These Honey-Sweetened Cocoa-Butter Chocolate Chunks are a measured homemade component for occasional Later Full GAPS recipes. The formula uses one-half cup raw cocoa butter, three-quarter cup pure organic cocoa, one-quarter cup raw honey, one teaspoon homemade vanilla extract and one small pinch mineral salt.
The mixture melts and combines over gentle double-boiler heat, cools undisturbed to room temperature, hardens in the refrigerator and is cut into irregular chunks. The complete yield is about three cups.
A Chocolate Component With Its Own Formula
In a family kitchen, chunks are useful because they can be measured into another recipe without pretending they are the same as a bar. This version keeps a three-cup component ready while preserving its exact cocoa-butter, cocoa, honey, vanilla and salt ratio.
The separate raw-honey cocoa-butter chocolate bars use one cup cocoa butter, one cup cocoa and one-third cup honey with no salt. Those bars make eight servings. These chunks use a half-cup of cocoa butter, three-quarter cup cocoa, one-quarter cup honey and a mineral-salt pinch.
The two formulas should not be scaled into each other. Make this one when you need irregular pieces and an about-three-cup yield. Make the bar recipe when eight plain servings are the goal.
With six children, a component recipe is easiest to use when its yield stays recognizable. Keep the finished chunks together as one batch, then measure the amount called for by the recipe that links to them.
Prepare the Pan Before Melting
Line a shallow uncoated stainless-steel pan with unbleached parchment before beginning the double boiler. Smooth the parchment into the corners and leave enough at the edges to help lift the hardened chocolate later.
Set the pan on a stable section of the counter where it can remain undisturbed while the mixture cools to room temperature. Clear a level refrigerator shelf before pouring so the pan will not need to be tilted after it has been filled.
The pan controls the slab from which the chunks will be cut. Use one shallow pan instead of a deep container so the hardened chocolate can be lifted with the parchment and cut into irregular pieces.
Keep the storage container nearby as well. Once the hardened slab is cut, the entire three-cup batch can move directly into one covered glass or ceramic container.
Use a Water-Free Double Boiler
Place one-half cup raw cocoa butter in the upper uncoated stainless-steel insert. Nest the insert securely over the registered Le Creuset stainless saucepan with simmering water below it.
The water stays below the insert and never touches or enters the cocoa butter. The insert rim and lower saucepan must support each other securely, and the saucepan base stays centered on the burner.
Keep the heat gentle while the cocoa butter melts. There is no lid and no added water. Use dry equipment from the start so the water-free method remains intact.
A double boiler gives the cocoa butter surrounding heat without placing the upper insert directly on the burner. Keep the water at a simmer rather than allowing it to splash against the insert.
Add the Ingredients Over Gentle Heat
Once the cocoa butter has melted, keep the insert over gentle heat. Stir in three-quarter cup pure organic cocoa, one-quarter cup raw honey, one teaspoon homemade vanilla and one small pinch mineral salt.
Continue stirring until the mixture is completely smooth. This is the endpoint for this chunk recipe. Look through the mixture for dry cocoa pockets and separate streaks before moving it to the prepared pan.
Keep the ingredient list exact. The pinch of mineral salt belongs here, while the separately linked bar formula has no salt. Do not add commercial chocolate, sugar, maple syrup, stevia or other sweeteners.
Use the linked homemade vanilla with no added sugar or non-GAPS additives. Commercial or opaque vanilla is not substituted into this measured position.
Pour and Cool Undisturbed
Pour the completely smooth mixture into the parchment-lined stainless pan. Let it settle into one even layer, then leave the pan undisturbed until the chocolate reaches room temperature.
Room-temperature cooling comes before refrigeration in this formula. Do not move the pan into the refrigerator while it is still hot, and do not stir the surface after pouring.
The prep, cook and total times are five, fifteen and twenty minutes. Cooling and hardening continue after the active time, using the physical room-temperature and hardened endpoints.
Move the pan carefully only after it has cooled. Keep the pan level so the layer remains even before it hardens.
Refrigerate Until Hardened, Then Cut
Move the room-temperature pan to the refrigerator and leave it until the chocolate has hardened. Lift the slab with the parchment, peel the parchment away and cut the chocolate into irregular chunks.
The final yield is about three cups, not an exact piece count. Cut pieces large enough to handle and measure, with modest variation in shape rather than commercial chip or candy-mold uniformity.
Keep the chunks plain. There are no nuts, fruit, mint, coconut flakes, milk or decorative toppings in this formula.
