Chocolate for Easter!

I love chocolate. Always have and always will. But if I’m going to eat it I want the real deal. I’m talking about REAL chocolate made from raw cacao powder, raw cacao butter and a natural unrefined sweetener like maple syrup or dates. I don’t want some poor imitation made with soy lecithins, sugar, agave syrup (which is 90% fructose), milk powders, flavours and artificial ingredients (read the ingredients on some Cadbury’s chocolate and you’ll get my drift). There is no chocolate that I know of that ticks all of these boxes…which is why I started making my own years ago. Raw cacao powder is high in antioxidents, and raw cacao butter is high in healthy saturated fats. I want my children and family to enjoy the sublime taste of real chocolate especially at Easter time. I pop chocolate coconut balls and almond coconut balls (both sweetened only with dates) into coloured plastic egg containers and hide them around the garden for an Easter egg hunt for the children and their friends. If you want your kids, family and friends to enjoy real chocolate for Easter without any of the nasties, pick up a bag of my hand-made chocolate coconut balls…..its the real (raw) deal!

Raw chocolate mousse recipe

Process the following ingredients in a food processor and mix well:

2 ripe avocados
200g cream (eg Barambah) or cream cheese
4 egg yolks 1 cup (10 tablespoons; 82g) 
raw cocoa powder (eg Loving Earth)
¾ cup maple syrup
40g (3 tablespoons) coconut oil (I like Nui’s or Aclara Health)
1 tablespoon vanilla bean powder

Store in fridge.

Eggs!

Lately I've been asked about the consumption of raw eggs and in particular whether its ok to eat raw egg whites.  Egg yolks are fine to eat raw but egg whites should not be consumed raw on a regular basis. The reason is that raw egg whites contain a substance called avidin which interferes with the absorption of biotin, a B vitamin.They also contain trypsin inhibitors which interfere with protein digestion. You might experience stomach cramps if you consume raw whites on a regular basis for this reason. These anti-nutrients are neutralized by cooking. Rare / occasional (not daily) consumption is fine.

So bottom line: eat as many raw egg YOLKS as you want but save the whites in a small pyrex and COOK them as omelletes & scrambled eggs.