Following on from last month’s Easter chocolate special here’s another chocolate recipe for all you chocoholics. Instead of a pure chocolate recipe, this one has added nuts to reduce the bitterness of the chocolate and raisins to sweeten the flavour.

Raisins are a great addition to this little indulgence. As well as benefiting from all the fantastic antioxidants in the cacao, the raisins are really effective at lowering your body’s acidity levels. This is a trick a lot of athletes use during post-exercise when acidity levels in the body can rise. A handful of raisins helps neutralise the increased acidity quickly and reduce low-level inflammation in the body. This is a good thing for your body as a whole and particularly your skin as low-level inflammation can lead to premature ageing of the skin. It tastes great too!

Recipe

1. In a pyrex bowl, over a pan of boiling water, gently melt the coconut oil, cocoa butter, cacao powder or paste, coconut cream, vanilla and salt. Be very careful not to overheat the mixture as this will cause it to separate and the cacao to de-nature. If this does happen it should be fine once you allow it to cool down slightly but you’ll lose some of the health benefits and some of the antioxidants will be diminished.
2. Once thoroughly melted and mixed, allow to cool and thicken and now mix in the nuts, raisins and xylitol.
3. Using a flat tray, pour the mixture out to produce a bar of chocolate. Once in the tray mix the mixture to ensure the nuts, raisins and xylitol are evenly distributed
4. Allow the bar to completely solidify in the fridge.