If small crumbs collect while cutting, keep them with the batch. They are part of the same measured chocolate and can be included when a linked recipe calls for finished chunks.
What the Finished Chunks Should Look Like
The finished batch is a pile of irregular hand-cut chocolate pieces. Some pieces show cut faces and others show broken edges. The surface remains plain and unscored.
The photo identifies the intended component shape. Follow the completely-smooth, room-temperature-cool and refrigerated-until-hardened cues instead of adding an unsupported tempering, shine, snap or room-temperature performance test.
Where Chocolate Chunks Fit on GAPS
Pure organic cocoa is occasional Later Full GAPS only after digestive symptoms are gone. These chocolate chunks are not an Introduction Diet or early Full GAPS recipe.
Raw cocoa butter, raw honey, qualifying homemade vanilla and the small mineral-salt pinch complete this version. The ingredient forms do not open an earlier stage.
Use the chunks as a measured component only in another recipe that has its own current GAPS placement. A later-Full chocolate component does not make an otherwise unsuitable recipe compliant.
Scale the Three-Cup Component
The 2× card control doubles the yield to about six cups and changes the measured ingredients to one cup cocoa butter, one and one-half cups cocoa, one-half cup raw honey and two teaspoons homemade vanilla. The small salt pinch doubles to two small pinches.
Divide the doubled mixture between two shallow lined pans if one pan would create a deeper layer. Keep the same cooling order for each pan: undisturbed to room temperature, then refrigerated until hardened.
Store the two batches together only after both are fully hardened and cut. Keep the final measured yield clear when a later recipe calls for a specific cup amount.
Storage and Measuring
After the chocolate has hardened and been cut, keep the chunks covered and dry in a glass or ceramic container in the refrigerator. Return unused pieces to cold storage inside the refrigerator.
The yield is about three cups. Measure the finished chunks by the amount required in the recipe that links to this component rather than assuming a piece count equals a cup.
Label the covered container as the three-cup salted chunk formula. That simple distinction matters beside the no-salt eight-serving bars, because the two chocolate recipes are not interchangeable even though both use cocoa butter, cocoa, honey and vanilla.
If a linked recipe calls for one-half cup finished chunks, measure that amount from the hardened, cut batch. Do not replace the measured cup amount with a guessed number of pieces.
More Later Full GAPS Chocolate Recipes
For a small cocoa topping, use the Full GAPS Chocolate Frosting for One. For a filled treat, make the Goji-Cranberry Coconut Truffles.
Those recipes and the sibling bars remain independent formulas. Link to the finished component rather than copying the chunk ratio into every recipe that uses chocolate pieces.
Recommended Equipment
Use the registered Le Creuset stainless lower saucepan, an uncoated stainless double-boiler insert, a dry stainless or wooden stirring utensil, shallow uncoated stainless pan, unbleached parchment, measuring cups and spoons and a glass or ceramic storage container.
The upper insert and shallow pan are uncoated-stainless material choices for their required shapes. Keep every vessel fully supported and use no plastic or silicone food-contact mold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are These the Same as the Cocoa-Butter Bars?
No. The bars use a different ratio, no salt, an eight-serving yield and different method and timing.
Why Do These Chocolate Chunks Include Mineral Salt?
One small pinch is part of this measured formula. Do not add it to the separate bar recipe.
Can I Make Commercial-Style Chips?
This recipe is for irregular hand-cut chunks. Do not change the pan method into a commercial chip or candy-mold shape.
Why Must the Pan Cool Before Refrigeration?
The method directs the filled pan to cool undisturbed to room temperature before it is refrigerated until hardened.
Can I Replace the Raw Honey?
Use the measured one-quarter cup raw honey; no alternate sweetener is included.
Can I Use These During the Introduction Diet?
No. Pure organic cocoa is occasional Later Full GAPS after digestive symptoms are gone.
Honey-Sweetened Cocoa-Butter Chocolate Chunks Recipe
Honey-Sweetened Cocoa-Butter Chocolate Chunks for Later Full GAPS
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Melt the cocoa butter water-free in the upper uncoated stainless-steel insert of a double boiler set over simmering water. Water must not touch or enter the cocoa butter. Keep it over gentle heat and stir in the pure organic cocoa, raw honey, homemade vanilla and small pinch of mineral salt until completely smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a shallow uncoated stainless-steel pan lined with unbleached parchment. Let it cool undisturbed to room temperature, then refrigerate until hardened. Lift it out, remove the parchment and cut it into irregular chunks.
Notes
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