stevia

All of these ingredients you can buy locally at any organic store or online.

Making the raw chocolat: 

This is the base for making raw chocolat. Now to turn these elements into raw chocolat probably the most important thing is to keep the process 'raw' - by not overheating your mixture, since this will destroy a big part of the magical superfood-effects that raw cacao has by nature :)

- Put the pan on the stove and fill it +/- half way up with water, now put the soccer upside down inside the pan and below the water and turn on the heat low.

- Put your 100 grams of cacaobutter in a grinder or cut them into smaller pieces with a knife on a wooden plate.

- After cutting or grinding small, put the pieces into the bowl and then carefully place the bowl into the pan- on top of / right in the middle of the (flipped over) soccer, placing it firmly, but making sure that the water in the pan level stays below the opening of your masonjar/bowl for at least an inch (Europe; 2,5 centimeter). If the level seems to be too high- scoop some water out first with a cup untill you found the right balance to put in the bowl with cacaobutter.

In the example below you see a masonjar placed in this way - containing an amount of already competely melted cacaobutter. Here I was using it to make an organic and delicious bodybutter of it :) (this post will follow soon). This way of heating up anything for cooking or making something else out of it is called "Au bain Marie" (French for; "In the bath of Mary").
The idea behind this technique is that whatever is in the bowl that is inside the water - will not burn / or get overheated too fast.

Melting process of raw cacoa 'Au bain Marie'

During this melting process, the temperature of the water in the pan should not exceed 60 degrees celcius (140 Fahrenheid).

A little trick when you do not have a thermometer, is to closely watch the bubbles that appear in the heating process. At some point you will notice little bubbles appearing that seem to 'stick' to the soccer and the sides of the pan, when this happens (once you see a bunch of them - see picture) is when you turn the heat off*. This is when your  water is about (starting to get to) 60 degrees. You can just use this water - not heating it up any further - stirring your cacaobutter around gently or just letting it sit - for melting it all nice and slow :) 

* Now if for any other recipe you need the water to be warmer: once the bubbles start to make little chains and move upward to the surface of the water - it is about 80 degrees, and when they then start to get bigger and move up in a random less organized way- the water has reached a 100 degrees and this means your water is boiling :)

- While waiting, prepare another bigger bowl by putting in the 8 (modest) tablespoons of raw cacoa-powder and the 3 / 4 tablespoons of natural sweetener (coconutblossomsugar/maple sirop) OR the pinch of green stevia, stir up mixing all well.

- When all the cacoa is melted and fully liquid, carefully pick up the jar/bowl with one hand by one of the edges and slowly poor its content into the bigger bowl with dry ingredients - while stirring well. This will make for a beautifull dark pool of chocolat that reflects your face in it when you look down on it and smile ;)) 

- If you like to add any kind of powder flavor or superfood (strawberry-powder, baobab-powder, maca or anything else) this is the right moment to add this as well and mix it in :)

- Then poor the liquid chocolat mixture into either a low plate / small springform or if you like to create smaller pieces; into the icecube-tray or into any other shape you desire.

- If you like to put in any 'heavy' ingredients into your mix like grinded coconut, nuts or raisins; this is the right moment to do so. First make sure they are cut small enough and mixed up together nicely before you 'spread them out' by sprinkling them over the chocolat (still liquid) so they will be spread out evenly inside your chocolat and 'sink in' nicely before you put your cubes/springform/plate into the fridge.

- Smile once more at it - pooring in all your love ;) and then place the cubes/springform/plate into the fridge. Wait for at least an hour before taking it out. 

I like making it in a plate so I get to 'break' the final result into pieces afterwards, I just love the 'rough' look of big or small pieces home made raw chocolat :)

Home made raw chocolat with added ingredients

SO thats it! Go wild!! :D

NOW as promised ~ for a real flavor-experience to heaven and back,
my bad-ass Food for the Gods-recipe ;)

I do the exact thing mentioned in the recipe above adding 

at the moment of stirring in the powdered ingredients :

- 1/4th teaspoon of roughly grinded Himalayan-salt

- a pinch of cardemom

- 1 teaspoon of Chlorella

 and at the moment of stirring in the heavier ingredients

 (after cutting them small and mixing them all up evenly before spreading them out) :

- 1 teaspoon of beepollen

- 3 tablespoons of  grinded coconut

- 2 tablespoons of dried gojiberries

- 1 tablespoon of dried black mulberries

- 1 tablespoon of dried walnuts

- 1 tablespoon of dried pineapple

- 1 tablespoon of dried black cherries / sweetened with natural sweetener

That's it! This is my best raw-choc-melange so far, mainly because the flavors in this mix just keep on changing. So while you eat they go from sweet to salty to tangy (the cherries/pineapple) to nutty to mild and creamy, and all of this happens during the tasting of one piece - it is such an fun trip for your tastebuds ;) All I can say is; try for yourself or even better; just experiment for yourself! Change some of the ingredients if you don't like them or do not have them in your house, hardly anything can go wrong here as long as you stick with natural ingredients ;) 

Please share your own unique ideas and inspire others to make their raw-chocolat-making into a kick-ass adventure ~ and don't forget to add your gorgeous smile into the mix while it is still liquid ;)

Love yourself, each other and the world :)

((( <3 )))

Wieteke

The generally held view is that raw chocolate, in the context of what we do round these parts, relates to two key aspects. Both fundamental to raw chocolate and both fundamentally different to your average chocolate product.

