Hi friend! Happy Love Day! Today’s post is going to be short and sweet, just like me 😉 It’s a recipe for my delectable Salted Chocolate Cashew Candy. Now if you want to get super creative you can make your own chocolate with raw cacao, cocoa butter, and coconut oil, but I like to use the Camino Organic 100% baking chocolate.
They’re a Canadian company and I like to spread the love, not to mention it makes the final product more stable at room temp. Which means you don’t have to keep walking back to the fridge every time you want another delicious morsel.
Cashews
These are my favourite nuts, even though technically they’re legumes. Cashews are a great source of monounsaturated fats, which have been associated with good heart health, and are a good source of magnesium to help with muscle relaxation. Combined with the cocoa, this chocolate cashew candy is great for muscle cramping, especially for the ladies out there.
Chocolate
Though slightly lower in antioxidants than raw cacao, toasted cocoa still contains good levels of antioxidants and magnesium. It is higher in caffeine than unroasted cacao though, so be mindful of overconsumption if you’re sensitive to stimulants.
Butter
This delicious fat and its close relative ghee (toasted butter with the milk solids removed), has gotten a bad rap in recent years thanks to the low-fat health craze.
Can we all just agree to get over the idea that all fat makes you fat? Certain types of fat such as trans fats, hydrogenated oils, any fat that has gone rancid or been cooked to smoking point, and over-consumption of omega-6-rich seed oils (canola, corn, soy, cottonseed, sunflower, and safflower) can cause weight gain and inflammation, but your standard butter, coconut oil, or ghee?
These types of saturated fats are completely recognizable by the body, readily digested and absorbed, and have health benefits as well. In her amazing cookbook Nourishing Traditions, which I think everyone should own a copy of, Sally Fallon points out that butter contains ~ 12-15% short and medium chain fatty acids.
These fats are easily absorbed from the small intestine to the liver and have antimicrobial, antitumor, and immune-system-supporting properties. The lauric acid found in butter and coconut oil is especially helpful and is not found in other products and is only made by the mammary glands in humans.
It’s highly protective and she claims should be a conditionally essential fatty acid. Butter strictly from pasture-fed cows, not their grain and processed seed munching peers, also contains a fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, thank god for acronyms) that has strong anticancer properties, encourages the buildup of muscle, and prevents weight gain.
I could go on all day about the health benefits of special fats and oils, but essentially what I’m trying to say here folks, aside from my obvious love of butter, is that many important nutrients can be found in sweet, sweet fat.
This chocolate recipe is packed with healthy fats, delicious cashews, and sea salt to create the perfect salty-sweet treat that is free of refined sugars and inflammatory oils.
- 1 cup cashews, chopped
- 200 g 100% pure baker's chocolate (I like Camino's!)
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil or butter or ghee
- 1/4 cup maple syrup (more to taste depending on preference)
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
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Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add cashews to frying pan and toast until edges start to turn golden. About 3-5 minutes.
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Remove cashews from frying pan and set aside.
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Line a plate or baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
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Place water in a double boiler over medium-high heat. A double boiler is basically a pot over which you place another, slightly smaller pot or metal mixing bowl. Be careful not to fill the bottom pot to the point where the water touches the bottom of the top pot as this can cause your chocolate to burn.
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Break chocolate into squares (Camino's baking chocolate comes in chip form now- YAY!) and add to the double boiler, stirring gently as it melts.
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Once melted add the coconut oil and maple syrup and mix together.
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Once combined add cashews and mix thoroughly.
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Spread chocolate cashew mix onto lined plate or baking sheet.
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Once spread, sprinkle the top with sea salt. Start small and sprinkle around. You may not need the whole 1/4 tsp.
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Place in the fridge to set.
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Once hardened break into chunks with a knife and try not to eat the entire plate in once go. It ends poorly. Trust me.
Well friend, that’s our recipe for today! I hope you enjoy it. And if you’re looking for some more inspiration in the kitchen you can try out my FREE Build Your Own Buddha Bowl Cooking Class right here! You’ll receive a recipe guide, shopping list, & equipment list plus a demo on how to make Turmeric Coconut Rice, Glory Bowl Dressing, & Sweet & Salty Roasted Chickpeas. Get the class here!
As always, thank you for your love and support. Please stay safe and take care of one another!
Cait xo
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