Backstory: years ago I had a jar of this [...]]]> Lest anyone think we are betraying our chocolatey roots for our new love, the Green Smoothie (dandelion greens with pears and frozen rasberries this morning, yum), let me tell you about how Sophie and I turned into mad choco-geniuses the other night.  Recipe will be included.

Backstory: years ago I had a jar of this chocolatey stuff, some kind of a spread, only I never put it on anything except my finger, or possibly a spoon.  It maybe had ecstasy or bliss or nirvana or something like that in the name.  Fabulous stuff.  I have no idea how to get it anymore, have no idea what it even was, just this lovely, chocolatey memory….

Present day: I had the brainstorm that I needed to make some of that stuff.  Like, NOW.  I also thought that Sophie should help me, and that we would be wild-haired scientists, experimenting with dark potions and rare ingredients, until we concocted our chocolatey-bliss-spread-stuff and ate it all.  I told Sophie the plan—I had her at “chocolate.”  She said, “Cool, we’ll be girl Willy Wonkas.”  To which I answered, “That sounds AWESOME.”

I kind of remembered the ingredients, maybe, sort of, cacao, coconut oil, crunchy bits that I thought were cacao nibs, some cinnamon.  With this to work from, off to Whole Foods we went, mad money in hand.

Our haul:

Okay, some of this we already had.  Some we were inspired to get at the store.  I mean, real cacao butter?  How could we say no to that?  Into the cart!

Our process was simple.  Start with some stuff, write down the  quantities, keep mixing and tasting and adding until we loved it.

Here we have agave and cacao powder, plus the grater we used to grate up some cacao butter—turns out cacao butter is creamy white and hard (and smells divine).  Here, check out the bowl, you can see for yourself:

On the left, that creamy yellow-ish stuff is grated cacao butter, a few chunks at the bottom.  The white shavings are virgin coconut oil—it was cold enough in the yurt for the oil to have solidified somewhat, so we shaved it out of the jar with a spoon.  We food processed the nibs to make them smaller.  The goal was something that would make us positively moan when we put it in our mouths.  Kept adding and tweaking…

Until we hit it.  Everything came together just right and we went MENTAL with it, just freaking out with how delicious it was.  We had this loose limbed funny Chocolate Dance we were doing, dancing around the kitchen, hyper from all the agave I guess.  It was so much fun.

Here is the final product:

Sophie made the lid and meticulously removed the old strawberry jam label.  YUMYUMYUM.  If I could reach through the computer screen and give you some, I would.  But since I can’t, I guess we’ll just have to eat it ourselves.

Sophie and Maya’s Raw Chocolate Bliss Spread

3 T agave

4 t cacao

4 t coconut oil (the really good stuff that still tastes like heavenly coconut)

4 t cocoa butter, grated

1 t maca

1 t nibs, chopped up a bit in the food processor

1/4 t cinnamon

dash vanilla extract

dash of salt

Mix it up.  Go crazy.  It is SO GOOD.

The above jar is a triple recipe.  We worked it out using tiny amounts because we didn’t know what we were doing and didn’t want to waste our valuable supplies if we mucked it up.  But we have tons of supplies left, and we didn’t muck it up, so I’m sure we’ll be making more when our little jar empties.  Sophie had it on toast this morning, so I know it won’t take long….

“Hey, [...]]]> It’s been raining and raining and we’ve all been inside, a lot, maybe too much. So, yesterday afternoon, the kids were fighting and I was crabby and let’s just say none of us were being very kind. My answer to these situations is usually the same, a Monty Python, And now for something…completely different.

“Hey, kids, want to make some of that chocolate goop and watch some Spiderman cartoons?”

Screaming, cheering, etc. A much better sound than the bickering of a few minutes before. We get our supplies, mix up the goop, and settle in to wait for it to cook with a good round of Scorpion vs. Spidey.

Here comes the moment:

A bit later, we’re eating chocolate stuff and Sophie says, pure sincerity on her face, “There is nothing better that friendship, happiness, and chocolate.” And then she looks at me and says, “And you, mama.”

See that puddle on the floor? That’s me. She sure has her priorities straight, doesn’t she?