Homemade raw chocolate advent calendar

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to make my husband a surprise advent calendar with his three favourite chocolate flavours: fruit and nut, orange and mint choc chip. As we try to steer clear of processed chocolate I have worked hard to perfect a raw chocolate that we both love.

I bought the rusty bucket advent set from here and the silicon chocolate moulds I picked up from ebay.  The process of making the chocolates is very quick and easy and you can flavour it with anything you like and so long as you freeze them for a couple of hours they are ready to package up and serve straight away. I packaged mine with a little bit of greaseproof paper and then wrapped in brown paper bound with a little pice of string.

You do have to be a little careful with handling the chocolates as they will melt if handled too much. Raw chocolate does have lower melting point than normal chocolate so I usually keep the chocolates packaged in the fridge in between eating them. In terms of sweetening them, I have tried raw honey, coconut sugar and maple syrup. All work well, however, my favourite is to sweeten using coconut palm sugar.

What you need:
To make enough for 35 small chocolates

*150g Cacao butter
*1/4 Cup raw cacao powder
*1 tbsp Coconut palm sugar (Optional substitutes: mapel syrup, raw honey)
*1 tbsp Coconut oil

Flavourings (per 1/2 cup of melted chocolate, make chocolate mix first before separating and then adding flavour)

*Orange: 1/2 tsp Zest of an orange
*Fruit and Nut: 1 tbsp chopped hazelnuts, 1 tbsp cranberries
*Mint Choc Chip: 1/4 tsp natural peppermint essence, 1tsp raw cacao nibs

•  Bring a small pan of water to boil over heat
• Add a heat proof bowl to the top of it – do not allow the water to touch the bottom of the bowl though
• Add the cacao butter and allow to melt
• Once melted add the coconut oil and fully melt
• Bring off heat and add raw cacao powder and the sweetener of your choice
• Ladle in to 3 separate bowls and add the separate flavourings to each one
• Using a tsp gently place the liquid chocolate in to the moulds and place in the freezer for 2 hours
• One completely set release from the moulds and wrap in greaseproof paper before wrapping in a paper / foil of your choice
• Keep in the fridge or a cool area until ready to serve

Then pop them on the side / hang them on the fire place ready for tomorrow morning and let the countdown to Christmas begin!