Easy Homemade Vegan Chocolate with Cherry Jam
Easy Homemade Vegan Chocolate with Homemade Cherry Jam. Just 5 ingredients and takes only 10 minutes to make everything! These jam filled vegan chocolates are dairy-free and so delicious and makes a perfect treat or gift!
Servings: 5 -10
Ingredients
CHERRY JAM
- 1 cup dried cherries, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE
- 1/2 cup (120G) melted cocoa butter
- 1/2 cup (48g) raw cacao or unsweeteened cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons (100g) pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch sea salt
- Optional: 1/2 teaspoon fine espresso powder for a richer chocolate taste
NOTE
- Make sure your cherries are at room temperature and not straight from the fridge. Otherwise they will be too hard to break down and become soft and blended. I know, because it didn't work the first time I tried when I took mine out of the fridge. If you keep yours stored in the fridge, just set them out the night before or several hours before you plan to make the jam.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- You can prepare it the day before making the chocolate if you like. Add the cherry jam ingredients to a food processor and just enough lukewarm water to blend until the mixture becomes very smooth and all the cherries are broken up, but the jam is still thick (like in the photo). I used 4 tablespoons of water. Really blend it for a few minutes until it gets smooth, scraping the sides as necessary. Depending on which dried cherry brand you use, the sweetener may need to be adjusted. Mine were already sweet, so 1 tablespoon of syrup was perfect. You will have lots of jam leftover, which is a great thing, you can make more chocolates or use it on toast, muffins, pancakes, etc. We have been using it on toast and English muffins.
- To make the chocolate, use a scale for accurate results and either use the cocoa butter discs I have linked above or finely chop about 1 cup of cocoa butter (120 g) and melt to liquid. Do this either over a double boiler or I use a microwave and melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals up to 2 minutes, stirring in between. Remove once it's almost all melted and stir until 100% dissolved. Make sure to measure out only 1/2 cup (120g), in case you melted extra. Add to a bowl and whisk in the cacao, syrup (or agave) and vanilla until very smooth.
- If you are just making plain chocolate and not adding a filling, then you will be making thinner, but more chocolates. You would divide the chocolate into 10 liners by dropping 2 tbsp melted chocolate into each. Place in the fridge for about 15 mins or until completely set.
- If making them with the cherry jam or another filling, you will need more chocolate per liner, so you will be dividing the chocolate into only 5 foil liners, adding 2 tablespoons on the bottom first. Then place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes until set. Drop a heaping teaspoon of the prepared cherry jam in the center of each chocolate and flatten out, but do not spread it completely out to the edge.
- Add the remaining chocolate over the fillings (2 more tablespoons). If your chocolate has firmed up a bit, very gently reheat your remaining chocolate (just a few seconds) into a liquid again. Carefully smooth out the top of the chocolate has thickened some.
- Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until they are completely hard and set. You can now remove them and leave them at room temperature. They are best left at room temperature because they are softer and have a better texture.
Notes
*Nutrition if just making the jam per 2 tbsp serving: 93 calories, 0 fat, .6 g protein, 24.2 carbs