Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters

Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters

Today we are making Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters! These little homemade dark chocolate clusters are loaded with colourful nutritious ingredients along with a homemade vegan chocolate base! With dried cranberries for a tangy and chewy texture, pumpkin seeds for a nutty taste and cacao nibs for a bitter yet chocolate-y crunch, these clusters are the perfect blend of rich flavours and a healthier alternative for dessert or snacking!

Making your own chocolate at home sounds daunting, but trust me – it’s super easy! It’s a great snack to boost mood (dark chocolate is perfect for that!), a little pre-workout dessert, an after-dinner treat, or whatever you want to call it – and it only takes 15 minutes to mix together and place in the freezer.

There are only a few raw ingredients. You need some of the chocolate flavor – aka, raw cacao powder. Then some sweetener – pure maple syrup. Then some fats to make it creamy and bind it all – cacao butter and almond butter!

But First, a Story

Let’s rewind waaaay back to the beginning of summer, 2014. Back to the day I was visiting a friend, a casual dinner party. Sitting around the marble tabletop, the discussion was of the newest baked goods I had experimented on that week. I can’t remember what it was at the time, but I had captured the attention of an audience with my discussion on cookies and pies, when the idea to open up my own website sprung up.

Choosing the Name

That idea, left with a “good thinking! I might do that…” morphed into a week spent wondering on what I could call this possible future website. I remember the day it came to me: sitting in the humidity of our Pontiac Montana, watching my brother compete for a spot in the town’s soccer finals, I scratched out other possibilities name by name until I knew this was the one – PeanutPalate. Fast forward that week to sitting at my computer, wondering how to actually put this into motion …

Finding a Theme

WordPress seemed like a popular website host from my five minutes of skimming Google, so I went ahead with buying a theme and creating my very own domain name. Before buying, I had assumed that I would get the exact same webpage that was shown as the theme’s example, and would move forward from there. Change up some colors, put in some pictures, and voila! Everything would be set and I would be good to go…

Hm. Not quite. After purchasing the theme, I came to the realization that the most I was starting with was a completely. blank. webpage. Aside from my initial annoyed self at not knowing better and assuming I’d be getting a whole finished website (those theme examples should be specified “This is what the website’s theme will look like. Under the most ideal of situations, and only that after spending months at it”), the excitement kicked in as I spent hours and hours for the rest of the summer behind my Macbook, learning how to design a website from scratch.

iPhone Photography & Recipe Disasters

The outcome? I made my mark – the website you see today. Although it isn’t up to par with professionally designed websites, I am pretty proud of the amount I had managed to do on my own. In between these periods of the website’s design through the summer of eleventh grade were the actual recipes I was trying out.

Since the best food photography was only using natural light (or at least, in my experience at the time, not having an artificial light box), I was armed with motivation and an iPhone. There I was, up and about before sunset, cutting, blending, rolling, and stirring desserts on desserts. Multiple recipes would be created and experimented on in a day, yet many of them failed to make the cut – too runny, too dry, too sweet, or the photographs turned out horrible.

It Came to Fruition

It took a long while to get it all in working order, but the product of two months of constant work paid off – I now had peanutpalate.com heading into my senior year of high school! I had no notion of posting every week, or two weeks, or even a specified time limit in between posts – new posts would be up as fast as I could make them. Gradually, the workload at school increased, and baking was routinely put on the backburner. New posts came up every two weeks at that time (for the most part)! And as time went on, my posting strategy also changed (for now, you’ll see it’s been one post a day for the last few months).

So that’s my little story for today. Quite random, but a great memory as to how this blog came to be!

Let’s Make Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters!

Now, let’s get to making some deliciously healthy chocolate clusters. Read on for why you’ll love to make this recipe!

Why You’ll Love These Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters

Superfood Boost: These clusters are full of superfoods like dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Dried cranberries provide a burst of tartness and chewiness, while pumpkin seeds add a delightful crunch and a dose of healthy fats and protein. These ingredients not only enhance the texture but also provide additional nutrients and health benefits.

Healthy Fats: Cacao butter and almond butter help to make this recipe taste rich and decadent due to their high fat content. They also provide healthy fats for nourishment, which works out in our favour. We love a rich-tasting dessert that’s also good for you!

