Healthy Chocolate Sauce!
About a year ago, I fell in love with Artisana Cacao Bliss. However, my wallet was not so smitten: $11 for an 8-oz jar? In the interest of saving money, I vowed to attempt making my own Cacao Bliss… it turned out even better than I’d hoped!
Healthy Chocolate Sauce or Hot Chocolate Butter
- 4 tablespoons (60g) virgin coconut oil
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (52g) cocoa powder. (For a sauce, decrease to 1/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup agave OR you can use nunaturals vanilla stevia drops (I use 10 vanilla drops, but if you don’t like super-bitter chocolate, triple that amount)
Melt the coconut oil, either in the microwave or on a candle warmer or in a warm oven. Add the vanilla drops (or agave) and stir. Add the cocoa, then add 3 tablespoons water only if you used vanilla drops. Stir stir stir! Stir until it gets thick like Artisana Cacao Bliss.
For Magic Shell or Healthy Chocolate Sauce:
Decrease cocoa powder to 1/4 cup and keep all other measurements the same. Also, if you re-heat it for a few seconds, it’ll get thinner. And if you freeze it, you can make incredible chocolate bars… or even chocolate chips! Just break up the chocolate bars into little pieces.
I used this spread to frost my Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes.
Nutrition Information (for 2 tbsp)
- 100 calories
- 10 grams fat
- 0 grams added sugars
- 0 grams cholesterol
- 2 grams protein
- 3.6g dietary fiber
Or, if you make the recipe into bars, each 30g bar will have 100 calories (stevia version) or 140 calories (agave version). They also have 11% of the RDA for iron and are very high in manganese as well.
Side Note: This is also good on Homemade Luna Bars.
Hello! Totally delicious! I’m gluten and dairy free (and egg and soy free…) so as you can imagine eating plain ol’ chocolate has become difficult to do. This will be a life saver! I made a half recipe today and froze it into little kisses. It’s only been like, what, 2 hours? and I’ve already eaten most of them!
As you might expect they have no -snap- like normal chocolate. They’re a little chewy? and very, very smooth and cool right from the freezer. I thought the coconut was perfectly detectable but definitely a background flavor. I just about doubled the agave (what can I say?) and thought that was the perfect amount of sweetness.
I will make this a million times over! If only they could be baked, too…
I know! I wish coconut oil chocolate could be baked! Well, maybe it can… I mean, who would complain about melted, gooey chocolate chips, right? Maybe I’ll have to try it in a cookie recipe or something… 🙂
I’m sorry if this question was already answered above, but I just can’t read all the way thru so many posts! You should take it as a compliment tho, that so many people think so highly of you and your site! I do love all your recipes; I’ve made quite a few with awesome results, so thank you. My question is: can I substitute brown sugar for the agave nectar in the chocolate butter recipe? I try to use ingredients I have on hand as I can’t buy just one item when I’m in my fave bulk store. Take care and keep writing; you’re greaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!
I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know… I would love to know if you do try it, though! 🙂
Can this be made into ‘magic shell’ by adding more coconut oil? How much would you add to get it to be that thin, harden over ice cream texture..?
Yes! I’ve done it before. It actually doesn’t even need more coconut oil… just microwave it for a few seconds (not too many, or it’ll burn), and it becomes liquid again :).
You look like Rachel McAdams in this photo!! You are so cute! 🙂
Awwwww thank you! 🙂
I always thought you looked like Rachel McAdams, too! 🙂
I don’t have any agave nectar… 🙁 do you think brown rice syrup or honey would work?
Sorry, I’m not sure.
This recipe never works for me!! Arrrgh! I have made almost everything on your site without a single complaint…until this one! This is the same for the three-ingredient chocolate bars, which others commenters posted similr problems. I get a big goofy mess, every time. I just tried it for the third time tonight with no success. What could I be doing wrong?
I bought unrefined coconut oil after you addressed another reader with problems similar to mine. I used agave, as the recipe indicates is fine. I did not accidentally add water. I tried measuring the oil two ways: before and after heating. Still, the moment I add the cocoa powder I get a big glob of goo. The ingredients do not incorporate, no matter what I do. I even tried a food processor on one attempt!
