Healthy Chocolate Fix: Easiest, Cheapest Way to Get It

I’m the mad scientist in the kitchen, and my quest is to explore healthiest foods and find the easiest, tastiest, most economical ways to eat them. So, in this study, I went full circle. I had tried unsweetened cocoa powder in various recipes, but it didn’t seem wise to take the fat out. I’m a stickler for eating whole foods as much as possible (the way God created them). I don’t want to wait around for scientists to explain how they just found one more incredible, brand new nutrient in some whole food, that we could’ve been getting all along if we just ate stuff whole to begin with.

But I rabbit-trailed. I was curious about cacao butter. The name alone sounded so delicious. So I ordered some online for a very reasonable price.

It did not taste like chocolate butter. It was a bit waxy, not exactly melting in my mouth. But I used it up, mixing it in with unsweetened cocoa powder and other goodies. Then it was pretty tasty!

I began to think, there had to be a better way. I needed something that contained the whole cacao bean. I discovered that that thing was “cocoa mass”. It’s basically unsweetened cocoa powder plus cacao butter, before they separate the two. It’s also pretty much what you get with “unsweetened chocolate squares”, but had you noticed how expensive that’s gotten?

So I got some cocoa mass (AKA Raw Cacao Liquor/Paste, but it was pretty pricey too. (What?! $17/lb.?!) Again, I doctored it up, adding coconut oil and palm sugar. Basically, I could create delectable sweets using better quality, healthier ingredients than what’s in your standard chocolate bar.

But then I got a Vitamix, with amazing powers. It will even grind grains into flour! I could give up my dream of getting an attachment for my Kitchen-aid, and just get one machine to do the work of several. And I did want to put it to work. So I figured I would process the raw, whole, organic cacao nibs I buy on Amazon (by the 5-lb. bag, for under $9/lb, including shipping), and see what I could come up with.

I processed the cacao nibs, but, alas, the raw nibs didn’t process completely smooth. I finally had success when I toasted them in the oven first, and I decided that was the perfect way to do ’em anyway. I’d been reading more and more about how cooking can increase the nutritional qualities of many foods (and decrease the quantity of annoying phytates and such). So this was a perfect solution.

To the processed cacao nibs, I added several other superfoods (coconut oil, cinnamon, turmeric, and palm sugar), and created “Chocolate Fix” (recipe here).

And now I can tell you: There is a way to get a healthy, economical “chocolate fix” using top quality ingredients. Perhaps you’ll want to try it yourself!