Love Heart Chocolates

Ciao Bellas!

Love is in the air… and so is the aroma of freshly made chocolate.  There's no better time to share a recipe for my delicious Love Heart Chocolates for you to woo your boo or BFF.

When you think of Valentine’s Day clichés do you conjur up little Italian men meandering and weaving their way around restaurant tables selling freshly picked red roses for "all the beuwdiful ladies out there"?

However you celebrate The Feast of St Valentine, make the ones you love feel special and show your adoration with delicious hand-made Love Heart Chocolates made with raw cacao for the ultimate understated romantic gesture.

What makes these indulgent delights so lovingly special is their smooth and velvety texture and chocolaty and buttery taste.  As they melt in your mouth they also fill you up with goodness too.

Why choose to frequent confectionery aisles, when the superiority of homemade chocolate is so simple to achieve at home?

Whether you’re indulging in a little self-love, or wanting to impress that special someone, my Love Heart creations exude adoration and will win over the hearts of even the most discerning chocolate lover.

If you do happen to go overboard this Valentine’s Day, be sure to remind yourself of the following reasons to eat raw cacao, especially when you're nibbling on your second batch of chocs.

• Raw Cacao is overflowing with one of the world’s most deficient major minerals, magnesium. In fact, there’s no known source on earth that provides more.  Magnesium is essential in developing a strong healthy heart, can help to relax menstrual cramping, strengthen your bones and open up more than three hundred detoxification pathways in the human body.
• Raw Cacao is super-rich in antioxidants.  Ten percent of raw cacao powder is filled with them. They act as protective factors for the heart and circulatory system by increasing the ability of arteries to dilate, improving the functioning of the cells that line blood vessels and reducing the oxidsation of bad cholesterol (LDL).  Interestingly, dairy appear to counteract these amazing antioxidant effects; just another added reason you should try my DAIRY FREE love hearts.
• Raw cacao= happier you= lots of loving! Thank Phenylthylamine (PEA), a chemical that’s released into the blood stream when we are sexually aroused, and abundant in the brains of happy people.   PEA is responsible for dopamine (the pleasure hormone), adrenaline and noradrenaline. When you eat cacao, your mental concentration will increase, livening up your attitude and increasing positive emotions such as joy, happiness and perhaps some hanky panky with the apple of your eye. Nudge nudge wink wink!

Bite into my bite sized treats anytime of the year and if you’re having a downer of a day pump yourself up with cacao.  It’s a delicious way to improve cognition and emotional health.

These can be made in different shaped moulds for after dinner treats or fun treats at your next family party. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, add some orange or peppermint extract, crushed raw almonds, walnuts or cashews.

This recipe is from my new recipe book Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian.

Happy Vee Day,

Love Lee xo

Love Heart Chocolates

WF DF GF  SF  VEG  VG

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 40 g (11/2 oz) shaved cacao butter
• 1/4 cup organic coconut butter
• 30 g (1 oz/1/4 cup) raw cacao powder
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon alcohol-free vanilla extract
• 10–12 drops stevia liquid, or 1 teaspoon powdered, or to taste

Method

• To make the dark chocolate, melt the butters in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Add the other ingredients and whisk until smooth.
• Place in love heart moulds and freeze for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the freezer and wait a few minutes before popping the chocolate out from the moulds. If in hard moulds, tap the bottom until the hearts fall out.
• To make white chocolate, follow the method above but omit the cacao powder.
• The chocolates will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.