Easter Treats With Indigo Herbs* [VEGAN].

In the spirit of Easter, Indigo Herbs recently asked me if I could whip up some chocolatey treats with some of their goodies. I'm not one to say no to chocolate so naturally I was immediately on board.

I chose to try out their Chocolate Starter Kit*, which comes with virtually everything one needs to create your own chocolate treats, including organic cacao butter, organic cacao powder,  organic raw agave syrup and organic raw vanilla powder. The only thing the kit didn't come with was a mould, but honestly you could use cupcake cases or even ice cube trays. Or you could spend a little extra and pick up the Easter Chocolate Making Kit which comes with Easter themed moulds.

I decided that rather that just following the recipe for plain chocolate, I'd split the ingredients and try my hand at creating some vegan friendly white chocolate. I've not eaten white chocolate since going vegan so I was intrigued to see how this would turn out - I have to say I'm fairly impressed. It's no Milky Bar but it's still deliciously creamy and makes for a nice change from my usual dark chocolate.

I also decided to try my hand at creating a couple of different filling options, because who doesn't love a filled chocolate? I put together some salted caramel sauce along with a sticky matcha-pumpkin filling - both are pretty simple to put together and add a nice contrast of textures and flavours to the chocolate treats.

Overall, I found the chocolate kit really self-explanatory to use. It took around 10-15 minutes to put the chocolate recipe together and I find the possibilities of what could do with this kit quite exciting - you could make filled chocolates like I did or even take a stab at bars, cups or shapes. Anyway, less of the talking - let's get to the recipes (FYI, I've not included the plan chocolate recipe as that's included as part of the kit).

VEGAN WHITE CHOCOLATE:

makes approximately 12 small filled chocolates

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

50g cacao butter

20g vegetable shortening (Trex) / coconut oil

1.5g raw vanilla powder (1/2 sachet provided in the kit)

50g icing sugar (sifted)

WHAT TO DO:

Set up a bain marie and place the cacao butter and vegetable shortening/coconut oil in a bowl over the hot water.

Melt the cacao butter and shortening/oil together until fully melted and combined.

Stir in the vanilla powder and sifted icing sugar.

To make a filled chocolate treat, spoon a small amount into your chosen mould and leave to harden in the freezer for 5 minutes. 

Add a small amount of filling and then spoon more of the chocolate mixture over the top to seal.

Allow to fully harden before turning out.

SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE:

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

5 tbsp coconut sugar

5 tbsp water

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extra

75ml coconut milk (from a carton not a tin - I use Koko)

WHAT TO DO:

Place the sugar, water, vanilla extract and salt in a pan and heat until the sugar has melted and the mix has reduced slightly (approx 5-10 minutes)

Add the coconut milk and stir thoroughly. Leave to gently heat for 3-5 more minutes until thickened.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool before using.

STICKY MATCHA-POWER SAUCE:

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

50g dates (soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to soften, save 2-3 tbsp of the liquid)

1 tbsp pumpkin seed butter

1 tsp matcha powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

WHAT TO DO:

After soaking the dates, place them in a food processor with 2-3 tbsp of the soaking water.

Blend until they begin to form a smooth texture.

Add the pumpkin seed butter, matcha powder and vanilla extract and blend further until fully smooth.

FYI this makes a rather large amount, however, it's lovely in porridge, just sayin!

Along with the fillings I created above, I also found that slightly sweetened crunchy peanut butter and Sweet Freedom chocolate spread made for amazing fillings - so if you wanted to make these as an Easter gift you could easily create lots of variety for minimal effort (which is always winning in my eyes!).

And what would life be without an Obi outtake? 

Let's start a conversation
I'd love to know what you'd create with your own chocolate kit? Please feel free to leave your thoughts either in the comments below, or drop me a tweet @_hellojordan

* Products parked with * were sent for review purposes, however, as always all thoughts are my own*