Homemade Healthy Chocolate Recipe – Made with Honey

Why I Had to Create a Homemade Healthy Chocolate Recipe

I originally came up with a homemade healthy chocolate recipe as a coating for my strawberry cake pops. It turned out to be the perfect coating, but it also seemed like it would make perfect homemade chocolate for baking and making candies.

I modified the ingredient amounts a little and ended up with a chocolate that was nice and hard when cold, making it ideal for mixing into batters or making fun-shaped chocolate candies. Since discovering I could make my own chocolate, I have been using this easy homemade dark chocolate for so many treats!

The reason I created this homemade healthy chocolate recipe and the reason I keep going back to it is because it really is the perfect chocolate recipe for a variety of uses. I love that this chocolate is homemade. I love that it does not contain any refined sugar. I love that it hardens when it’s cold and stays solid even if it is out of the fridge for a bit.

And bonus! This chocolate can even be made dairy-free 😀

I simply had to make this refined sugar-free chocolate recipe to keep my kids’ treats completely naturally sweetened. Sure, I could have thrown some store-bought chocolate chips into their muffins, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-dipped peanut butter buckeye balls. I could have said it’s not a big deal to have a little refined sugar when the rest of the treat is naturally sweetened.

But if you can make treats that are totally naturally sweetened without any refined sugar, and if it’s incredibly easy to do so, why not?

And I’m not exaggerating, by the way. This homemade chocolate recipe is super duper easy.

And that is exactly why you should try making your own chocolate at home for your kids’ treats. Because it really is not hard or even time consuming. It’s actually quite quick and easy to do.

So do you want to know how to make homemade chocolate that does not contain any processed sugar? And what if the sweetener it does contain is actually good for your kids? Oh yes, you know you are ready to start making your own chocolate for your kids.

What You Can Use Easy Homemade Chocolate for

Oh, there are so many delicious, kid-friendly recipes you can use this easy homemade chocolate in! I can hardly wait to tell you about them. And trust me, when you discover all of the amazing, naturally sweetened ways you can use this chocolate, you will be more than willing to go the extra step to make your own chocolate at home.

Here are just a few of the ways you can use this healthy and easy homemade chocolate recipe:

Chocolate Candies: Pour the warm chocolate into cute candy molds for hardening and you’ve got yourself some guilt-free homemade chocolate candy to give the kids on holidays or as everyday desserts. You can even add peppermint, almond, orange or other extracts to flavor your chocolate candies.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Energy Balls: These things are amazing and kids love them! Gluten-free and completely naturally sweetened, these energy balls are a healthy alternative to the typical cookie dough recipes you’ll find online.

With this homemade chocolate recipe to use for the chocolate chips/chunks, you will have a very healthy treat (or even snack) to present to your kids.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Use this homemade healthy chocolate recipe to make my famous chocolate chip cookies sweetened only with dates. These cookies have become a classic in our house. Anytime I would normally make a chocolate chip cookie, these have become my healthy, mouthwatering alternative.

And the kids go crazy for them 😀

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes: Add chunks of this chocolate to my fluffy buttermilk pancakes recipe. Whip up a few batches of pancakes on the weekend for easy school morning breakfasts and surprise your kids by adding chocolaty goodness to their morning routine.

Banana Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt Cups: Chopped pieces of homemade healthy chocolate makes the perfect topping for my delectable peanut butter frozen yogurt cups with a banana slice in the center.

But you won’t find this particular frozen yogurt cup recipe on the website because I reserve it specifically for subscribers to the Naturally Sweetened Kids newsletter. If you would like to try this recipe, subscribe here and I’ll send it to your inbox right away!

Ingredients

• Unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate: Baker’s chocolate makes a great base for homemade chocolate because it is solid, it melts well with butter, and it rehardens when cooled. Make sure you get baker’s chocolate without any added sugar.

• Butter: I like to use grass-fed Irish butter when I can. Otherwise, I use organic butter.

• Honey: You must use raw, unfiltered honey for this homemade dark chocolate. Raw honey is thicker and will help the chocolate to set up once it’s chilled. I usually get my raw, unfiltered honey from Home Goods or Trader Joes. You want the thick stuff in a jar, not the stuff that can be easily poured out of a bottle. You can also get raw, unfiltered honey off of Amazon.

If you have purchased supposedly raw and unfiltered honey but are unsure of it’s quality, this article has 14 quick and easy ways to test the authenticity and quality of your honey.

Instructions

Step 1

Place chocolate molds on a medium-size baking sheet (optionally line the baking sheet with parchment paper for less clean-up).

Step 2

To a small pot on the stove, add all ingredients. Heat on low, stirring constantly until everything is melted and fully combined. Turn off heat.

Step 3

Using a spoon or spatula, slowly pour or spoon the chocolate into the molds until they are filled just to the top. Tap the pan on the counter to make sure the chocolate goes into all the nooks and crannies.

Step 4

Place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least an hour before use.

Step 5

When ready to use or place in a container for storage, pull the baking sheet out of the freezer and flip the molds inside out to release the chocolate.

Step 6

If using as chocolate chunks in a recipe, chop into small pieces using a sharp knife on a hard, cut-safe surface.

Step 7

Use immediately in baked goods or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one month or in the freezer for up to three months.

Substitutions & Tips

• Depending on your stove, you may need to use a double boiler (or a glass bowl inside of a pot of simmering water on the stove) to melt your chocolate. On my stove, as long as I constantly stir my chocolate while it is melting, it does not seize when I melt directly in the pot. But if I try to accomplish other tasks while it is melting and I’m not stirring it constantly, it gets too hot and seizes. If your stove is too hot even on low, this might also happen and you will need to use a double boiler method to melt your chocolate.

• While you can use this chocolate in a recipe once it’s been in the freezer for about a half hour, it is easier to chop up without it melting if it’s been frozen overnight.

• It is also ideal to store this chocolate in the freezer if you want to use it in a baking recipe. It will be less likely to melt during the mixing-in process if it is as cold as possible. However, if you are making candies out of this chocolate, storing them in the fridge is just fine. They will be pretty hard to bite if you keep them in the freezer.

• This homemade chocolate can be made dairy-free by substituting the butter for an equal amount of coconut oil. The dairy-free version turns out very well too. Just make sure the ingredients are mixed thoroughly right before pouring them into the mold, and then put it in the freezer right away. Otherwise, the honey and coconut oil tend to separate.

Also, note that the dairy-free version will melt faster when it’s taken out of the fridge or freezer. So just make sure you keep it frozen until you need to use it and ensure that whatever you are mixing it into is a little bit cold. Make the dairy-free version for my dairy-free chocolate chip muffin recipe.

• A great way to make this chocolate recipe into candies is to use holiday-themed candy molds for Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, etc. After you’ve made the shaped chocolate candies and removed them from the molds, cut small squares of aluminum foil and wrap tightly around each chocolate so that you can see the shape through the wrapper.

I did this for Valentine’s Day this past year and put my wrapped chocolate heart candies in Valentine’s boxes and bags for my kids instead of giving them the overly-sweet, processed, cheap chocolates from the store. And my homemade chocolates went over really well with the whole family 🙂

• If you want to try out different types of chocolate candies, you can mix in finely chopped nuts, orange zest or spices to the chocolate before pouring it into the molds.