Going vegan is easy; but finding fair-trade dairy-free chocolate chips at a reasonable price can be challenging! Not only do manufacturers like to sneak in the ol’ cow juice, but many chocolate companies just LOVE exploiting child slavery — which I strongly prefer not to support, thankyouverymuch. Since both vegan and fair trade factors are important to me, and since I don’t have an unlimited fund for building up my chocolate chip pantry shelf, I tinkered up this recipe for cruelty-free dairy-free fair-trade nom. Enjoy!
Chips, Chunks, Tomatos, Tomahtoes!
This recipe makes about 2-1/2 cups of vegan chocolate chips or chunks, depending on how finely you break them up. They’re not shaped in perfect little dewdrops — even the smaller ‘chips’ may look more like chocolate chunks, truth be told — but they taste like delicious chocolatey bliss! And they work like store-bought chocolate chips in baked goods, or on ice cream.
In the interest of full disclosure, this recipe does not produce a low-fat or low-sugar item! It’s definitely a rich indulgence, and (as Cookie Monster himself would tell you) a ‘sometimes food’. BUT! If you’re going to indulge, these offer less interference with the lives of other creatures; and it seems to me that’s worth a bit of tinkering.
Vegan Chocolate Chips: Let the Wild (Chocolatey) Rumpus Start!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup fair trade unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 cup organic refined coconut oil (or unrefined coconut oil, if you prefer a chocolatey-coconut flavor)
- 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring (optional but recommended)
Directions
1. Line a 9″ x 12″ casserole dish with parchment paper, trimming paper to fit until it lies flat in the bottom of the pan.
2. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring just to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Blend with an immersion blender for 10-20 seconds, then pour hot chocolatey mixture into the parchment-paper-lined baking dish.
3. Let cool completely at room temperature, uncovered; then cover with aluminum foil and transfer to the fridge for 1-2 hours or until well chilled. Loosen the edges with a spatula, and break into small pieces. Store in the fridge in an air-tight container, and use anywhere you’d use chocolate chips.
4. If you accidentally eat them all straight from the bowl before getting around to baking chocolate chip cookies, return to step 1 and repeat as indicated.
Image by the author, all rights reserved.
Do I have to use coconut oil? If not, what other oil would work?
The magic thing about coconut oil is that it’s solid at room temp… so I’m not sure if other oils would work as well or not. If you use another oil (almond or walnut, maybe?) it might be helpful to cut the amount, maybe to 3/4 cup or so, to keep a firm texture in the finished product. I’ve only used coconut oil in this recipe, so I’m not sure — if you experiment, please report back and let me know how it went! :)
How much does this make?
Hi nuu!
Makes about 2-1/2 cups, more or less — for large chunks a bit more, smaller ones a bit less, b/c of how they settle in the measuring cup. :)
Thanks for that. ^_^
I was asking because I have a cute little heart-shaped silicone candy mould and I was thinking of using it to make some little chocolate hearts to nibble on. The only problem is they’re a little small and I only have 1 “set”. I suppose that if I couldn’t make them all at once I could re-melt whatever was left and pour them into the mould after the first set cooled.
Your thoughts?
I have to disagree a bit about coconut oil. It has a low melt point of 76F, so I find the butter I make with it melts on the plate when it’s warm out. I recently started using refined cocoa butter which has a much higher melting point (same as chocolate!).
No other liquid oil would work. It wouldn’t solidify at all. I understand cocoa butter has exploitation issues, which is a separate thing.
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for chiming in! But I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing about… room temp is usually considered lower than 76, and the recipe already calls for refined coconut oil…? I def’ly wouldn’t leave these sitting out in a hot room, but if you store them in the fridge as recommended they work great, plain on ice cream or melted in baked stuff or whatever.
Also these solidify in the fridge — not on a warm countertop; so (like no-bake oatmeal cookies) some cohesion is probably possible, if you used almond oil or something and increased the solid ingredients…. the sugar syrup also solidifies somewhat at cool temps, so not all the texture is coming from the coconut oil. But you could be right — I haven’t tried it with anything other than coconut oil (both work, one tastes like chocolate chips & the other like ‘Mounds’ candy bars!)… just wouldn’t call it impossible, in a speculative sense.
Anyway! Thanks for reading, and for your comment! :)