Customizable: The versatility of this raw chocolate recipe also allows for personal customization. Along with the cacao butter for richness, adding a dollop of almond butter also introduces a creamy texture and the flavor of roasted nuts. Then a dash of vanilla extract enhances the overall flavor profile!

Substitutions: Dry Ingredients

Cacao Powder: You can find this in health food stores or maybe in the natural aisle of your local grocery store. It’s the raw, unprocessed version of unsweetened cocoa powder, but you can also use normal cocoa powder (which is the one we commonly use in brownies)!

Dried Cranberries: You can use dried cherries instead of dried cranberries, they have a similar tartness and chewy texture. Another option is to use dried blueberries, which provide a slightly different flavor but still complement the chocolate.

Look for dried fruit without added sugars or preservatives. For example, Craisins are a popular brand of dried cranberries, but they contain refined sugar and oil. Which works for this recipe, but if you’re looking to avoid these, then use a brand that has only the dried cranberries and nothing else added on the package label.

Pumpkin Seeds: Instead of pumpkin seeds, use chopped roasted nuts, such as almonds, cashews, pecans or hazelnuts. These add a nutty flavor and a crunch! For a nut-free option, choose sunflower seeds.

You can use roasted or unroasted pumpkin seeds. Roasted pumpkin seeds have added salt and oil, so if you’re looking to avoid these, then keep it to unroasted.

Cacao Nibs: If you don’t have cacao nibs, you can use any other crunchy nut instead. I don’t recommend to chop a bar of chocolate or use dark chocolate chips as a substitute. The chocolate will melt and incorporate into the raw chocolate mixture, which defeats the purpose of a crunchy add-in.

Plus, what’s the point of making homemade chocolate if you have to go out of your way to buy chocolate to use in the chocolate?

Substitutions: Wet Ingredients

Cacao Butter: Use refined coconut oil (not the one that smells like coconuts – that’s virgin or extra-virgin). Coconut oil can be a substitute for cacao butter in raw chocolate recipes. It solidifies at room temperature and provides a smooth texture.

Cacao butter can be found in the health food or natural aisle of some grocery stores, in a health food store or online. I like the brand Organic Traditions for all things cacao-related!

Also, quick side note. Did you know that raw cacao butter is made by extracting the fat from the raw cacao beans, which are harvested from cacao pods? The beans undergo fermentation, drying, and roasting before being ground into cocoa mass. The cocoa mass is then pressed to separate the cocoa solids from the cocoa butter. This is filtered, cooled, and solidified into the final cacao butter product. These are the white solids that you see at the end!

Almond Butter: Use any other nut butter, such as cashew butter, hazelnut butter or peanut butter.

Cashew butter is the best alternative to almond butter in raw chocolate. It has a creamy texture and mild flavor. Peanut butter can also work as a substitute that’s higher in protein. Keep in mind that it will add a distinct peanut taste to the chocolate.

Maple Syrup: Use pure maple syrup (which should only have one ingredient on the label). Agave nectar is a popular substitute for this. It has a similar sweet taste and syrupy consistency. You can also use another liquid sweetener of your choice.

Raw natural sweeteners, such as date paste, won’t lend the creamiest texture to this recipe. I recommend to only stick with different sweeteners as a substitute that have a texture similar to maple syrup.

Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters Notes

• Make sure the almond butter is smooth and creamy, and not clumped, when using. Try to melt it into a liquid beforehand. If it doesn’t melt at all, it won’t be good to use for this recipe with the other ingredients. (In natural nut butters, the oils separate to the top of the containers, and sometimes the bottom is left with the clumpy mixture that doesn’t ‘drip’ off a spoon. You want to have the smooth almond butter that ‘drips’ for this recipe)!
• If you have a silicone molds, like candy molds or a chocolate bar mold in various shapes, you can add the mixture into there to make cute chocolate shapes!
• Two different things you can do to change up this recipe are to sprinkle sea salt or shredded coconut on top of the clusters before freezing, for a chocolate coconut cluster recipe!

More Chocolate Recipes You’ll Love

Coconut Oil Chocolate Bars

Raw Nuts and Seeds Dark Chocolate Bar

Frozen Hot Chocolate

3-Ingredient Flourless Fudgy Brownies

Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Tarts

If you make these Raw Dark Chocolate Superfood Clusters, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!