No one in my house is overly fond of chocolate. Most of our dessert choices lean towards fruit-based sweets. But my husband has been craving dark chocolate of late. He was very keen to try making bitter chocolate from scratch at home and looked up several recipes online. And kept forwarding them to me until I finally decided to oblige. Most of the recipes called for cocoa butter. It is not easy to find food grade cocoa butter in grocery stores here, but it is available online (I ordered from Amazon) or at any specialty baking supply store. You could use coconut oil/salted butter in place of cocoa butter, but the chocolate will not stay solid at room temperature and will have to be stored in the freezer (we also tried a salted butter version and it turned out pretty well).

These bitter chocolate squares are super simple to make, customisable and melt-in-your-mouth yum. They are free from high fructose corn syrup and the best part is that you can sweeten them as much or as little as you like. You can also vary the flavor by using any extract and add-ins of your choice.

Recipe

Homemade Bitter Chocolate

(Makes 18-20 small squares)

Ingredients

70 gms cocoa butter/salted butter *
60 gms unsweetened cocoa powder (use the best quality you can find)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp maple syrup/honey (add 1 tbsp more for semi-sweet chocolate)
Pinch of salt

Optional add-ins
1 tbsp almonds, slivered and lightly toasted
1 tbsp dried blueberries/cranberries/raisins

Method

Melt the cocoa butter over a double boiler.

Stir in the cocoa powder, vanilla and salt. Whisk well until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Whisk in the maple syrup/honey until fully incorporated.

Stir in the nuts and dried fruit.

Spoon into a silicone chocolate mold and refrigerate until set.

* You can use coconut oil or salted butter in place of the cocoa butter, but then the chocolate will have to be stored in the freezer.

Note: If you live in a hot and humid climate, I recommend you store the chocolates in the refrigerator.