This homemade vegan chocolate recipe is made with cacao butter for a perfectly textured versatile dark chocolate. Super easy to make!
I have been making my own vegan chocolate for years. And it’s really fun to make and so delicious. And usually I make it with coconut oil.
We have a recipe for raw chocolate that is coconut oil based.
So to shake things up a bit with my chocolate making routines I wanted to try it with some cacao butter. And it was a massive success. So of course I had to share this delicious vegan chocolate recipe on the blog.
Cacao butter creates a super creamy texture to chocolate, which is really quite identical to the texture of chocolate you buy in the store.
You’ll also love our vegan white chocolate (also made with cacao butter), so check that out too.
Ingredient Notes
- Cacao butter – can be switched for melted coconut oil but it will change the finished taste/texture a fair bit. Cacao butter is preferred for this recipe.
- Cocoa powder – you could switch cocoa powder for cacao powder, but that will intensify the dark chocolate flavors.
- Maple syrup – could be substituted for date syrup, agave nectar or another kind of syrup. Maple syrup works the best though as it contributes to a thin consistency, which works well for stirring into the chocolate and keeping it a pourable consistency.
- Tahini – may seem an odd ingredient but it works great in this. You can substitute it for any other nut butter that you like. Of course it will alter the flavor but that will just add to the fun and you can create slightly different flavor profiles according to which nut butter you use.
- Optional add ins – you can definitely add in some nuts to this recipe as well. Any nuts would work great, but almonds, hazelnuts, pecans and cashews spring to mind as good options.
How To Make Homemade Vegan Chocolate
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add chopped cacao butter to a heat safe bowl and place it above a pot with a couple of inches of water in it, making sure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. This creates a homemade double boiler.
- Let the cacao butter gently melt over the hot water. As soon as it starts melting, stir it gently and keep stirring until melted.
- Turn off the heat and add cocoa powder, maple syrup, tahini and vanilla extract and whisk it in quickly.
- Transfer to a jug for easy pouring and pour it out into cupcake liners or chocolate molds.
- Place into the fridge to set.
- Your chocolates are ready to serve!
Vegan Chocolate Recipe Tips
Grate or finely chop the cacao butter. This lets it melt easily and evenly over a double boiler. You don’t want to try and melt this ingredient in the big blocks that it comes in, not only will that take too long, but some of it will be getting crazy hot while you still have big chunks that haven’t melted. So it works best to chop it finely or grate it.
Melt over a homemade double boiler. Place a heat-safe bowl over a pot with a couple of inches of water in it to create a double boiler and let it gently melt as the water below it heats. As soon as it starts to melt, stir and keep stirring so that it melts really evenly. Cacao butter isn’t something that I would blitz in the microwave. It’s quite pricey and you don’t want to accidentally burn it.
Work quickly. You have to work quite quickly because the chocolate mix starts to thicken up really fast and you want to get it into the cupcake liners or molds as fast as possible while the mix is still pourable. Then you can use the back of a teaspoon to just swirl the tops of the chocolate when it’s already in the cupcake liners so that it looks pretty on top!
Cupcake liners. I used cupcake liners because it’s easy, but you can absolutely use chocolate molds too.
Storing and Freezing
Keep the chocolate stored in the fridge and enjoy straight from the fridge whenever you like, they will be perfect in the fridge for at least a week.
If you want to keep them longer, then keep them stored in the freezer instead for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Chocolate Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Brownies
- Vegan Chocolate Truffles
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Pie
- Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cacao Butter (135g) finely chopped, packed cup
- 1 cup Cocoa Powder (84g) Unsweetened
- ½ cup Maple Syrup (120ml)
- 4 Tablespoons Tahini (60g)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Set 9 cupcake liners into a cupcake tray and set aside.*
- Add chopped cacao butter to a heat safe bowl and place it above a pot with a couple of inches of water in it, making sure that the bowl is not touching the water. This creates a homemade double boiler.
- Let the cacao butter melt gently over the hot water. As soon as it starts melting, stir it gently and keep stirring until melted.
- Turn off the heat and add in the cocoa powder, maple syrup, tahini and vanilla and whisk it in quickly. Then transfer to a jug for easy pouring and pour it out into the cupcake liners.
- Place the cupcake tray into the fridge and allow the chocolate to set.
Notes
- Cupcake liners. You don’t necessarily have to put the cupcake liners into a cupcake tray, but I find it helps them to hold their shape easier when you’re pouring the chocolate into them. You also don’t have to use cupcake liners for this, if you prefer to use molds, you can do that too.
- Make them smaller. If you pour less chocolate into each cupcake liner you could get 12 out of this batch instead of 9. As you can see from the photos each chocolate is quite large.
- Storing. Keep the leftover chocolates stored in the fridge and enjoy them directly out of the fridge. You can also store them in the freezer if you want them to last even longer.
Hello, I’m not sure if this comment was sent or not if yes, I’m sorry that I’m asking twice.
What could I substitute for the cacao butter? Could I use coconut oil? Would it be okay? I can’t get the cacao butter anywhere at the moment. Thank you.
Hi Clair, you may want to try our recipe for hazelnut chocolate that uses coconut oil instead.
This is a fabulous recipe. Love the depth of flavour from the combination of vanilla and tahini. And the cacao butter gives it a great texture.
I sprinkled some with sea salt flakes and others with cacao nibs. They were both great. Next time I might try adding a little orange or peppermint oil as a variation.
Thanks for a great recipe.
So happy to hear that Melanie! Thanks for the awesome review.
Alison! This sounds wonderful, do you have a recipe for dipping chocolate? I’m afraid this will set up to quickly while working with pretzels, cookies, etc. I tried just using basic vegan choc chips, but they did not look good at all, no shine, melted on touch. Any suggestions?
Hi Cheryl, our vegan chocolate sauce might be a good fit? Otherwise I would just use melted vegan chocolate (regular vegan chocolate often melts better than chocolate chips) but add coconut oil to make it a little more saucy. All the best! 🙂
Hi Alison,
Can I use half/ half cacao butter and coconut oil ?
Thanks a lot.
Marie
I don’t see why not, I think that would work just fine. 🙂
Just tried this and it a lovely rich dark taste I use cashew butter instead of tahini.
Only thing is mine came out fudgy any advice on how to make it a bit more solid.
Hi Kieran, so glad it tasted good! I’m not sure why it would have been fudgy, the cacao butter is what makes it set.
I’ve used this recipe several times, substituting tahini with homemade peanut butter and I used moulds instead of the cupcake liner. Absolutely amazing, 5 star!!
Fantastic! Thanks so much for the wonderful review. 🙂
Can I use something else instead of tahini?
Yes, this is discussed in the post, you can switch it for a nut butter. 🙂
Sounds yummy. I’m always looking for vegan chocolate bars for s’mores when we camp. Do you think this recipe would adapt well if I pour in a cookie sheet to cut into bars?
I think so! I think it would work great no matter what sort of shape you’re wanting for it. All the best! 🙂
Yummy Yummy Yummy!!!!!
Sounds divine I must have a go even tho not a vegan! Im attempting vegan cheese tomorrow and then I will try the chocolate just need to get the ingredients lol. I choose a lot of vegan food as they are so interesting for me and much healthier, which is my main aim. Thanks for an easy yummy looking recipe…I’ll let u know if I make it. ?
Hi Gillian! That is so awesome that you’re open minded and willing to experiment with vegan recipes, you definitely don’t have to be vegan to appreciate a vegan recipe as you already know. 🙂 Thanks for the great review, I hope you’ll try them and other recipes on this blog! All the best! 🙂