Vegan, Refined Sugar Free Chocolate by Hercules Noble

Good food, good company.

A series of easy, delicious recipes from some of our favourite cooks. Food to cook, eat and share in good company.

Hercules Noble, the sourdough and dinner party master, shares his recipe for a  vegan, refined sugar free chocolate alternative.

Makes roughly 20 bars

Ingredients:

150g cacao butter
x4 limes, microplaned
200g pitted medjool dates
Pinch flakey sea salt
200g cacao powder
120g shredded coconut

Optional toppings:
Shredded coconut
Dried kiwifruit
Sesame seeds

Method:​​

Weigh out your ingredients. Gently melt your cacao butter with the zest of all four limes on a low heat. 

Meanwhile, add your pitted medjool dates and a pinch of salt to a blender. Blitz until completely turned to a mush. The dates will naturally form a ball. 

Add your melted cacao butter and blitz again until the ball of dates break down. This should only take 10 seconds or so (the mixture won’t combine properly yet.) Add in half of your cacao powder and blitz, followed by the second half and blitz again until it comes together to form a thick paste. Add in the juice of 2-4 limes (roughly 40g - 60g). 

You’ll notice the acid in the lime really changes the consistency of the mixture, it almost separates, but not completely.

Now add your shredded coconut and blitz for about 10 seconds. That’s all it should take to mix together. You don’t want to blitz for too long, as you don’t want to lose the texture of the coconut. It may look super crumbly, but if you pop the mixture out of the blender into a big bowl or work bench and press it together using clean hands, it comes together. 

 

Shape into a rough square or rectangular brick. Now lay down two big sheets of baking paper on your bench. Drop your brick into the centre of your first sheet, then top with the other. Using your hands or a rolling pin, gently flatten out your mixture to form a rectangle roughly 2/3 of a centre metre. Clean up the edges using a bench scraper or knife. 

Optional extra - remove the top sheet of baking paper and add some fun toppings like shredded coconut, dried kiwifruit or sesame seeds. Now pop the second piece of baking paper back on top, then use your rolling pin to press/force the toppings into the chocolate. 

Slide onto an upside down oven tray and pop into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool and set before slicing and portioning. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for at least 5 days. 

*Item not available online but is available in your local GoodFor store.

Recipe created by Hercules Noble.

Printable recipe PDF here.