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Monday, September 8, 2008

Recipe of the Week: Raw Yummilicious Milk Chocolate


As I'm expecting Heathy's arrival tomorrow (woo hooooooooo!!!), I wanted to prepare a special treat for the one I've nicknamed 'The Ultimate Raw Dessert Queen'. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to try the new chocolate candy molds I bought during my recent visit to the city. I got to work and made a batch of Orange Goji Berry White Chocolate and a variation of Mishka's Raw Yummilicious Milk Chocolate recipe sans the cacao powder. As an afterthought, not sure whether there'd be quite enough, I decided to whip up some more of the Milk chocolate, just to be safe. Only it turned somewhat into a chocotastrophy (to borrow shannonmarie's term.)

When measuring the melted cacao butter, I realized it didn't yield the necessary amount. (I find it's always a hit-and-miss kinda thing.) "Ah well... No big deal," I thought, so I went ahead and blended the ingredients anyways. The consistency, though, was too thick and grainy. I was in a bit of a bind; I knew that by the time I heat up more cacao butter in the dehydrator, the mixture would almost certainly have seized up in the carafe (nasty business!) Hmmm, what to do...

Since I had some melted coconut oil all ready for a different recipe, after a moment's hesitation, I decided to go for it. I mean, it was right there, sitting on the counter... It seemed so much simpler, right? Wrong! One definition of insanity is doing the same thing while expecting different results, so go ahead... you can call me the 'Cacao Coo coo'! lol See, I've tried mixing coconut and cacao butter before while making chocolate candy a few months back, and let's just say it wasn't a successful experiment. Although the flavor was lovely, the mixture had more of a fudge consistency than hard chocolate. This time around, I managed to make matters worse by pouring the dodgy-looking mixture (to top it off, the oils had separated as well! Yuck!) into my little candy moulds. Not a good idea!!! I ended up having to painfully extract the soft fudge with a knife, remelt it and form it into a flat slab.

Ah well... Always something new (or not so new? lol) to learn, eh?

BUT, boy oh boy, does this chocolate ever taste divine!!!

Moral of the story, DO NOT EVER attempt to mix cacao and coconut butter together in a chocolate candy recipe, regardless of how good an idea it may seem at the time. lol

And above all, DO try Mishka's Milk Chocolate; it truly is out of this world!


Raw Yummilicious Milk Chocolate
By Mishka
Posted on Raw Freedom Community

2/3 cup cashews
2/3 cup agave nectar (maybe just a bit less than this)
2/3 cup cacao butter (liquified)
1 Tbsp lucuma
1 Tbsp mesquite
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp cacao powder

Liquify cacao butter in sun or dehydrator. In Vitamix, blend all of the above, and pour into moulds or onto wax paper in dish. Freeze, cut, and enjoy!

Mishka's Note: I made the mistake of putting the cashews and dry stuff in the blender first today...big whoops. Definitely, put all wet ingredients in first, then add the previously blended cashews. And it all goes good from there!

Carmella's Notes:
~ I would recommend grinding the cashews first for easier processing.

~ I cut down on the sweetener a bit... used more like 1/3 cup agave as I prefer it not too sweet.


I think Her Highness should be pleased... ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Holy! Holy! Holy! As in the church of chocolate. :o)

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  2. Ha ha. I'm not the only one. If I remember correctly, I think I made the same mistake mixing the two. It still tasted good, but the consistency was a little off.

    Tell Heathy I said, "hi." Maybe one day we'll meet up in the kitchen, too :-)

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  3. whoa! that chocolate looks heavenly!

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  4. Thank you for this wonderful recipe !!! It soooo good :) I just made raw chocolate for the first time and it RAWKS !

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  5. Hmm..interesting. I actually saw your fruit and nut bar and modified it mising cacao butter and coconut oil several times and it came out really good. I thought it was firmer than when I had made it with just coconut oil.

    I'll have to keep an eye on it. It is excellent in brownies, which are chewy....and I have not made the bark in awhile, due to diet restrictions, but I gave some out to SAD friends and they fell in love with the consistency.

    I will definitely keep an eye out the next time i do chocolate bars this way...Thanks Carmi...great site.

    You are the reason that I discovered the different ingredients and started experimenting. LOVE IT!

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