Making your own chocolate bars.

We've been buying fair trade high-%-cocoa chocolate lately, but I was doing a hands-on "long weekend" (Fri through Sun) over thataway --> a few months ago, and we had some leftover cocoa butter.

So this lady asked, could she use that to make chocolate bars.

I said "of course".

Mmmm. Y-u-m.

The Recipe

250 g / 8 oz. cocoa fat
250 g / 8 oz. cocoa powder (NOT sugared and milked, just the pure powdered cocoa)
1 tablespoon honey (don't use sugar: that'll crunch in your teeth and not taste sweet at all. There's no water in these chocolate bars.)
(30-70 g / 1-2.5 oz. powdered local berries like cranberries, sea buckthorns or black currants) (utterly unsweetened, just the pure berries)
(a handful of whole almonds or other nuts)
(raisins to taste)
(ground coffee)
(spices, like cardamom, ginger or cinnamon)

Melt the cocoa butter with the cocoa powder, add in the honey once it's all nice and soft (add in the powdered berries) (could be whole dried berries, too, I suppose, but please - unsweetened!).

Pour onto baking paper which is in a shallow dish. Throw some almonds, raisins, berries, spices or coffee grounds on top (most of that will sink).

Put into the fridge overnight to cool and let set, then slice into suitable bits. (There's no need to wrap them, they won't last for very long).

I get rave reviews for this, and the only complaint I get is "We're all out? How did that happen?"

Use fair-trade cocoa butter and cocoa powder. It's the right thing to do. And use organic, too.