Easy to make. No homogenised, pasteurised, or any milk of any kind. No refined sugar. Raw cacao, so full of nutrients! What else could you want? Amazing flavour? It has that too. If you have been too scared to make raw chocolates before, delve in - there is nothing to be scared about - it is simple and the outcome is to be marvelled!

Above are pictured Lemon + Sea Salt raw chocolates. An unusual but delicious combination. You may want to start with just Wild Orange or Peppermint. You could get adventurous with Geranium or even Vetiver. Start with less essential oil (1 drop) + add more to taste. Have fun! Make sure you use only oils that are pure enough to ingest.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil

• 1/2 cup raw cacao powder

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• Chosen flavour of essential oil (in this instance 3 drops of lemon essential oil - citrus oils tend to need more, but if using a floral or mint oil, go for 1 drop)

• A grind of sea salt (if make lemon + sea salt flavoured chocolates like I did today, make it a big grind of sea salt)

Method:

1. Get your chocolate moulds ready. Make sure there is no water in them. You need to make sure there is no water involved in the whole process, as it marks the chocolate, and can make it split.

2. Place the coconut oil in a bain marie and let it gently melt.

3. Take it off the heat and add in the cacao powder, mix through, and then add in the maple syrup, and stir.

4. Add in your chosen essential oil, stir well.

5. There is a reasonable chance that your mix will have started to stiffen, so work quickly to put it into your moulds. I tend to scoop a load on, use a knife to scrape it into the moulds, give the moulds a shake, add more chocolate if needed, and level it off with a knife.

6. Then place in the freezer to set.

7. Because these raw chocolates are made with coconut oil as opposed to cacao butter, they melt very easily. You may well want to keep them in the freezer, until you are eating them.

8. Enjoy!

Tag me @rochelle.a.hubbard on Instagram if you make some! I’d love to see it. You can also join me on Telegram here.