I love the taste of sweet treats but not the way they make me feel afterwards, so this year has been a quest to make a whole foods version of every sweet treat I enjoy. Many of the sweet treats I love have chocolate chips in them so first stop was making my own chocolate chips. I found this great chocolate bar recipe on the Nourishing Joy blog that I tweaked by using raw honey instead of the sugars and then increased the cocoa butter. After making the bar I just chopped them up with a large knife and called them chocolate chips.
The Recipe
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Melt the cocoa butter and honey together over very low heat. Remove from the stove and stir in the cocoa powder and vanilla.
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Pour into a mold of your choice. I use my pyrex rectangle dish lined with parchment paper. If you use a re-purposed plastic container you need not use the parchment paper, you should be able to just "pop" it out. You should allow this to sit at room temperature until it hardens so it stays a uniform color, I am too impatient for that so I threw it in the freezer until it hardened. Yes, you can see a little white around the edges but I'm fine with that.
Chop into "pieces" and you now have homemade chocolate chips! Just a quick note about using raw honey, the chips are softer than would be if using powdered sugar so they do melt faster and if your house is warm they tend to get pretty soft so you may want to store them in the fridge.
Where can I get these ingredients
I have tried cocoa butter from many places such as Amazon, Bulk Apothecary and a local kitchen store but my favorite by far is from Mountain Rose Herbs. This may just be me but I swear their's has a stronger flavor, smoother texture and they are Fair Trade so I feel better about purchasing it here. They also carry fair trade cocoa powder. Raw honey is becoming easier to get, in fact I just saw some on the shelves of Costco this past month. You can also get it at Amazon and Bulk Herb Store but local is best so search around and I'm sure someone local sells it.
