As I'm expecting
Heathy's arrival tomorrow (woo hooooooooo!!!), I wanted to prepare a special treat for the one I've nicknamed '
The Ultimate Raw Dessert Queen'. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to try the new chocolate candy molds I bought during my recent visit to the city. I got to work and made a batch of
Orange Goji Berry White Chocolate and a variation of Mishka's
Raw Yummilicious Milk Chocolate recipe sans the cacao powder. It occurred to me that there might not be quite enough chocolates so I decided to whip up some more of the Milk Chocolate, only I had a
chocotastrophy of my own (to borrow
shannonmarie's term.)
When measuring the melted cacao butter, I realized it didn't yield the necessary amount. (It's always a hit-and-miss kinda thing.) "Ah well... No big deal," I thought, so I went ahead and blended the ingredients anyways. The consistency was a little too thick and grainy. I found myself in a bit of a bind; I knew that by the time I heat up more cacao butter in the dehydrator, the mixture would almost certainly have seized up in the carafe (nasty business!) Hmmm, what to do...
Since I had some melted coconut oil all ready for a different recipe, after a moment's hesitation, I decided to go for it. I mean, it was right there, sitting on the counter... It seemed so much simpler, right? Wrong! One definition of insanity is doing the same thing while expecting different results, so go ahead... you can call me the 'Cacao Coo coo'! See, I've
tried mixing coconut and cacao butter before while making chocolate candy a few months back, and let's just say it wasn't a successful experiment. While the flavor was lovely, the mixture had more of a fudge consistency than hard chocolate. This time around, I managed to make matters worse by pouring the dodgy-looking mixture (to top it off, the oils had separated as well! Yuck!) into my little candy molds. Not a good idea!!! I ended up having to painfully extract the soft fudge with a knife, remelt it and form it into a flat slab.
Ah well... Always something new (or not so new? lol) to learn, eh?
BUT, boy oh boy, does this chocolate ever taste divine!!!
Moral of the story, DO NOT EVER attempt to mix cacao and coconut butter together in a chocolate candy recipe, regardless of how good an idea it may seem at the time. lol
And above all, DO try Mishka's Milk Chocolate; it truly is out of this world!
Carmella's Notes:
~ I would recommend grinding the cashews first for easier processing.
~ I cut down on the sweetener a bit... used more like 1/4 cup agave as I prefer it not too sweet.
I think Her Highness should be pleased...