I would SO love for this recipe (and the chocolate bars) to turn out!! They taste amazing, I just can’t get he right texture. HELP!!
Ok…I wanted to post a follow up for all those people who said they were getting a gloppy mess 🙂
I tried this again…for the fourth time…and finally am getting something in the right ballpark. I added the cocoa powder one T at a time until I thought there was enough. I did not need more than 1/2 a cup.
So…moral of the story: add the cocoa a tiny bit at a time to incorporate the ingredients properly 😀
This is probably the best tasting chocolate….ever I think.
I just made this and it turned out great. It’s really helped me get through a stressful day and really bad menstrual cramps. Chocolate is the best remedy for so many things. Thanks for this great and easy recipe!
I am in love with your blog! I can’t wait to try some of these…I was just lamenting the fact that I need to give up some of my favorite decadent desserts b/c of their sugar, fat, and calorie content…but these actually look healthy-and DELICIOUS!! Thanks so much for this blog for dessert junkies like me!
Aww thanks, Julie!
I finally just made this for the first time and I love it!! 🙂 Such a great easy recipe. I used the agave version and it came out perfect with no problems whatsoever. I dipped some raw vegan cookie dough bites in some of it and froze them, froze some of the chocolate by itself to break into bars/pieces, and the rest leftover for whatever. Thanks again! Oh, and I finally got a food processor, yay!! 🙂 haha. That will make so many of your recipes easier ;).
I’ve been experimenting with your recipes for a few weeks now but I always avoided using coconut oil because of the saturated fat content and such. I decided to try it finally and good God…. is coconut oil even fit for human consumption???? I must have done something wrong because it tasted like cleaning product and it coated my mouth in the most unpleasant way.
Did you get the right kind? There are some non-food grade coconut oils that companies release for cosmetic use, not that they ever say so on the bottle. I would suggest getting a jar of Spectrum Unrefined Coconut Oil, its one of my favorites. Otherwise if your own a budget (or don’t like the taste of coconut), I’d suggest the Nature’s Way Efagold Extra Virgin. You can get it on Amazon, 2 16 oz containers for 12$. This kind kind of has a similiar mouth feel to Ghee (I have infact taken to using it in place of ghee in kitchari since becoming vegan.
in a word…YUM!
Hi Katie, I made your homemade Luna bars and they turned out great except for the no-sugar chocolate sauce. I used unsweetened cocoa, stevia extract drops and refined coconut oil. After following your directions I mixed and mixed and the sauce never get smooth, it had a gritty texture. I spread it on the bars anyways and froze them. When I took them out the freezer the coconut oil separated from the cocoa and froze in pools on the bars. Is this because I used refined coconut oil? Please help!
Sorry, Ive never used refined coconut oil. But it DOES have to be the unrefined kind to work.
And did you use the lower amount of cocoa specified in the recipe for a sauce?
This is just about the best thing I’ve ever tasted! I used maple syrup (1/2 cup to make my hubby happy)
Oh man, I should have read the directions better!!! So I was reading your post about making coconut butter and there was a link to this post. Well I just assumed I would be making the hot chocolate butter out of the coconut butter….nope. Oh well, it still turned out great! It’s just a lot thicker than your pic 🙂 Next time I’ll have to use coconut oil!! And I seriously have to give you props for eating such dark chocolate!!! I had to add like 30 extra drops and then I still added agave haha 🙂
when u say cocoa are u refering to the special dark like hersheys or the other kind (forgot wat its called) also by hersheys ?
regular unsweetened (plain hersheys), although special dark might taste good too!
thanks so much! and is this the same for ur choclate oatmeal? i tried it this morning and so far its been the most sucessful trial for that recipe iave had usually it comes out very bitter this time it worked pretty well!! but i still cant figure out the voluminous oatmeal trick! oyveyy! any tips?
Yes, you can use either for that recipe :).