Just like diamonds are a girl’s best friend, chocolates are a kids best friend. So, it was only fitting to have a chocolate making session during the “Healthy Me” workshop (read more about it here).
I know what many of you are thinking “How can chocolate feature in a workshop about health?”. Well to be honest, chocolate is neither all good nor all bad. In fact, one of my previous posts addresses exactly this topic and you can read more about it here.
Dark chocolate is healthier. But dark chocolate has a bitter taste which kids don’t really go for. So the chocolate recipe for this workshop had to be on the ‘sweet but healthy’ side. The best choice for times like these is honey. Compared to sugar, honey offers more nutritive benefits and also less of it gives you a sweet taste. That’s also why I used honey as the sweetener in my no-bake, no-sugar cookie recipe which you can find here.
If you like dark chocolate, you can use less honey. But don’t use more honey than the recipe calls for, else the chocolate won’t set. Also, the best way to set these chocolates is in the freezer. Once you remove them from the moulds, store them chilled, or else they will start melting, especially in warmer weather.
Also, make sure you work with dry utensils only. If water gets anywhere near the chocolate syrup or even the moulds are moist or wet, it makes the chocolate less smooth and changes its texture.
Lastly, depending on the brand/quality of honey, the taste of the final product differs and the chocolate also develops a ‘nougat like’ layer when it sets. The kids were intrigued with the layers and more excited to have made a two-layer chocolate, but if you are looking for a more uniform consistency, you have to play around with the brand of honey you use and also try to pour all the chocolate syrup into the mould while the mix is homogenous (we let the chocolate syrup sit for a while since the kids were pouring them into moulds in batches, so the first batch of kids had a more uniform looking chocolate while the last batch of kids had more distinct layers of chocolate and nougat).
Here’s the recipe for the chocolate:
1 cup of unsalted cooking butter
1 cup of good quality cocoa powder
½ cup honey (less if you want a more bitter taste)
1 tsp vanilla essence
Melt the butter in a glass bowl in a dish containing boiling hot water (boil the water and take it off the flame before placing the glass bowl with butter in it).
Once the butter has completely melted, add the cocoa powder, honey and vanilla essence. Keep stirring so that the honey melts and the cocoa powder dissolves uniformly in this mixture. You can take it off the boiling water if it gets too hot and return it to the boiling water if it starts to solidify too quickly. But doing this too often will affect the texture of the chocolate so try to be as quick as possible with the mixing and homogenizing.
Pour the chocolate syrup into moulds (you can even use a glass pan or baking tray lined with parchment paper). Set in the freezer and serve chilled.
I chose to make plain chocolate with the kids but you could add coffee, nuts, orange zest or any other flavour to customize it to your likes. Maybe, liquor even!
**Still one more recipe remains! Any guesses what that might be? Hold on, we’ll reveal that one tomorrow 🙂
Choose Healthy, Be Happy 