Making chocolate doesn’t have to be hard! In this guide, we explain how to make chocolate bars from cocoa powder easily, that actually resemble real chocolate.
Mastering the making of your own chocolate at home is a special craft, that requires time, patience and some well-earned skills. But if you don’t have time or interest to learn how to make it from scratch using cocoa beans, a hack you can try is making chocolate from cocoa powder.
The results may not be professional, but they’ll be enough to make your family and friends happy, and the big bonus – it’s easy and quick. In this article, chocolatier Simon Knott explains how to make chocolate bars from cocoa powder step-by-step, and tips for customizing your cocoa powder chocolate to suit your personal taste.
How to Make Chocolate Bars from Cocoa Powder
By Simon Knott, Chocolatier
It is surprisingly easy to create chocolates or chocolate bars using straightforward kitchen equipment and readily available ingredients. Using cocoa butter as the fat creates a more authentic product with a mouthfeel similar to regular chocolate; however, coconut oil or even butter can be used as a readily available replacement.
How to Make Chocolate Bars with Cocoa Powder: Preparation
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Fine sieve
- Whisk
- Spoon or small jug for pouring
- Spatula
- Chocolate bar moulds – silicone or polycarbonate
Ingredients
- 50g (1/2 cup) Cocoa powder
- 55g (1/2 cup) Powdered or Icing Sugar
- 112g (1/2 cup) Coconut oil, cocoa butter wafers or cocoa butter, chopped
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 50g (1/3 cup) chopped almonds or fruit
- Optional – Milk powder (for milk chocolate)
Flavourings and Add-ins
To make your recipe textures and flavours more interesting you can use numerous flavours and add-ins to improve them. Popular inclusions are:
- dried fruit and nuts (raisins, almonds, pistachio)
- freeze-dried fruit pieces
- cacao nibs
- spices (cinnamon, cardamom)
- oil flavourings (mint, orange)
- pieces of crushed biscuit (digestive, Graham Cracker, Oreo, Lotus Biscoff).
Tips when choosing ingredients
Raw cacao powder
Cacao powder (aka raw cacao powder) is the raw, unprocessed ‘version’ of cocoa powder.
Cacao powder is a good substitute, as it is less processed and has better nutrition than cocoa powder. However, it is more bitter, so the sugar content must be increased. Some use a 50-50 mix of cocoa powder and cacao powder. This gives a great flavour, moderates the bitterness of the cacao and makes a cheaper alternative to 100% cacao powder.
Milk powder
Full-fat milk powder will easily dissolve and transform your dark chocolate into milk chocolate.
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is an excellent natural replacement for white sugar, as are stevia and agave. Chocolate is a strong flavour so the maple syrup flavour isn’t overpowering.
Vanilla extract
Use an alcohol-based extract or bean, as the water in vanilla flavouring may cause the chocolate to seize.
How to Make Chocolate Bars from Cocoa Powder: Method
This recipe for how to make chocolate bars from cocoa powder is for dark chocolate bars. You can vary this recipe for milk chocolate bars, by adding milk powder to taste. If using milk powder, add it with the sugar and cocoa.
Melt the Fat/Oil
Prepare the cocoa butter or coconut oil:
- Weigh the chopped cocoa butter into a bowl and melt it carefully in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water.
- If the coconut oil is solid, warm it gently in the same way.
Combine Ingredients
Sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar into the melted cocoa butter or coconut oil. Add the vanilla extract.
Use a whisk to incorporate the cocoa and sugar into the fat. Whisk gently until all the ingredients are well amalgamated, and the chocolate is smooth.
Add any extra flavourings or add-ins and stir them into the chocolate with a spoon.
Pour Chocolate into Moulds
If using silicone moulds, place them on a chopping board before filling.
Transfer the chocolate into the moulds using a spoon or a small jug. When full, tap the moulds gently on the table a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.
Then, the moulds are easily transferred to the freezer using the chopping board, which acts as a support for the moulds underneath.
Set and Remove Chocolate Bars from Molds
Leave the moulds in the freezer for 30 minutes until set.
Take them out of the freezer and carefully remove the chocolates from the mould.
Even though cocoa butter chocolate will set more easily than coconut oil chocolate, they will still both need to be stored in the refrigerator, as the chocolate isn’t tempered. It’s best to store both in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed this easy instructional from Simon Knott on how to make chocolate bars with cocoa powder.
For more cocoa powder chocolate treats, check out our tutorial on making dark chocolate with cocoa powder, or learn to make authentic white chocolate using food-grade cocoa butter and basic ingredients in your pantry.
Happy chocolatiering!
