Make your own vegan chocolate: ingredients & tips for preparation

The range of vegan chocolates in health food stores, supermarkets and even discounters has increased steadily in recent years, but still leaves a lot to be desired. However, you don't have to go without the sweet treat, because with a few ingredients and a little time you can easily make your own chocolate. Read on and find out more!

You will be amazed at how few ingredients are required for vegan chocolate. With a few basic ingredients you can make a simple milk or dark chocolate and refine it with other ingredients, flavors and spices as desired.

If you want to make vegan chocolate yourself, you will need:

• 40 g cocoa butter
• 25g cocoa powder
• 35 g maple syrup

You can replace the butter with coconut oil - but the cocoa butter gives the sweet a much more delicate melting. When buying cocoa powder, you should make sure that it is raw, unsweetened cocoa powder. Because: The less the powder is processed, the more valuable antioxidants and micronutrients it still contains.

You can balance out the slightly bitter taste of raw cocoa powder by adding maple syrup . Alternatively, you can use erythritol - for example if you want to make a low-carb chocolate bar.

Use the ingredients mentioned to create the base mixture for your chocolate bar. If you want to make your own milk chocolate , you will also need some milk powder - either coconut milk powder or soy milk powder. We also recommend adding some natural vanilla extract. You can also stir in a pinch of salt to enhance the cocoa flavor and balance the sweetness .

Otherwise , whatever you like is allowed! Experiment a little and create your very own favorite chocolate, for example with:

• Flavors (mint, orange, etc.)
• spices
• nuts and seeds
• puffed rice or quinoa
• Raisins, cranberries or dried fruits
• Banana chips
• sea-salt
• crushed cookies
• Coconut flakes

Now you know the ingredients for vegan chocolate and you would like to know how to prepare the recipe correctly.

And that is how it works:

• Step 1 : Melt the cocoa butter in a water bath, stirring frequently. It's best to chop large pieces small beforehand.
  
  
• Step 2 : Fold in the cocoa powder, maple syrup and, if necessary, vanilla extract and stir everything carefully with a whisk until smooth. You can then add other desired ingredients and stir them in.
  
  
• Step 3 : Pour the chocolate mixture into a silicone mold and cool it in the fridge for several hours. Alternatively, you can put them in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes.

When making chocolate, you should follow a few tips to ensure that the candy actually turns out well and tastes as desired. We recommend that you do not use water-based ingredients, as these increase the risk of the chocolate mixture separating. Instead, use oil-based flavorings , which come in a variety of flavors. Powdered ingredients are usually not a problem.

The following tips and tricks can also help you make chocolate:

• Tip 1 : Do not use porous utensils (e.g. wooden spoons). There is often moisture in the tiny holes and cracks, which can cause the chocolate mixture to decompose.
  
  
• Tip 2 : You should only add flavors to the mixture when it is no longer heated.
  
  
• Tip 3 : Don't put the finished chocolate mixture in the fridge too quickly, but wait until it has cooled down to room temperature. This is how you prevent white spots on the board.
  
  
• Tip 4 : Silicone molds are not essential for making chocolate. You can also spread the mixture thinly on a baking tray lined with baking paper and break it into pieces after it has hardened. This gives you broken chocolate that you can freeze and enjoy as needed.

Storage tips

Freshly prepared vegan chocolate lasts for around two to three weeks in the refrigerator and three to four months in the freezer.

Important : Untempered chocolate mass melts at room temperature and should therefore always be kept refrigerated. You can find out how to temper the chocolate mixture in the following paragraph.

If you temper your chocolate creation , it will remain solid even at room temperature and will not melt immediately when you pick it up. For tempering, you need an accurate thermometer, because as the name suggests, the temperature is the most important factor when tempering .

• Step 1 : Heat the finished chocolate mixture in a water bath to 43 to 45 degrees Celsius.
  
  
• Step 2 : Remove the bowl from the heat, hold it over an ice bath, or place it in the refrigerator. Stir the mixture regularly - until it has cooled down to 26 degrees Celsius.
  
  
• Step 3 : Place the bowl over the hot water bath again and slowly increase the temperature back to 29 degrees Celsius. Important: Under no circumstances should the temperature rise any higher, otherwise the temperature control will fail.
  
  
• Step 4 : Pour the chocolate mixture into a silicone mold and let it cool.
  
  

Tempering affects the crystal formation in the cocoa butter and gives the candy a delicate consistency, a pleasant bite and a slightly shiny coating. If you want to use the chocolate mixture to make chocolate pralines , you should definitely temper it so that the sweets retain their shape.

A successful chocolate mixture is creamy and free of pieces. If the mixture is instead grainy and thick like a paste, the ingredients have not combined with each other . This happens especially if water accidentally gets into the mass.

Unfortunately, you can no longer temper separated chocolate mixture - but you don't have to throw it away either. Instead, you can simply add a little more boiling water and stir the mixture vigorously until it is smooth again. It then no longer becomes solid, but is suitable as a delicious chocolate sauce , for example for ice cream or cake.

Instead of water, you can stir in a teaspoon of coconut oil. The mixture then becomes smooth again and is suitable as an ingredient for baked goods, such as brownies or cookies .

The chocolate mass made with the above recipe is suitable for classic chocolate bars as well as broken chocolate and pralines . You can also easily make vegan chocolate milk yourself - with oat, spelled, rice, almond or soy milk as a base. If you want your chocolate milk to have a slightly nutty taste, it's best to use spelled or oat milk .

For one serving you need:

• 200 milliliters of plant milk
• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of agave syrup
• 1⁄2 packet of vanilla sugar

The preparation is very simple : the ingredients are simply mixed together and stirred thoroughly - ideally with a hand or hand blender.

By the way : With a powerful mixer you can even make plant milk yourself !

Whether chocolate bars, chocolate pralines or milkshakes: there is a lot to be said for simply making chocolate products yourself instead of buying them. On the one hand, plant-based alternatives are often more expensive than conventional products, and on the other hand, the list of ingredients is usually very long.

If you want to largely avoid additives, artificial flavors and preservatives, it is definitely worth making your own chocolate bars etc. So you can be sure that there are no chemical ingredients, no artificial flavors and no refined sugar.

Vegan chocolate can even be really healthy - namely if you stir nuts and seeds or dried fruits into the mixture. Even people who have an intolerance to chocolate and experience symptoms such as headaches or digestive problems make the right choice with homemade chocolate products. The same applies to people with lactose intolerance, which can cause fatigue and other problems.