Have you ever thought about making your own chocolate from scratch? No? Then you’re seriously missing out. This homemade vegan milk chocolate is so quick and easy to make that it’s faster and simpler than running out to the store. Plus it tastes so much better. There’s really nothing like homemade chocolate.
The next time you’re in need of a chocolate fix, forget about hitting up the nearest vending machine or grocery store. Reach for this recipe and you’ll be enjoying delicious chocolate goodness in no time at all.
Healthy
Regular chocolate that you buy from grocery stores is usually full of fat, sugar, additives, and preservatives. The type of things you don’t really want to put into your body if you’re trying to be healthy.
This homemade chocolate is totally different. The fat in this recipe comes from good-for-you cocoa butter and hazelnuts which are high in fiber. And instead of granulated sugar, this homemade chocolate uses antioxidant-rich maple syrup.
Vegan
Wondering how you can have vegan milk chocolate? The trick is to use coconut milk powder instead of dairy milk powder. This way, the homemade chocolate is fully dairy-free and vegan-friendly, but it’s still got the wonderfully smooth and creamy flavor you get from regular milk chocolate.
Some of the chocolate bars you buy from the store can taste pretty bland due to the amount of processing they’ve gone through. Since this homemade chocolate is made with healthy, natural ingredients that have gone through hardly any processing, you get a deep, rich chocolate flavor that you just can’t replicate in big factories!
Get creative
The hazelnuts in this recipe add a wonderful crunch of texture and sweet, nutty flavor you won’t be able to get enough of. But if you’re not a fan of hazelnuts, you can remove them from the recipe and replace them with your favorite nut. You can try peanuts, cashews, walnuts…whatever you like!
If you don’t like any type of nut, you can skip the nuts altogether. This homemade chocolate tastes amazing on its own. But if you want to add the addictive crunch without using nuts, try seeds (chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, etc) or puffed grain cereal (puffed quinoa, puffed amaranth, puffed rice, etc).
How to use this chocolate
This chocolate is perfect for eating on its own. There are loads of other ways you can use it, too. You can chop it up and use it in baking to make vegan chocolate zucchini bread. Chocolate vegan cake pops or any other baking recipe that needs chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
It’s also the perfect gift for sharing! Wrap a couple bars up in colorful wrapping paper and ribbon or snap off a few chunks and place them inside a mason jar with a bright label before giving it to a friend as a gift.
Homemade Vegan Milk Chocolate
Ingredients
- 150 g cocoa butter
- 75 g cocoa mass/cocoa powder
- 100 g maple syrup
- 60 g coconut milk powder
- ½ cup raw hazelnut
Instructions
- Place the hazelnuts on a lined baking sheet and toast at 400F/200C for 5 minutes. Set aside and leave to cool.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the cocoa butter and maple syrup.
- Place the bowl in a water bath/bain marie and stir until the mixture reaches 40C/104F. It’s ok if there are some solid cocoa butter pieces still in the bowl.
- Remove the bowl from the water bath/bain marie and continue stirring until the cocoa butter has fully melted.
- Add the cocoa mass/cocoa powder and coconut milk powder into the bowl with the butter mixture and mix well until the temperature drops down to 27-29C/80-85F.
- Pour the mixture into a silicon or hard plastic chocolate mold.
- Sprinkle over the roasted hazelnuts and chill in the fridge until firm.