Low Temperatures

First up is the nature of the cacao itself, how it's produced and how it's processed. Specifically, when it comes to temperature through the processing. Typically, from bean to bar, your average choccie has gone through the mill, so to speak, being heated to temperatures as high as 200°F two, three, sometimes more times.
The processes involved include:

• Roasting the beans
• Extracting the butter & powder, through high temperature/pressure mechanical processing
• Conching - essentially kneeding and mixing the cocoa butter and powder at temperature
• Tempering -  heating and cooling the chocolate to manipulate the crystal structure

Now anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition will realise that all this heating and cooling of the cacao will destroy nutrients, lots of them.
With raw cacao by contrast, the beans are never roasted, the extraction of the butter and powder is done on a small scale, under low temperatures, conching is not done and tempering is typically skipped also. See my blog post "To Temper or Not To Temper, That is the Question" for more thoughts on this topic.

No Added Junk

The second key aspect of raw chocolate is that you don't add all the junk to your chocolate creations that is generally added to conventional chocolate. By this I mean, we don't use dairy, refined sugars, added fats or packers. Basically nothing artificial will go near a raw choclate creation.
Instead, here at Elements for Life we use Sweet Freedom (a low GI syrup made from fruit extracts), raw honey or Coconut Palm Sugar (a low GI sugar made the the nectar of the coconut palm) in place of cane sugar or artifical sweeteners. A variety of superfood ingredients, such as lucuma and maca can also be added to change the flavour and smoothness of your raw chocolates. There's certainly no need for any additional fats, no packers or bulking agents.

Suitable For Everyone

We're all fairly used to being told chocolate is bad for us. When it comes to conventional chocolate, I'd agree. But raw chocolate is a different beast all together. With minimal processing carefully carried out under low temperatures and the lack of the junk being added to the finished products, raw chocolate gooides are generally suitable for a wide range of detary considerations.
With the absence of dairy, raw chocolate is suitable for vegans and lactose intolerance. The use of low GI natural sweeteners raw chocolate is a good choice for diabetics. Without any added wheat or gluten, raw chocolate products such as our award winning Yummy Scrummy raw chocolate brownie are perfect for coeliacs.
Lastly, I certainly believe that raw chocolate is far superior in flavour than your normal junk laden, nutrient-sparse poor substitute we've been fed for years.
- See more at: http://www.elementsforlife.co.uk/blog/2012/jul/cacao-properties/what-is-raw-chocolate#sthash.PdvP4Olh.dpuf

The generally held view is that raw chocolate, in the context of what we do round these parts, relates to two key aspects. Both fundamental to raw chocolate and both fundamentally different to your average chocolate product.

Low Temperatures

First up is the nature of the cacao itself, how it's produced and how it's processed. Specifically, when it comes to temperature through the processing. Typically, from bean to bar, your average choccie has gone through the mill, so to speak, being heated to temperatures as high as 200°F two, three, sometimes more times.
The processes involved include:

• Roasting the beans
• Extracting the butter & powder, through high temperature/pressure mechanical processing
• Conching - essentially kneeding and mixing the cocoa butter and powder at temperature
• Tempering -  heating and cooling the chocolate to manipulate the crystal structure

Now anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition will realise that all this heating and cooling of the cacao will destroy nutrients, lots of them.
With raw cacao by contrast, the beans are never roasted, the extraction of the butter and powder is done on a small scale, under low temperatures, conching is not done and tempering is typically skipped also. See my blog post "To Temper or Not To Temper, That is the Question" for more thoughts on this topic.

No Added Junk

The second key aspect of raw chocolate is that you don't add all the junk to your chocolate creations that is generally added to conventional chocolate. By this I mean, we don't use dairy, refined sugars, added fats or packers. Basically nothing artificial will go near a raw choclate creation.
Instead, here at Elements for Life we use Sweet Freedom (a low GI syrup made from fruit extracts), raw honey or Coconut Palm Sugar (a low GI sugar made the the nectar of the coconut palm) in place of cane sugar or artifical sweeteners. A variety of superfood ingredients, such as lucuma and maca can also be added to change the flavour and smoothness of your raw chocolates. There's certainly no need for any additional fats, no packers or bulking agents.

Suitable For Everyone

We're all fairly used to being told chocolate is bad for us. When it comes to conventional chocolate, I'd agree. But raw chocolate is a different beast all together. With minimal processing carefully carried out under low temperatures and the lack of the junk being added to the finished products, raw chocolate gooides are generally suitable for a wide range of detary considerations.
With the absence of dairy, raw chocolate is suitable for vegans and lactose intolerance. The use of low GI natural sweeteners raw chocolate is a good choice for diabetics. Without any added wheat or gluten, raw chocolate products such as our award winning Yummy Scrummy raw chocolate brownie are perfect for coeliacs.
Lastly, I certainly believe that raw chocolate is far superior in flavour than your normal junk laden, nutrient-sparse poor substitute we've been fed for years.
- See more at: http://www.elementsforlife.co.uk/blog/2012/jul/cacao-properties/what-is-raw-chocolate#sthash.PdvP4Olh.dpuf