Super easy homemade vegan chocolate recipe. This deliciously dark chocolate is made with cacao butter for a wonderfully textured versatile chocolate.
I have been making my own vegan chocolate for years. And it’s really fun to make and so delicious.
But usually I make it with coconut oil.
We have a recipe for raw chocolate hazelnut cups on this blog and that is a coconut oil based recipe.
I have tried lots of different chocolate recipes over the years but all with coconut oil.
So to shake things up a bit with my chocolate making routines I wanted to try it with some cacao butter. And it was a massive success so I had to share it here on the blog.
Coconut oil is awesome and also usually easy to get hold of, so there is nothing wrong with using it as an ingredient in homemade chocolate.
But what is really great about cacao butter is that it creates a super creamy texture to the chocolate, which is really quite identical to the texture of the chocolate you buy.
It also doesn’t melt as easily when you touch it as it does when you make chocolate with coconut oil.
How to make vegan chocolate
Grate or finely chop the cacao butter. This lets it melt easily and evenly over a double boiler.
You don’t want to try and melt this ingredient in the big blocks that it comes in, not only will that take too long, but some of it will be getting crazy hot while you still have big chunks that haven’t melted.
So it works best to chop it finely or grate it.
Then place a heat-safe bowl over a pot with a couple of inches of water in it to create a double boiler and let it gently melt as the water below it heats. As soon as it starts to melt, stir and keep stirring so that it melts really evenly.
This isn’t something that I would blitz in the microwave. It’s quite pricey and you don’t want to accidentally burn it.
As soon as your cacao butter has melted, add cocoa powder, maple syrup, vanilla extract and tahini into the melted cacao butter and whisk it quickly until well combined.
Then transfer to a pouring jug and pour it into cupcake liners.
You have to work quite quickly because the chocolate mix starts to thicken up really fast and you want to get it into the cupcake liners as fast as possible while the mix is still pourable.
Then you can use the back of a teaspoon to just swirl the tops of the chocolate when it’s already in the cupcake liners so that it looks pretty on top!
The cacao butter can be switched for melted coconut oil but it will change the finished taste/texture a fair bit. If you do want to do it that way though, then take a look at our recipe for raw chocolate that uses coconut oil.
Cacao butter is definitely preferred to use in this recipe.
The taste is very much a dark chocolate taste. So if you love the taste of super dark chocolate, then this is right up your street. If you prefer milder/sweeter chocolate then you can reduce the cocoa powder a bit to accommodate that.
You could switch cocoa powder for cacao powder if you wanted to, but then the dark chocolate taste would be even stronger.
I like maple syrup for this, but you could substitute a different type of syrup. Your chocolate mix will be thicker though if you do, because maple syrup is a very thin consistency, which works well here for stirring into the chocolate and keeping it a pourable consistency.
And then the tahini! I know it seems an odd ingredient but it works great in this! You can substitute it for any other nut butter that you like though.
Of course it will alter the flavor but that will just add to the fun and you can create slightly different flavor profiles according to which nut butter you use.
You can definitely add in some nuts to this recipe as well. And I used cupcake liners because it’s easy, but you can absolutely use chocolate moulds too.
I hope you’ll love this vegan chocolate recipe! It is:
- Super easy
- Quick
- Divine
- Deliciously dark
- Versatile
Keep the chocolate stored in the fridge and enjoy straight from the fridge whenever you like, they will be perfect in the fridge for at least a week. If you want to keep them longer, then keep them stored in the freezer instead.
More vegan chocolate!
Oh my, we love chocolate here, so we’ve got a lot of options for you!
Our best vegan chocolate cake is a dream of taste and texture! Our super decadent vegan chocolate ice cream will send you straight to chocolate heaven and our vegan chocolate brownies and vegan chocolate truffles will satisfy any and all chocolate cravings!
Our vegan chocolate pie is an absolute treat and our vegan chocolate banana bread is perfect for you if you like bananas and chocolate together. And then our super popular vegan chocolate cookies are not to be missed either!
So let us know what you think of this recipe in the comments and please do rate it as well. Thanks!
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Vegan Chocolate
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 9
Description
Super easy homemade vegan chocolate recipe. This deliciously dark chocolate is made with cacao butter for a wonderfully textured versatile chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (135g) Cacao Butter (finely chopped, packed cup)
- 1 cup (84g) Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Maple Syrup
- 4 Tbsp (60g) Tahini
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Set 9 cupcake liners into a cupcake tray and set aside.*
- Add the chopped cacao butter to a heat safe bowl and place it above a pot with a couple of inches of water in it, making sure that the bowl is not touching the water. This creates a homemade double boiler.
