Herbal Chocolate Recipes And Benefits

By Angel Dudley


Herbal chocolate is a lot more than a passing fad, because it is already an integral part of the healthy lifestyles of millions of people. The core issue is that ordinary chocolate contains around 155 calories for every ounce. It is soaked in sugar and all kinds of preservatives and additives used for artificial flavoring. Eliminating these harmful substances with a healthy recipe helps people enjoy the heavenly taste of chocolates without the weight gain and associated health risks and guilt.

Chocolates are usually made through a complicated process that begins with harvesting cocoa beans, followed by stages such as refinement and fermentation. The roasted and grinded beans are then mixed with milk and sugar to provide flavor, and the resulting viscous liquid is stored for chopping up into smaller units. Converting this into an herbal product requires a few tweaks to the traditional recipe.

The new recipe may include a variety of natural ingredients and herbs that can be used to make chocolates without any harmful content or excess calories. A simple choice is to use cocoa powder and some cocoa butter with honey. Additional flavoring can be added using mint, cinnamon and rose petals.

There's really no specific formula that has to be followed. The main ingredients included in most recipes are milk and dark chocolate. If sweetness is an essential requirement, then sugar can be replaced with honey as the third main item in the recipe.

The dark chocolate must preferably be in the form for powdered cocoa. This makes it easy to measure and add the right quantity to match other items, and it mixes well with everything else. The optimum combination includes two teaspoons of honey, three spoons of cocoa and three cups of milk. Anything else that goes into it is simply a process of trial and error that each person can do according to their own tastes and preferences.

Adding a couple of spoons of gluten-free organic vanilla extract will produce vanilla-flavored chocolates. To get mint chocolates, just add a few drops of organic peppermint oil. Remember that this is a concentrated and potent oil, so an excess of it will smother the flavor and taste of everything else in the recipe.

The recipe can be further modified by using coconut oil instead of milk. Honey can also be replaced with stevia, which makes the concoction sugar-free and eliminates high calories and carbohydrates. Chopped up mint leaves will add a touch of natural flavoring. This combination works perfectly when the coconut oil is heated and turns into a clear liquid that easily mixes with the cocoa powder and other ingredients.

There's no way for these experimental recipes to be as famous and easily available in the market as the ordinary chocolates produced by big brands with their factories and global network of distributors. But that's not stopping people from finding these healthy alternatives for indulging their insatiable appetite for sweets. There's always the option of whipping up a batch of herbal chocolate at home. Either way, it is an ideal gift for family and friends during the holiday season, and for birthdays and other celebratory events.




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