Homemade Honey-Sweetened Dark Chocolate Bars – GAPS, Paleo, Primal, Etc.

 

Homemade Honey-sweetened dark chocolate bars.

Rich, delicious, and free of unhealthy additives.

Truth be told, I’m not really a huge fan of honey-sweetened EVERYTHING.

So, I was kind of concerned the chocolate would taste very honey-y.  But happily, it didn’t!

My Inspiration

Inspired by this recipe, I knew I wanted to make a honey-sweetened chocolate bar for my healthy s’mores but I haven’t had good luck making it with cocoa powder.

Then I happened to notice that my grocery store started carrying Ghirardelli unsweetened baking chocolate, which is made without soy lecithin.  So I bought a couple bars and put on my Mad Scientist hat.

The Results

What I came up with was lovely.  It was a bit grainy because I used raw honey that was granulated and I didn’t want to heat it, but if you use fully liquid honey it does come out quite a bit smoother.  The finished chocolate has no noticeable honey, though.

They worked wonderfully for the s’mores that I made them for, and they are also a great healthy dessert option alone.

**One thing of note – tempering your chocolate will make a difference.  It will give it that characteristic “snap” and a smooth texture.  I followed these instructions here.  I recommend giving the article a once-over so my instructions will make a little more sense.  It wasn’t hard to do this, I promise!

The honey does thicken up the chocolate a bit, so I added some butter which also had the side effect of softening up the chocolate just a little which was perfect for making s’mores.  I’ve been keeping them in the freezer, and right out of the freezer they are hard and feel just like eating a bar of good dark chocolate.

Note on the butter & chocolate – I used butter because I specifically wanted a chocolate that was a bit softer for s’mores – I like it a little melty and not so hard.

However, if you want a true regular chocolate, I highly recommend buying a good cocoa butter.  I’ve gotten mine from various sources, but the best value in terms of quality + price I found is this Indonesian raw organic cocoa butter on Amazon.

Also - I don’t usually specify brands of ingredients but in this case, I am because I originally made it with Ghirardelli and I then tried it with a different brand and it was not as good.

Having said that, you can use any unsweetened… I like theirs because it has no soy lecithin or other emulsifiers, etc.  You can buy it online via Amazon.com (and if you buy it through my affiliate link, they will even give me about a $.90 commission!  Help support your local blogger!   )

Homemade Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Bars

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Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Homesteader Kitchen

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 24

A bar of rich, dark chocolate sweetened with honey only and no unhealthy additives.

Ingredients

• 8oz unsweetened Ghirardelli chocolate
• 2 Tbs butter or coconut oil for soft chocolate, or cocoa butter for firm
• 4 Tbs raw honey
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Chop the chocolate and melt approximately 5-6oz of it in a double boiler or microwave (with cocoa butter, if using) until it reads between 114 and 120 degrees F.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Add the remainder of the unmelted chocolate, the butter or coconut oil (if using), vanilla and honey.
4. Stir until everything is well incorporated and the rest of the chocolate has been melted.
5. Check the temperature – once it reaches 88-91 degrees, it is ready to pour.
6. Pour into molds or spread it out (if thick) on parchment paper.
7. Allow to cool in the fridge, then cut into bars (or pop out of molds).

Notes

I specified Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate only because it is made without soy lecithin.
I used butter for this recipe originally with the intent of making a bar of softer chocolate for s’mores, but if you want more true chocolate melting, you can use cocoa butter melted with the initial melting of the chocolate, this will have more of a firm standard texture.
Made 24 s’more size bars.