13 April, 2006
Raw Chocolate Easter Eggs
Phew! What a busy time I’ve been having. Most of last weekend was taken up with preparing for and demoing at The Fresh Network Open Day. It felt a little bit different as it was on a Sunday instead of the usual Saturday, I mean, we were eating raw chocolate when most people would have eating roast spuds and then falling asleep in front of the TV! There was a great crowd of people, it’s really nice to be around like-minded people. It always reconnects me to my reasons for being raw and also wanting to create raw food for others - it strengthens my ‘why’ as Karen would say.
Anway, on to my reason for this post. As I have already said, I was demoing raw chocolate at the Open Day, in the form of Raw Easter Eggs. Everyone loved the chocolate and was amazed when I popped the egg out of the mould so I wanted to share the recipe and method with you all. This is a great one for parents as you now don’t have to compromise or feel that your kids are missing out…read on….
Raw Chocolate Easter Eggs
Recipe by Russell James
Makes 3+ good size eggs with chocolate left over for making chunks of of ‘fruit and nut’! Top Tip: This can be achieved by adding raisins and pieces of your favorite crushed nuts to the left over mixture and putting into ice cube trays.
Ingredients
2c cashew butter (1 16oz jar)
2c cacao powder or if no cacao powder available, use 1c milled cacao nibs + 1c carob
2c grated cacao butter
2T vanilla extract or the inside of 2 whole vanilla pods
1c agave nectar
Method
1. Put the grated cacao butter in a bowl and place in a dehydrator at 115 degrees F. The idea is to turn the butter into liquid for use later on in the recipe. You can also achieve this by placing the bowl in a sink of hot water.
2. In a food processor mix the cashew butter and cacao powder (or cacao and carob, if using) thoroughly. This will be easier if the cashew butter is at room temperature.
3. Transfer this mixture to a large bowl and add vanilla extract (or pods) and agave. Mix in by hand.
4. When cacao butter has liquidised, pour into chocolate mixture and mix again by hand.
5. Use a spoon to spread chocolate into egg moulds (I got my egg moulds from Lakeland). If you’re using cacao nibs and carob you may find that mixture is a little to dry and stiff to work with so you can cover and put into the dehydrator for about half an hour to loosen it up. Be sure to save some chocolate mixture to seal the 2 halves of the egg together.
6. Put egg moulds in freezer until chocolate has set. This could also be done in the fridge if you’re not in a hurry. Eggs should now easily pop out of the mould.
7. Use your fingers to apply the chocolate you saved to the edges of one of the egg halves. This doesn’t have to be perfect and you can be quite liberal with it as you’re going to wipe off any excess.
8. Push the 2 halves together and use your finger to finish off the seal and get a smooth join. Egg can then be put in the fridge.
9. Eat while weeping with joy (Karen’s words, not mine! :-))
Popularity: 13% [?]
What can you use to replace:
2c cashew butter (1 16oz jar)
and
2c grated cacao butter
and
1c agave nectar
Jen on / 18 December, 2006
Hi Jen,
You could use cashews blended in a Vitamix with water to replace the cashew butter. However, I’m thinking that if you don’t want to use cashew butter, you also don’t want to use cashews! I’ve found brazil nut butter works well too. And also, believe it or not, you can use avocados to make chocolate. You’ll just have to add extra sweetener.
Unfortunately cacao butter is very important to this recipe as it keeps the chocolate set. Another ingredient I use to do that job is coconut butter, however the temperature it turns to liquid is much lower than cacao so you’ll have to keep the chocolate in the fridge.
You can replace the agave with honey if you use it. Another option is to use dates.
I used dates and brazil nut butter to create the dessert for one of the London Dinner Parties and it turned out great, even if I say so myself! :-)
Russell James on / 19 December, 2006
Just wanted to say thank you for the idea; should be a good challenge for our Scouts! Thank you too for the link to Lakeland as their Easter egg mould sets are much better value than everywhere else I’ve looked!
21st Medway Scouts on / 27 March, 2007
I made these today. I didn’t have cashew butter so I put the cashews through my greenstar juicer and then added some water to make a sort of paste. After making the recipe, I put them in the molds and then in the refridgerator to set. The finished product was awful! The chocolate did not take the form of the mold very well. It was irregular with little holes and cracks. I tried pushing the chocolate into the molds with all my might but still it wasn’t smooth. Is it the fact that I didn’t use cashew butter that I didn’t get the desired results?
Diane on / 15 November, 2007
Diane, By the sound of it you didn’t manage to get the cashews to the right consistency using the method you described. If using the cashew butter you shouldn’t need to push the chocolate into the moulds very hard, it should take the form of mould by itself.
If you have a Vita-Mix, that would be much better to blend the cashews and water into a smooth, runnier consistency.
Russell James on / 15 November, 2007
I’m a real chocolate lover and have cacao trees growing close to me for a constant supply and enjoy every part of the cacao experience! http://www.caribbeanlandandproperty.com/blog/index.php?/archives/64-Cocoa-licious!.html
The recipe sounds great but since I am in the Caribbean I would have to make substitutes too. Do you have a technique to make the coconut butter? I have a very plentiful supply of coconuts too!
Onelove
Terri
From Russell: Hi Terri, I don’t actually know how they make coconut butter but I would assume it involves some serious mechanical equipment.
Terri on / 17 April, 2008