Christian Bates

Archive for the ‘Cacao Recipes’ Category

Raw cacao is considered by some the best food ever, by others a stimulant not part of an optimal diet, and by others the most nutritious food ever but they don’t eat it because its too stimulating in their experience. It’s so funny how things in the raw food world are seemingly conflicting, but of course there is truth behind it all. I’d like to appeal to everybody here and show you what I do with cacao that cancels the stimulation side and turns on the balancing side. If you have sworn to yourself that you are done with cacao, or if you are currently eating bags of cacao every week, either way this is the blog for you.

My technique of eating cacao without the stimulation is a new way of looking at chocolate that is also the ancient South American way of looking at chocolate: eating cacao with an abundance of tonic herbs and other superfoods.

So, next time you make an all raw cacao drink, chocolate ice cream, hard chocolate, fudgey pudding, chocolatey bliss balls, cacao-containing energy bars, chocolate pie, or any other raw recipes you enjoy, consider ammending those recipes with the rich earthy flavors of these tonic herbs and superfoods (each ingredient is a link to a source of the ingredient I really like):

~Astragalus Powder

~Blue Green AFA algae

~Chaga Mushroom powder

~Cordyceps Mushroom powder

~Ginseng Bude Blossom Crystals

~Goji berries (Up to you to decide whose goji’s you like best)

~He Shu Wu extract powder

~Host Defense multi-mushroom mycelium powder

~Lion’s Mane mushroom extract

~Mucuna powder

~Noni powder

~Pearl Powder

~Reishi Mushroom extract powder

~Rhodiola extract powder

~Royal Jelly (Sean Lee Gardner’s Organic Powder)

~Shilajit powder

~Spirulina powder (“Azteca” and “Manna“)

~Tonic Herb Tea (Bethanne’s blog shows you how to make this; this tea is perfect to make as part of the nut mylk base for the cacao drink! We get all our tea herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs)

~Vanilla Bean powder

I am going to request that you let loose some ideas you might have about your chef skills and realize that you are ALREADY a deeply skilled master alchemical chef ready to whip up a cacao recipe with this technique – even if it is just simply bliss balls (bunch of coconut flakes, hemp seeds, cacao, a couple teaspoons of tonic herb powders and sweetener mashed and rolled into small balls!). Another simple quick recipe is to mix raw cacao powder with melted coconut oil, some sweeteners, pinch of salt, and your choice of herbal powders, and then put into ice cube trays and chill.

There is one more variable to the situation of how stimulated or balanced you feel with cacao and that is the quality, processing temperature, and sprouting of the cacao. Sprouted cacao (hardly available on the market today, but will be available soon) will likely be the ideal cacao as the spouting may lower the theobromine content and boost the more calming constituents. We will see, and you can bet I am really excited to see, if a sprouted cacao revolution comes about. Of course, if the cacao has been pressed or even secretly roasted despite being labeled “raw,” then that can also mess with the desired more balancing effects of cacao. We hope that truly raw heirloom and wild quality cacao will only grow in the market and that all the sources will get much better at consistently having the best ever cacao beans, powder, butter and paste – all made with integrity and love.

For now, don’t fear cacao. Eat as much cacao and herbs as you can handle so that you can enjoy the best health ever with therapeutic amounts of minerals, antioxidants, amino acids and spirit-boosting effects contained within all of these superfoods and herbs.

I just described how to make my “special no-refridgeration-needed 50%-wild-food cabbage-nori-pate-saurkraut burrito!” in part 2. It was a savory recipe. We also need sweet recipes for traveling…Chocolatey sweet! I am going to give you a guideline formula so that you can create your own raw truffles – cacao covered superfood nougat – that you can munch on while traveling and get your nutritional needs met. This is my specialty. After creating the first two flavors of WildBar 4 years ago, I have figured out how to teach people how to make their own rich treats without giving away my precious trade secrets.

Truffles are great because the outer raw chocoalte coating can be very high cacao content which means it won’t melt until it reaches 90*F (the point when cacao butter goes from solid to liquid), and then a much creamier inner nugget which gets soft at a lower temperature but is held in place by its hard chocolate exterior. Melts in your mouth, not in your car, bag or whatever warmth your traveling might lead you to.

First pick your favorite nuts and seeds, soak them 12 hours and then dehydrate them. A good dehydrator can fully dehydrate larger nuts in 12-36 hours. I love brazil nuts (because they are wild) mixed with pumpkins seeds and anything else (macadamisa, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds). Note that hemp seeds don’t need to be soaked and dehydrated.

Fill a food processor half full with your dehydrated nut and seed choices and add a handful of chopped cacao butter. Blend until warm and creamy. Don’t let get too hot. Feel free to write down the exact recipe you’re using so that you can tweak it with your future artisan formulations.

Add a couple spinkles of salt, a small amount of sweetener (low glycemic is better, you might try: a sprinkle of xylitol and a few spoonfuls of yacon syrup or Jerusalem artichoke syrup.) Then definatly add a couple small dashes of the NOW brand of organic stevia extract powder. If you have had problems with stevia in the past, this is your solution. This stuff is enzymatically pre-digested to remove the chemical-like aftertaste of the stevia, resulting in a much more neutral creamy sweetness. Place in bowl and stir in all your superfood powders: spirulina, blue green algae, shilajit, mucuna, vanilla, mushroom extract powders, etc. Then add some crunchy whole nuts and seeds. Drizzle into ice cube trays and freeze until hard.

To make the raw dark chocolate: Melt a bunch of raw cacao butter and put equal parts cacao butter and cacao powder together in a blender. Keep warm and act fast. Most importantly, don’t let any water droplets make their way into your dark chocolate formulations or it can mess up the texture (or “temper”) of the finalized hard chocolate. Add vanilla powder, a tiny pinch of salt and sweeteners of choice. A little NOW brand stevia again and small amount of xylitol is all it takes as this chocolate can be bittersweet. Pour into narrow bowl or large measuring glass.

Pop the nougats out of the ice cube trays, hand dip them in the liquid chocolate, and place on wax paper or dehydrator sheets. The chocolate will very quickly harden around the new frozen centers. Chow down immediately to enjoy your personal travel-able decadence. Have the best superfood travels ever!