Making your own dark chocolate at home is simpler than it looks: cacao butter melted gently, cacao powder, a little honey, and the base is ready. The rest is only decoration, but what decoration: the puffed quinoa cracks under the tooth, and the freeze-dried raspberries scatter red, tart flecks across the dark background, like stars across a milky way. One hour in the freezer is enough, and then the slab is broken into uneven pieces.
Raw galaxy dark chocolate with puffed quinoa and raspberries
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Ingredients
- 200 g cacao butter, in small pieces
- 115 g raw cacao powder
- 180 ml honey
- 30 g puffed quinoa (or sprouted buckwheat and dehydrated)
- 15 g freeze-dried raspberries
- 1 pinch of sea salt (or the equivalent of 1 tablespoon - 15 ml - of seawater)
Method
- Pour a little water into a small saucepan and set a heatproof bowl on top, making sure it does not touch the water.
- Bring the water to a simmer, then turn off the heat and melt the cacao butter slowly in the bowl.
- Stir in the honey, then the cacao powder and the salt, mixing for a few minutes until the chocolate thickens and turns glossy.
- Add most of the puffed quinoa and raspberries, keeping a small handful of each back for the finish.
- Pour onto a tray lined with baking paper, spread to about 5 mm, then scatter with the remaining quinoa and raspberries.
- Leave to set for one hour in the freezer, then break or cut into bars. Keep in the fridge or somewhere cool: this chocolate does not melt easily.
Tip
Turn off the heat under the pan as soon as the cacao butter starts to melt: above forty degrees or so, the mixture stops being raw and the cacao trades its fruity perfume for a roasted note. Add the honey off the heat and stir quickly, otherwise the chocolate can seize into grains. The puffed quinoa and freeze-dried raspberries should go in right at the end, once the mass has already thickened slightly: added too early, they sink to the bottom of the tray instead of staying visible on the surface.
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FAQ: your questions about raw chocolate with puffed quinoa
How do you keep puffed quinoa crunchy?
Puffed quinoa is already crunchy when you buy it: the whole point is keeping it that way. Store it in a perfectly airtight jar, away from moisture, and never stir it into a preparation that is still liquid and hot. In this recipe it goes in once the chocolate has begun to thicken, and the cacao butter immediately coats it in a film that isolates it from the air. If it has gone soft, a few minutes at low temperature in the dehydrator brings back its crunch.
How do you make puffed quinoa chocolate bars?
The method is exactly the one in this recipe, only thicker: melt the cacao butter gently, stir in the cacao powder and the sweetener, then add puffed quinoa generously, until the mass is more grainy than liquid. Press into a lined rectangular tin, leave to set in the cold for an hour and cut into bars. Count one volume of puffed quinoa for two volumes of melted chocolate.
What can you make with puffed quinoa?
Puffed quinoa replaces puffed rice everywhere it appears: in muesli, on a plant yoghurt, in a cereal bar or a chocolate bite. It also brings crunch to a smoothie bowl or a fruit salad, provided it is added at the last moment. Some use it as a raw coating, roughly ground with seeds. Its flavour is discreet and slightly grassy, which makes it easy to pair.
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