Author: Chocolate made with honey is not only possible, it’s downright easy! Honey sweetened chocolate still has the same sheen and snap of chocolate made with sugar, but you get the benefits of honey instead!
With just 4 simple ingredients you will be making your own chocolate at home in just a few minutes!
Making your own dark chocolate at home is actually very fast once you know what you’re doing! With this recipe creating chocolate without sugar (using only natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, coconut sugar, or stevia) is simple!
And like all well tempered chocolates, this homemade chocolate will harden in less than 3 minutes (thin layer), has a sharp snap and beautiful sheen, and is solid at room temperature!
No need to store this chocolate in the fridge or freezer, keep it in the pantry for up to 3 years without any issues!
Whether it’s a few chocolate chips in pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, or even just a nice piece of homemade peppermint bark… we enjoy chocolate around here!
But when we started doing the GAPS diet for healing, I knew we needed to eliminate sugar.
And while the amount of sugar carbs in a tablespoon of organic chocolate chips is pretty low, it’s not just about carbs when you’re doing a gut healing diet.
So I started looking into honey sweetened chocolate options and found that there was only one organic honey chocolate option out there, and it was pretty expensive for me to want to buy on a regular basis!
I decided it would be better to attempt to make my own, and thankfully, making your own chocolate with honey is really easy!!
Here are a few ways we love to use this honey chocolate!
Honey Sweetened Chocolate Chips
Honey Sweetened Chocolate Coins
How to Make Honey Sweetened Chocolate
This super simple recipe calls for just 4 ingredients and produces and chocolate that is just as hard, shiny, and versatile and sugar sweetened chocolate.
It’s tempered so it’s shelf-stable and can be used in homemade candies without needing to be refrigerated like most homemade chocolates that use coconut oil!
We’ve used this in our homemade chocolate bars with all sorts of fillings, in these adorable Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs, and more!
Whatever you would normally use “regular” chocolate for, you can use this chocolate for instead!
It’s also a great option for Paleo Honey Chocolate and Primal Honey Chocolate!
Step One:
Gather your ingredients: Cocoa Butter, Cacao (cocoa works too), Honey, and Vanilla Extract.
In a double boiler, melt cocoa butter. A glass bowl works best!
Step Two:
Remove glass bowl from heat and stir melted cocoa butter with a spoon or spatula for 2 minutes. You want to stir quickly enough to emulsify the cocoa fats, but not fast enough to introduce a ton of air into the mixture.
Step Three:
Transfer melted cocoa butter into a room temperature glass bowl. That part is optional, but it does cut WAY down on your stirring time!
Either way, continue stirring until cocoa butter is 90°. At this stage the temperature is low enough you still have the benefits of using honey! We use raw honey in our honey chocolate and since there is no high heat at this stage, none of the beneficial aspects are destroyed!
Reaching 90° while stirring constantly also serves to temper the chocolate, which is what allows it to remain solid and crisp at room temperature.
Otherwise it would be chalky in texture and would develop a white “bloom” after a few hours. This happens with all poorly tempered chocolates, not just honey chocolate.
Step Four:
Add cacao and honey, stir until well combined. Again, be careful not to add a lot of air to the mix. Add vanilla extract and switch to a whisk to get the mixture smooth.
Step Five:
Once mixture is nice and smooth, transfer your completely honey chocolate into whatever chocolate mold you want to use!
Here are a few we like:
Break Apart Chocolate Bar Mold
Mini Candy Bar Mold (perfect for homemade chocolate bars with filling)
Chocolate Frogs (super fun for this Harry Potter recipe!)
and many more!
And of course, these beautiful homemade kisses!
Step Six:
Wait until chocolate is completely solid before removing from molds. This wait time will vary based on how thick the chocolate is.
DO NOT place it in the fridge, or the chocolate will “bloom” and get white scale on it (still edible, but not as pretty).
Once chocolate has been removed from the mold, store at room temperature indefinitely. We have stored them for up to 3 years without issues and without any change in taste or texture!
See the entire process in this video, and get the full recipe below that! Enjoy!
UPDATE: This recipe has been updated to include weight measurements and nutritional information.
Honey Sweetened Chocolate
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Cocoa Butter (113g) this is the organic brand we use
- 1/3 Cup Cacao Powder (58g) we use this raw, organic brand - cocoa works too
- 2 Tbs Honey*
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- In glass bowl, melt cocoa butter (double boiler works best). Remove from heat and stir with a spoon or spatula for 2 minutes.
- Transfer to a room temperature glass bowl. Stir for 2 minutes or until mixture is 90°.
- Add cacao and honey. Stir well.
- Add vanilla extract and stir with a whisk until smooth.
- Pour into chocolate mold and allow to sit at room temperature until hardened.
- Remove chocolate from mold and store at room temperature for up to 6 months!
Notes
Homemade Honey Chocolate Nutritional Facts
This label assumes you used honey as the sweetener (2 tbsp)
PIN THIS FOR LATER
Would this recipe work well for chocolate covered strawberries? Like when it is liquid, can I dip things in it? i Guess I’d just have to avoid the refrigerator?
Hi Glenda! Yes, I use it for strawberries every Valentine’s day. Perfect! You can refrigerate the chocolate just fine, you just don’t HAVE to for the chocolate to solidify.
But if you were dipping something perishable, like fruit, then you would want to keep them in the fridge.
Enjoy!
HI Victoria,
Will you be able to give the measurements in grams. your chocolate looks awesome. Thanks
Hi Alpana! I’m so sorry for the delay. I’ve been waiting to answer until I had a chance to make this again, however, it doesn’t seem to be in the cards anytime soon.
So I will just say, this recipe is VERY forgiving. I estimate measurements all the time and as long as you don’t put too much honey in, it’s totally fine!
I hope you have a chance to try it, and when I do make it again, I will update with grams :-)
Do you think it’d be possible to add full fat coconut milk (like from the can, mixed) to make a creamier, milk chocolate? How much would you say would be best to use if so? Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Dianna! You could add the coconut milk to make truffles, but if you wanted a solid at room temperature chocolate, you will need to add powdered milk instead. You may be able to get powdered coconut milk, I’m not sure.
You could add about 1-2 tsp of powdered milk to the recipe and see how it goes as far as your preference and then adjust from there the next time. I’m not 100% sure on the shelf life once you add the powdered milk (since it will then rehydrate it) but it should be at least a week at room temperature or a few weeks in the fridge!
Let me know if you try it!
I made this recipe exactly as you stated, and it’s incredible! WOW!! Thank you so much for this! I can’t believe how easy and fun it was to make.
I’m curious why it’s necessary to stir the melted cacao butter for two minutes before transferring to the room temperature bowl. I did do that, but I was just curious why not just transfer to the room temperature bowl and just mix there?
I’m going to have so much fun experimenting with this chocolate and adding flavors and textures.
Can’t wait to explore some of your other recipes.
Hey Scott, so glad you enjoyed it!
Basically the double stir time is to ensure proper tempering. Once you get the hang of it you can skip the first stirring and go right to the second bowl and stir.
I’m currently doing it that way and it’s prefect! Let me know if you try it!
Hi, when I this recipe, drops of honey start to appear on the surface over time. Any idea what I do wrong?
Hey Dave, sorry for the delay, we’ve been on vacation!
That would indicate that too much honey was added to the recipe. Did you increase it much from what is recommended?
It may also mean it wasn’t beaten long enough in the cocoa butter stage… but it’s generally too much honey.
This happens to me if I eyeball the honey instead of measuring. Ha!