Chocolate Indulgence

Last night we decided to explore the world of raw chocolate desserts. I came across this recipe when I was looking at some raw food websites. The pictures looked pretty delicious and I wanted to "unbake" with ingredients I had never tried before. The recipe for this is online here, but I'll post the directions on living food junkie because I found the instructions were missing a few steps, plus I substituted some ingredients with what I had in the pantry :)

Ingredients:
1 cup raw chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
1/3 cup cold-pressed coconut oil
1/2 cup raw Cacao butter (expensive ingredient)
1/3 cup Goji Berries
1.5 cups raw Cacao powder
1/4 cup raw honey (the original recipe called for more, but I found it to be way too much. I plan on omitting this ingredient next time.)
1/2 cup Agave
a good dash of quality salt
1 vanilla bean

Mix the nuts and the cayenne powder in a bowl. Set aside.

In a double boiler melt the coconut oil. Remove from heat as soon as it melts. Pour it in the bowl with the nuts. Melt the cacao butter in the double boiler. Remove from heat as soon as it melts and pour in bowl with the nuts. The low heat from the double boiler is to just liquefy the oils not to cook them.

Then add the goji berries, cacao powder, honey, agave, salt and vanilla bean to the nut mixture. Stir everything together and than place in a ceramic dish. It's best to put some parchment paper in the dish before hand because the mixture is quite thick and sticky. Place it in the fridge. It sets very quickly, we ate some about 30 minutes later. Cut the truffles into little squares and enjoy!
~~~

The texture is like a smooth truffle, but also has a nice crunch with the bits of nuts mixed within. The flavor of the chocolate is dark and rich. The cayenne is in the after taste of the truffle, so it leaves you with a bit of heat in your throat. My guy said to leave the cayenne out of the recipe next time so he can eat these faster :) I think these would make a great little gift idea around Christmas time, or if you are having a party/get together with friends :)
~Maggie