Whether or not you choose to jump onto the Valentines Day 'love train', if you or your loved ones love chocolate, and if you like to keep things simple, you'd be mad not to get enthused by our little VD 'tribute' recipe, the Choc Strawberry Love Bites. These super easy chocolate treats can be whipped up in ten minutes flat, popped in the freezer, decanted when ready and stored in an airtight container for the 'big day' (or just any old day you feel like an easy dessert or a bit of bit of choccy luuuurrrve).
Makes appx 14 love bites.
You'll need:
6 strawberries, washed, dried & halved (lengthways)
1 cup raw cacao powder
¾ cup coconut oil (melted to runny)
4-5 tablespoons rice malt syrup or maple syrup, warmed to be runny
1 pinch of sea salt
1 - 2 ice cube trays
Combine the cacao, coconut oil, sweetener and salt in a small mixing bowl, ensuring all lumps are removed. Your mixture should be glossy and runny. If you would prefer to remove the green tops of your strawberries, do so (we like to eat them - they're green and green is good for us!).
Drizzle chocolate into the trays until approximately 1/2-3/4 full. Place a strawberry half in each of the ice cube holes, with the pointy end of the strawberry pointing down. Drizzle more chocolate if necessary.
Place in the freezer to set. 2 hours should suffice.
Remove from the freezer and if the chocolates don't fall out through a gentle twist (as ours did), run the underside of the ice cube tray with hot water for 10 seconds to loosen the chocolate (don't warm for too long, this chocolate melts easily). Turn onto a tray and voila, a block of strawberry Valentines Day chocolate for you and your sweetheart/s.
I choose to store these in the freezer for maximum life span, assuming you won't be gobbling them up within the matter of a day or two (because let's be honest, easy chocolate recipes are rather easy to gobble).
