Herbal Chocolate...

We've been on quite the handmade roll over here as of late. More than usual that is! And I just had to take a moment to share these handmade herbal chocolates with you because, well, they are my favorite current addition to my breakfast these days! Yes, that's right, chocolate so easy to make and so good for you that you don't have to feel bad about eating it first thing in the morning. Now that should make you smile, right?

I've been interested in using natural remedies at home for quite some time now. We make special tea with local honey and cayenne pepper when we are sick, rub garlic oil on our feet when a cold is coming on, and make our own bath oil with garden herbs and essential oils...just to name a few. But I had never made my own chocolate until this week.

Herbal chocolate is free of processed sugar and uses honey as it's sweetener. It is a dark chocolate with a bitter taste but with a dollop of Justin's maple almond butter on top it is the perfect protein-packed, vitamin rich sweet treat for me!

I got the recipe from Learning Herbs, a wonderful source for all things herbal, including kids games to teach about wildcrafting! You know that is finding it's way under our Christmas tree this year. But I digress...

While we tweaked the recipe a bit and added our own hacks in the cooking process we got this wonderful recipe from the awesome folks over at Learning Herbs.

Here goes....

INGREDIENTS

• 130 grams of cacao butter - WE USED 9 TBS. • 70 grams of raw cacao powder - WE USED AROUND 5 TBS. • 15 grams maca root powder - WE USED 1/2 TBS. * • 5 grams cinnamon powder - WE JUST USED A HALF TBS. of CINNAMON • Honey to taste - WE USED 2 TBS. • 2 – 3 tablespoons of cacao nibs - WE SPRINKLED IT IN THE BOTTOM OF EACH • Silicon molds - WE USED AN ICE CUBE TRAY **

* I cut the amount of MACA in half because I wasn't sure how much the kids should consume.

* We didn't have molds but the ice cube tray worked great!

Get Cookin...

Start by sprinkling a small amount of Cacao Nibs in the bottom of each ice cube slot in the tray. Or in the bottom of each silicone mold.

Stir together the Cacao Powder, Maca Root Powder, Cinnamon, and Honey. Add in whatever other goodies you wish to include Hemp Seeds, Chia Seeds, Flax, Etc. ).

Chop up the Cacao Butter into small chunks and melt it in a double boiler. We did not have one of those so I placed a small pot of water to boil on the stove with a metal mixing bowl over top. I melted the Cacao in the bowl and it worked great.

Mix the melted Cacao Butter and the other ingredients together and pour it into the molds or ice cube tray.

The suggestion was that these would set up on the counter left out in room temperature after a couple of hours. We got impatient when that did not happen so we put them in the fridge to speed up the process!

These are packed with Magnesium, Potassium, Protein, and tons of other vitamins and minerals. I enjoy a piece for breakfast with a scoop of maple almond butter...as mentioned in the beginning of this post! But I bet it would be good with all kinds of combos.

Experiment, have fun, and post in the comments if you give it a try!