I’m ashamed to admit it, but, for the longest time I was anti-carob. It saddnes me now because, when we close our minds to something, we limit our potential to learn and grow.
Recently, I’ve been re-building my relationship with dark carob and it’s been a lovely little journey. Some things I have learnt are …
- It’s very sweet, naturally, so you don’t need to add much sweetener to it.
- Dark carob pairs really well with many different fruits, especially berries and citrus.
- Because it’s non stimulating, you can have it any time of day and still be able to sleep at night.
- Blended into hot water with some nut butter and molasses is an awesome alternative to hot cocoa and, again, won’t keep you awake.
- When you’re not thinking about it from the perspective of an alternative to chocolate, but, rather, an interesting ingredient in and of itself, it opens your mind to the possibilities of it and allows you to appreciate it’s complex flavour.
This is a very simple recipe and takes about 10 minutes to make and 10-15 minutes to set in the fridge/freezer.
Ingredients
100g ( 1/2 cup ) coconut oil, melted
35g dark carob powder
15g ( 1/4 cup ) freeze or slow dried raspberries, crumbled ( *see note below )
30g ( 2 tbsp ) maple syrup
20g ( 2 tbsp ) sun warrior vanilla powder (you can omit and use lucuma or algarobba )
Method
- Sift the carob powder into a medium mixing bowl
- Add remaining ingredients and whisk it all up
- Pour into a silicone mould
- Set in the freezer, about 15 minutes
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. They’ll be soft at room temp.
Note — slow dried berries can be bought from Tree Harvest (www.tree-harvest.com). You’ll need to ring them or write to them and request a catalogue and open an account.
