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| White cacao hearts, "milk" carob chai cups, dark fig n' pecan clusters |
Melina is an Aries, do I need to say more?? ; ) She's strong, bright, determined, and wants the best in life. She walked into my clinic within the first week I opened a few years ago and oh my God, she kept me on my toes! Since then her glittery exterior softened to reveal quite a delicate inner nature. My friendship with her has been like a "pass the parcel game" one week we get challenging newspaper heading and the next an unexpected gift falls out!
She loves dark chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, unique flavours and high quality anything. She is similar to me in the sense that when I say I like chocolate, I'm talking about the only true sort there is- raw and organic, no refined sugars, flavours etc etc
I know she loves dark chocolate but she's also a creature of habit and I had this urge to coerce her to the "white" side, just for a bit. Raw white chocolate (cacao) isn't what you expect it to be. It is naturally off-white/ creamy yellow and needs to be made carefully, adding flavours and allowing the simplicity of the food to be appreciated. It goes perfectly with vanilla and coconut, two of my favourite ingredient's ever. The benefits being she can enjoy a bit in the evenings and have a good nights sleep too. A "milk" (carob) chocolate selection using a minimal amount of cacao and also a dark chocolate with enough cacao to keep her up all night... a bit of everything.
Dark chocolate can make you jittery if you're not careful and make your heart flutter, if you're sensitive. The perfect food to swoon your man... or lady.
White chocolate & blueberry hearts
I'm really proud of this creation. Let me run down the key ingredients; blueberries, coconut, vanilla, maple syrup, macadamias and a pinch of lemon. This is the BEST thing I've made so far! I soaked the blueberries in vanilla and maple syrup before dehydrating them for about 10 hours, so they were still quite juicy. I would have used shop bought ones if they didn't have sugar coating them and preservatives. A couple sultana's (per heart) are added for extra sweetness.
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| White chocolate & blueberry hearts |
Ingredients...
3/4 cup cacao butter1/4 cup maple syrup
dried blueberries
sultana's
coconut flakes
macadamias
vanilla extract
lemon zest
Method...
1. Melt cacao butter, coconut butter, maple syrup, add salt and vanilla extract.
2. Add coconut flakes when the mixture is ready and temper the chocolate until it is ready to be used.
2. In each silicon cup add blueberries, a couple sultanas and a macadamia or two.
3. Pour the raw white cacao mixture over the top
3. Zest some fresh lemon rind while the white hearts are setting.
Fig n' pecan dark chocolate clusters
This is probably my favourite thing to make so far and it reminds me of Heather : )) I love it because any combination of fruit, nuts, spices and flavours goes well and as long as you are patient enough to make chocolate, it'll be a hit. Make no mistake, chocolate making does require patience. This particular batch took me 2 hours of stiring to get it to the right consistency for setting. That's hard work!
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| Me with heathers clusters, not a fab picture but it's the only one I had! |
1. Chop the figs loosely and add the orange rind, almonds, pecans, and salt and mix into tempered dark chocolate then when ready take spoonfuls and plonk them onto baking paper. Set aside to set in a cool place.
Chai fudge cups
This is my version of a "milk" chocolate, using carob powder to add colour and taste with only minimal amounts of cacao. You can pick the chai spice if you're a fan of the beverage if not, it may encourage you to try it sometime. The centre is soft, sweet and fudgy. The only not so fantastic thing about working with carob is that it doesn't allow the chocolate to set with a nice gloss, it has a more dull appearance. Which is why I suggested dusting it with some powder.
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| Chai fudge "milk" chocolate cups |
Ingredients...
1/2 cup soaked cashews4 pitted medjool dates
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp powdered ginger
English toffee liquid stevia 8 drops
2 tbs carob powder
1 tbs cacao powder
1. Soak cashews for up to 4 hours and blend with 4 medjool dates until smooth, add vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, English toffee stevia and carob powder.
2. Fill piping bag with mixture and put in the fridge to chill.
3. Make basic dark chocolate recipe and temper.
4. Use mini silicon cupcake holders or mold and coat a thin layer at the bottom of each cup, allow to set in the fridge, keep the cacao warm.
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| Then fill with melted chocolate to seal the cup... |
6. Dust with cinnamon or cacao powder.
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| Fudgy chai center |
Love
Ulyana...
Whoa girlie! You're my hero!!!! I want, i want. The pics turned out great! xo
ReplyDeleteAwwww Heather! You've taught me well :D xx
ReplyDeleteYum, those look so good! How much coconut oil for the white chocolates?
ReplyDeleteActually, I didn't use any! Coconut oil makes the chocolate softer, easier melting but I find that adding even the smallest amount encourages an oily taste. I think coconut butter would be a better way to go because its taste and texture is more complimentary :)
ReplyDeleteCoconut butter is in the ingredients, but not the instructions, is it necessary for the blueberry ones?
ReplyDeleteHi Ulyana, I'm very intersted in making the white chocolate with blueberries,. They look amazing. I only have 2 questions. Personally I always find the taste of raw cacao butter extremely strong, and not pleasant. Of course in normal chocolate you wouldn't taste this because of the sugar and milk. \
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to partially substite the cacao butter for coconut butter (I read above coconut oil makes it to soft).
Also I noted that als Anonymous statet, the coconut butter is in your ingredients but not in the instructions.
What would you advise me? Thank you by advace for commenting.
Louise.