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
Hello, does coconut oil work or does it have to be butter?
Thank you
Hi Emily, it does have to be cocoa butter in order for it to set up at room temperature. However, you can use coconut oil instead and just keep it in the fridge.
Please note it’s not dairy butter, but cocoa butter :-)
ok not sure what happened but mine came out soooooo thick it was not useable, is the butter measure liquid or solid?
Hi Beth! I’m sorry to hear that. The cocoa butter is not a liquid measurement, but I have included the weight measurement for ease. If you go ahead and spread it in a pan, it will likely harden just fine and be delicious!
Try warming it in a double boiler again while mixing it, then pour into molds. I also cool the coco butter by placing the bowl into a sink filled with water that is 90°. It seems to keep it creamier longer once everything is together.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!It is perfect and tastes delicious. I did use my Kitchen Aide on slowest speed to stir the cocoa butter until 90’ and then used the whisk after remaining ingredients were added until chocolate was smooth. Love, love having delicious chocolate chips and candy without white sugar and other additives. Thanks again!
Hi Lois! I’m so glad to hear this! Enjoy!
Thank you for your recipe. I would be grateful if you could kindly please advise the following.
a) Is the 90 degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius?
b) Can I use one tablespoon honey and one tablespoon stevia powder as sweeteners?
That also means I will stir the stevia powder in right away after transferring the melted cocoa butter to the room temperature glass bowl. The tablespoon honey will be added with the cacao powder AFTER stirring the stevia powder with the melted cacao butter in the room temperature glass bowl for two minutes as per the recipe.
Hi Artemis, sorry for the delay. You can change the sweetener, yes. Your suggested timing for adding them seems proper to me! Enjoy!
Oh, and sorry, 90° F!
You mention not to put it in the fridge while it is setting up. How would this work if I make a batch to use for the homemade candies – peanut butter cups, bars with filling, etc – that require a base of chocolate to set up (those recipes say to put in the fridge till set) and then add filling and the top layer of chocolate? Or would I need to wait till set before adding filling and then remelt the chocolate for the top layer? Excited to try this! Thanks!
Hi Shannon! This recipe creates a tempered chocolate, so it will set at room temperature in just a few minutes. No need to set in the fridge. Yes, you would need to remelt for the top layer, depending on how long the first layer setup takes! The only reason I recommend not fridge setting it, is because it can mess up the tempering and cause the chocolate to be a bit brittle. But you absolutely can if that’s what you’re used to!