Name: Vegan Dark Chocolate
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: ⅓ cup cacao butter ((45 g)); ⅓ cup coconut oil ((40 g)); ¼ cup maple syrup ((75 g) or other liquid sweetener such as rice malt or agave nectar); ½ cup cacao powder ((45 g))

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A vegan dark chocolate recipe that is so easy it means that divine melty chocolate is only ever a recipe away.

Since ditching my food rules, particularly my belief I couldn’t have chocolate on weekdays, I feel much more relaxed around chocolate.

Now, I can have a bar of chocolate last for days in the fridge or on the kitchen benchtop.

In the past, I felt I needed to eat it all. I felt I needed to get it out of the house.

Consequently, I felt out of control around chocolate and couldn’t trust myself around it.

I now know that my restriction and deprivation led to the uncontrollable feelings. Not chocolate.

Two dark chocolates in a small bowl being cupped in a hand with colourful pants beneath.

Chocolate needn’t be a guilty pleasure

Once I let go of trying to control my chocolate consumption and turned my attention to being mindful of every mouthful, the overeating dissipated. It’s counterintuitive, I know.

However, it is the attempts to control our eating that leads our eating to feel out of control.

Now, I pretty much have chocolate available in the house at all times, or at least I keep ingredients on hand for making my own chocolate or some other chocolatey dessert, such as chocolate avocado mousse or truffles.

And no matter how chocolatey the dessert is or how the chocolate dessert is prepared, I enjoy it without guilt.

Ingredients for vegan dark chocolate

This dark chocolate recipe uses four ingredients: cacao butter, coconut oil, maple syrup and cacao powder.

Cacao Butter

Cacao butter is the fat extracted from cocoa beans. It is solid at room temperature and has a mild chocolatey aroma and taste.

Cacao butter can be expensive and hard to come by, although some supermarkets now stock it. However, cacao butter is the best way to create firm, snappy chocolate because it is solid at room temperature.

If you can’t access cacao butter, don’t worry. You can omit the cacao butter and use only coconut oil instead.

The main difference if using coconut oil only is that it will melt at room temperature and rapidly between your fingers. For this reason, vegan chocolate made only with coconut oil is better for topping slices or as a crackling topping on ice cream than as chocolates.

If you make chocolates with only coconut oil, you’ll likely have to eat them straight from the fridge before they become too melty.

Coconut oil

Despite what I’ve said above, combining cacao butter and coconut oil gives this vegan dark chocolate a creamy sweetness with a mild, delectable coconut flavour. So, the recipe below uses both, although you can use one or the other.

I also opt to use a mixture of cacao butter and coconut oil to reduce the cost of these chocolates, as coconut oil is more affordable and often more accessible.

I’d like to state that coconut is not my preferred oil to use in the kitchen.

I only use coconut oil for recipes that work well with the flavour of coconut or that I would like to firm up on refrigeration or freezing. In my raw food diet days, I proclaimed coconut oil’s health virtues. However, I now know better from a nutritional point of view, but also how the dichotomous thinking around the health benefits of foods can be more harmful than good. See my blog on orthorexia.

Coconut oil is high in saturated fat and should be consumed as part of a balanced diet, not in excess because it has some sort of healing virtues that make it a superior oil. Olive oil is still my go-to for cooking, baking and salad dressings.

In a nutrition myths blog, a colleague and I dispel the health myths about cooking with olive oil and the health benefits of coconut oil.

Maple Syrup

I use maple syrup for my chocolate recipe because it creates a smooth finish.

You could alternatively use honey. However, honey can become gritty when refrigerated, and it is not vegan. You are welcome to use honey if you are not vegan or you don’t mind its texture.

The media conveys mixed messages about natural sweeteners. Some people suggest they are a healthier choice than cane sugar, which is untrue.

Maple syrup, honey, agave nectar and cane sugar are all simple sugars, which, although not essential in a diet, provide essential energy and deliciousness.

Simple sugars don’t need to be eliminated from the diet. It comes down to balance and not assuming that something that is ‘sugar-free’ is automatically the healthier choice.

Overhead shot of two vegan dark chocolates with goji berries on top in a small white bowl, two chocolates without any toppings in another small white bowl and two on a kitchen bench, one topped with cacao nibs, the other coconut.

Topping options for your chocolate

This vegan chocolate recipe is simple to make with only four ingredients. However, you can decorate or add to your chocolate.

Chocolate flavourings

You could flavour your chocolate by adding to the recipe:

a few drops of orange or mint oil
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of chilli powder or chilli flakes
lemon or orange rind
instant coffee powder
shredded or desiccated coconut
crushed nuts

Share your other ideas for flavouring this chocolate in the comments below.

Chocolate toppings

You could sprinkle on your chocolate before it sets:

cacao nibs
sea salt
shredded or desiccated coconut
goji berries
sliced dried apricot or fig
freeze-dried raspberry pieces (drupelets)

Storage of homemade vegan dark chocolate

This chocolate is best stored in the fridge or freezer as the coconut oil is likely to melt at room temperature and can be very melty depending on climate.

Have you tried making your own chocolate?

I’d love to hear if you tried this recipe and how it turned out. Let me know in the comments below.

Stack of vegan dark chocolates in a small bowl on a kitchen bench.

Love chocolate?

Me too! I believe that chocolate is one of life’s joys.

Thus, I share many other chocolate recipes, such as:

Now to this dark chocolate recipe. Enjoy!

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