Ravishing Raw Chocolate Easter Eggs You Can’t Resist!

– Stacey Terry

 

Ravishing Raw Chocolate Eggs You Can’t Resist!

– by Marie-Claire Hermans of Ravishing Raw

I wish I had known about raw food when my kids were little. Both were very allergic to dairy and it was the era before any alternative was available but the first boxes of soy milk. Every Easter I wondered how I could give them the time of their life in the garden, looking for chocolate eggs without becoming sick after eating them.

Now that I’ve discovered raw food in all its glory, I simply had to make chocolate eggs for all the children who can’t eat them without getting sick. And yes, of course you will enjoy them just as much! Tip: don’t clean your kitchen before you start making them.

TOOLS YOU NEED                       

• Two bowls
• A spatula
• Egg molds
• A whisk
• A fine sieve
• A fine steel tool to scrape the chocolate off the molds

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING

• 1 cup cashews
• 4 Tbsp.  coconut flakes
• 1 tsp. organic alcohol free mint oil
• 2 Tbsp.  Agave
• 1 dropper green tea extract (optional)
• 4 Tbsp. fresh spinach juice (to color)
• 3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOCOLATE (ABOUT 20 SMALL EGGS)

• 0.22 pounds or 100 grams shaved cacao butter
• 6 Tbsp. raw cacao powder
• 2 Tbsp. Agave nectar
• pinch of sea salt or Himalayan sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. Maca

THE MAKING OF CREAMY MINT FILLING

• Grind the cashew nuts and the coconut flakes shortly in your blender or coffee grinder until it has become fine flour (not too long or it will turn into oily butter).
• Add the agave, mint oil, tea extract and spinach juice and blend until it is a smooth yet firm consistency.
• Now add the coconut oil slowly at lowest speed if possible.
• If necessary, add a few tablespoons of pure water (one by one) but don’t make your cream wet! Think of how cream looks and feels like when you bite a chocolate. This is what you want! You can also use some more spinach juice.
• Set aside in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate.

THE MAKING OF CHOCOLATE

• Always start with melting the butter; it takes some time. You can do this in your dehydrator on 122°F or 50°C (cacao butter stays alive on this temperature) or “au bain marie” (in another bowl filled with warm water)
• Scrub your counter and place the molds where you want to make them.
• When the butter has melted, add the chocolate powder and maca through a sieve to prevent lumps and whisk until very smooth.
• Add the other ingredients and whisk well.
• Now you have to wait a bit until the chocolate becomes a little thicker.

THE MAKING OF HOLLOW CHOCOLATE EGGS

• Once you see that the chocolate starts to thicken a bit, you have to be fast! Chocolate can turn hard in a few seconds.  If  you missed that point… no worries; you can melt it again!
• Pour chocolate in one mold and rock it so the chocolate covers the walls everywhere
• Pour out the chocolate back in your bowl (don’t worry about the spilling). You will see that chocolate will stay on the walls.
• If the chocolate was still too thin, you can make a second layer the same way.
• Scrape of all the rest of the spilled extra chocolate off of the mold so the edges of the eggs are clean.
• Put the mold in the freezer for ten minutes.
• Make the next mold.
• Keep some chocolate to assemble the eggs!

FILL UP THE EGGS

• When the chocolate egg shells are set in the molds, take them out of the freezer
• Take a bit of the filling and push it in each half egg, but not all the way up till the edge

ASSEMBLING THE HALF EGGS TO WHOLE EGGS

• Take two molds (preferably 2 of the same kind but you can also fantasize) and the rest of the chocolate
• Pour some chocolate on one mold until it covers up the areas you left open on the cream
• Now put the second mold upside down on top of the first mold perfectly symmetric and push it together (seal it  if possible with the pins that come with professional molds)
• If your molds aren’t suited for this technique do the following: get out all the chocolates by turning the mold upside down and knocking it on the counter. Warm up a steel tool under warm water, take two half eggs and warm up their edges shortly by rubbing them on that warm plate. Now push them together; they will melt together. This is a more time consuming method but it works just fine!

TIPS

• We are making hollow eggs here to fill up with a cream filling. The taste of this strong raw chocolate will be tamed by the filling and children will like it, too.
• If you want full eggs, just cover the mold and scrape off what is too much.
• Your kids don’t like mint? Mix some strawberries in the cashew flour or make their favorite taste.
• These eggs make a lovely Easter gift for your loved one in a nice box.
• If you can find molds for larger eggs you can fill them even up with small eggs and then melt those both halves together, put a nice ribbon around it…
• Where to get professional molds? Any kitchen specialty shop should have them.  Also, try Amazon!
• Take your time for this. It is fun and delicious!

About the Author: Marie-Claire Hermans, founder of Ravishing Raw, autodidact, author and raw food coach is committed to bringing people closer to a healthy and happy life through raw food classes, coaching, her books and lectures. Her experience, her hunger for knowledge and never ending training are the basis of her coaching and guiding skills.