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This Homemade Chocolate Energy Bark is the perfect afternoon snack filled with heart healthy almonds, dried fruit, and delicious homamde chocolate.  Homemade chocolate is easy and you can make it as dark and as sweet as you want.  

It’s #Chocoberfest!  Have y’all been following the recipes that have posted so far?  Thanks to Hurricane Matthew, it’s extended an extra week to allow bloggers to receive their shipments of sponsored products.  Since I wasn’t affected, I received mine already and couldn’t wait to get in the kitchen and start cooking up some choctastic goodies.

You know why I take part in events like this one?  To learn new things, see new recipes, and get new inspiration for ingredients.  Put 100 bloggers in a room and hand them some chocolate.  While some recipes might be similar, I can guarantee you that there will be some unique and different recipes you never thought of before.

Events like #Choctoberfest, that has a sponsor, means I get to learn about a new brand or product I wouldn’t have even known about before.  Take Caveman Coffee, for instance.  I had never heard about this company before I signed up to take part in this event.

Caveman Coffee is a hand-picked, wet processed, and small batch roasted coffee out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The beans are UTZ certified and they follow Rainforest protocols to maintain sustainability in their coffee.  The hand picking and wet process ensures for a quality bean for roasting.

Now, Caveman Coffee not only sells coffee, but cacao butter, teas, and brewing products for optimum brew of their coffees and teas.  I know.  The cacao butter intrigued me, too.  They suggest adding it to your coffee with some butter, their MCT oil, and stevia to taste for a delicious mocha.

I’ll definitely have to try that!

Since I wasn’t sure what I was going to receive besides coffee – hello?  CAVEMAN COFFE? – I went down the mocha or cholate coffee something path initially.  But, then I received my package and it had this pound of cacao butter in it.  Okay.  What does one do with cacao butter besides make lotion?  Off to Pinterest I went to see what one makes with this interesting and foreign to me ingredient.

Um….CHOCOLATE!  One makes CHOCOLATE with cacao butter.  Duh!!

Then I was hooked.  How do you make chocolate?  What do you put into it?  What are the rations?  How do you sweeten it?  These are all questions that flew through my head in a whirlwind of excitement.  I’m going to make chocolate.  I’M GOING TO MAKE CHOCOLATE!!  How cool is that??

SEE?  I made chocolate.  Of course, this isn’t the best photo, but it was perfect for me.  It was just sweet enough, had intense chocolate flavor, and oh so creamy good.  If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to make chocolate, it’s simple.  You need some cacao butter, cocoa powder, and sweetened of choice.  Simple as that.  I heated my cacao butter in the microwave, stirred in the honey, cacao and cocoa powders, and voila!  I made chocolate.

I’m one of those with a weakness for dark chocolate.

For me the darker the better.  I also have a weakness for nuts.  Finally, I crave a little nibble of sweet in the late afternoon at work.  I combined all these things together in a perfect, energy boost of a snack that I can nibble on and feel good about!  I chose a heart healthy selection of nuts including almonds, pistachios, and hazelnuts.  The fruits add some bits of fiber, antioxidants, and nutrients that can help steer you through the rest of your day.  And the coconut chips?  They’re a source of calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Honestly, you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t be thrilled to reach into your snack bag and pull a piece like this out to snack on after lunch.  There’s crunch, there’s sweetness, and these rich chocolate.  All these combine into one delicious little snack of healthy goodness.

I agree.  I will have a hard time not pounding the whole bag in one sitting, but all things in moderation, right?  Considering chocolate is so easy to make, I will definitely be making many batches of this delicious energy bark for my afternoon pick me up at work.  Thanks to Allison from The Pinterest Kitchen for introducing me to Caveman Coffee and their delicious cacao butter!

Oh, and by the way, their coffee rivals that I love so much from Colombia.  It has a rich, delicious flavor that brings me back to that enchanting city, Bogota!  Make sure to follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for ideas on their products and any new ones they introduce.  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win some of their products.

Have you ever tried to make chocolate at home?  Would you?

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