- Let the cacao butter melt gently over the hot water. As soon as it starts melting, stir it gently and keep stirring until melted.
- Turn off the heat and add in the cocoa powder, maple syrup, tahini and vanilla and whisk it in quickly. Then transfer to a jug for easy pouring and pour it out into the cupcake liners.
- Place the cupcake tray into the fridge and allow the chocolate to set.
- Keep the leftover chocolates stored in the fridge and enjoy them directly out of the fridge. You can also store them in the freezer if you want them to last even longer.
Notes
*You don’t necessarily have to put the cupcake liners into a cupcake tray, but I find it helps them to hold their shape easier when you’re pouring the chocolate into them. You also don’t have to use cupcake liners for this, if you prefer to use moulds, you can do that too.
*If you pour less chocolate into each cupcake liner you could get 12 out of this batch instead of 9. As you can see from the photos each chocolate is quite large.
*If you want this recipe to be raw then use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder.
- Category: Dessert, Gluten-Free
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Chocolate (of 9)
- Calories: 248
- Sugar: 11g
- Sodium: 11mg
- Fat: 19.9g
- Saturated Fat: 10.5g
- Carbohydrates: 18.8g
- Fiber: 4.1g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: vegan chocolate
Hello, I’m not sure if this comment was sent or not if yes, I’m sorry that I’m asking twice.
What could I substitute for the cacao butter? Could I use coconut oil? Would it be okay? I can’t get the cacao butter anywhere at the moment. Thank you.
★★★★★
Hi Clair, you may want to try our recipe for hazelnut chocolate that uses coconut oil instead.
This is a fabulous recipe. Love the depth of flavour from the combination of vanilla and tahini. And the cacao butter gives it a great texture.
I sprinkled some with sea salt flakes and others with cacao nibs. They were both great. Next time I might try adding a little orange or peppermint oil as a variation.
Thanks for a great recipe.
★★★★★
So happy to hear that Melanie! Thanks for the awesome review.
Alison! This sounds wonderful, do you have a recipe for dipping chocolate? I’m afraid this will set up to quickly while working with pretzels, cookies, etc. I tried just using basic vegan choc chips, but they did not look good at all, no shine, melted on touch. Any suggestions?
Hi Cheryl, our vegan chocolate sauce might be a good fit? Otherwise I would just use melted vegan chocolate (regular vegan chocolate often melts better than chocolate chips) but add coconut oil to make it a little more saucy. All the best! 🙂
Hi Alison,
Can I use half/ half cacao butter and coconut oil ?
Thanks a lot.
Marie
I don’t see why not, I think that would work just fine. 🙂
Just tried this and it a lovely rich dark taste I use cashew butter instead of tahini.
Only thing is mine came out fudgy any advice on how to make it a bit more solid.
★★★★★
Hi Kieran, so glad it tasted good! I’m not sure why it would have been fudgy, the cacao butter is what makes it set.
I’ve used this recipe several times, substituting tahini with homemade peanut butter and I used moulds instead of the cupcake liner. Absolutely amazing, 5 star!!
★★★★★
Fantastic! Thanks so much for the wonderful review. 🙂
Can I use something else instead of tahini?
Yes, this is discussed in the post, you can switch it for a nut butter. 🙂
Sounds yummy. I’m always looking for vegan chocolate bars for s’mores when we camp. Do you think this recipe would adapt well if I pour in a cookie sheet to cut into bars?
I think so! I think it would work great no matter what sort of shape you’re wanting for it. All the best! 🙂
Yummy Yummy Yummy!!!!!
Sounds divine I must have a go even tho not a vegan! Im attempting vegan cheese tomorrow and then I will try the chocolate just need to get the ingredients lol. I choose a lot of vegan food as they are so interesting for me and much healthier, which is my main aim. Thanks for an easy yummy looking recipe…I’ll let u know if I make it. ?
★★★★★
Hi Gillian! That is so awesome that you’re open minded and willing to experiment with vegan recipes, you definitely don’t have to be vegan to appreciate a vegan recipe as you already know. 🙂 Thanks for the great review, I hope you’ll try them and other recipes on this blog! All the best! 🙂