Vegan Dark Chocolate – Raspberry-Rose, Cashew-Coffee & Peanut Butter

Although you might be used to buying vegan dark chocolate at a store, trust me – making your own chocolate at home has many benefits. Don’t only you have all the control over what kind and how much sugar you’re adding, but also you can create the wildest & most delicious flavor and filling combinations. It’s a dream come true for any real chocolate lover. 🙂

High-quality vegan chocolate that has zero unnatural additives is not that easy to find and if you do, it’s usually crazy expensive. Also, many of these chocolates still use white sugar as a sweetener which I’m not a big fan of (and probably you’re not a fan too).

So I was wondering – is it possible to make a chocolate with a wholesome sweetener, for example, with a date syrup? Date syrup is my favorite choice of healthy sweetener as it’s made from dates and water only plus it has a rich & caramel-y taste.

I tried to experiment and it turns out that date syrup makes the perfect sweetener for a homemade vegan chocolate. But you can also use, for example, rice syrup or maple syrup – it’s your choice! So using only 3 main ingredients – cacao powder, cacao butter, and a date syrup – you can make the most delicious vegan chocolate at home.

You can also vary the cacao powder and sweetener ratio – I’ve found my favorite ratio but feel free to experiment! And when it comes to the flavors – the possibilities are endless. Apart from the 3 flavors listed in the recipe – raspberry-rose, salted peanut butter, and cashew-coffee – I’ve also tried tahini filling, rosemary-sea salt combination, lavender, and even licorice and had a success with all of them. And remember that a homemade dark chocolate is a real superfood – cacao is filled with minerals and antioxidants plus it works as a good mood booster.

Last note – this recipe was developed in a collaboration with Super Garden – an organic quality food producer in the Baltics. I’ve been their product fan since the beginning so I was very happy to collaborate! 🙂 But now – enough talking. Let’s get to the recipe!

Vegan dark chocolate

Makes 3 chocolate bars (~80 g each)

Ingredients

For the base dark (~75%) chocolate:

100 g cacao butter (I used organic Super Garden cacao butter)
80 g cacao powder (I used organic Super Garden cacao powder)
60 g date syrup (or maple syrup)

For the raspberry-rose flavor:

2 tsp freeze-dried raspberries
a few dried edible rose buds

For the salted peanut butter flavor:

1 tbsp. peanut butter
a healthy pinch of Himalayan pink salt
2 tbsp. chopped, roasted peanuts

For the cashew-coffee flavor:

2 tbsp. chopped, roasted cashews
1 tsp chopped coffee beans
1/4 tsp pure vanilla powder

Special equipment:

silicone or plastic chocolate molds

Directions

First, make sure that all the equipment that you’re working with is completely dry! If the smallest water drop gets into the chocolate, it will seize up and you’ll have to start all over again.
Either in a double boiler (add about 3 cm of water in a saucepan, bring to boil and set another heatproof bowl on top of it where you can melt the cacao butter) or on a very low heat, melt the cacao butter.
Add the date syrup, mix in well and remove the bowl from the heat.
Finally, add the cacao powder and stir well until there are no clumps. Taste the chocolate and adjust the sweetness to your liking.
Next, take the first chocolate mold and fill it with the melted chocolate. Allow it to cool for a couple of minutes in the room temperature and generously sprinkle with freeze-dried raspberries and rose petals (remove them from the rosebuds). Place the raspberry-rose chocolate bar in the fridge to set.
Fill a half of the second mold with chocolate. Allow it to cool for a couple of minutes in the room temperature and pour over the peanut butter (this is going to be the “filling” for your chocolate). Then pour over the chocolate again until the mold is completely full. Generously sprinkle with chopped, roasted peanuts and a bit of salt. Place in the fridge to set.
Add 1/4 tsp of pure vanilla powder to the remaining chocolate, mix well. Fill the last mold with the vanilla-flavored chocolate. Allow it to cool for a couple of minutes in the room temperature and sprinkle with the chopped, roasted cashews and coffee beans. Place in the fridge to set.
Allow all chocolate bars to set in the fridge for about 2 hours or overnight (or in the freezer for 1 hour). When the chocolate has set, remove from the molds and enjoy! Keep in the fridge or freezer for up to a month.