Friday Feast: Wild Berry Chocolate Bars

The process is incredibly easy: you simply melt cacao butter (which is the cold pressed oil of the cacao bean) and coconut oil, combine them with the rest of the ingredients, pour the mixture into chocolate molds and freeze it.

While you can change the kind of nuts and dried fruit you use in your chocolate bars, the basic ingredients stay the same. I use dehydrated thimbleberries in these bars, but you could substitute other dried wild berries.

MAKES TWO 8-OUNCE CHOCOLATE BARS

• 3 tablespoons cacao butter
  
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons ground raw cacao
  
• 2 tablespoons carob powder
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons maple syrup
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped almonds
  
• 1 tablespoon dried wild berries
  
• Dash of vanilla extract
  
• Pinch of fine sea salt
  

1. Pour an inch of water into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat to low. Put the cacao butter and coconut oil in a metal mixing bowl (slightly wider than the saucepan) and set it on top of the saucepan, making sure it does not touch the water. When the mixture is melted, remove the bowl from the heat.
   
2. In a small bowl, combine the ground cacao, carob powder, maple syrup, almonds, dried berries, vanilla and salt. Add the melted cacao butter and coconut oil and mix everything together with a spoon.
   
3. Pour the mixture into the chocolate molds. If you don’t have molds, you can use ice cube trays, bowls or pans instead. Let the mixture cool to room temperature and place the molds in the freezer to set for at least two hours. Remove the chocolate from the molds and wrap it in parchment paper. This chocolate has a very low melting point, so it will get soft at room temperature. The refrigerator is not an ideal environment for storing chocolate because cacao butter easily absorbs the flavour of other food, so store the chocolate in the freezer for up to 6 months or eat it all at once.
   

READ: SAVOR by Ilona Oppenheim published by Artisan Books