Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (2024)

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by Victoria 78 Comments

Chocolate made with honey is not only possible, it's downright easy! Honey sweetened chocolate still has the same sheen and snap of chocolate made with sugar, but you get the benefits of honey instead!

With just 4 simple ingredients you will be making your own chocolate at home in just a few minutes!

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (1)

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Making your own dark chocolate at home is actually very fast once you know what you're doing! With this recipe creating chocolate without sugar (using only natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, coconut sugar, or stevia) is simple!

And like all well tempered chocolates, this homemade chocolate will harden in less than 3 minutes (thin layer), has a sharp snap and beautiful sheen, and is solid at room temperature!

No need to store this chocolate in the fridge or freezer, keep it in the pantry for up to 3 years without any issues!

Whether it's a few chocolate chips in pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, or even just a nice piece of homemade peppermint bark... we enjoy chocolate around here!

But when we started doing the GAPS diet for healing, I knew we needed to eliminate sugar.

And while the amount of sugar carbs in a tablespoon of organic chocolate chips is pretty low, it's not just about carbs when you're doing a gut healing diet.

So I started looking into honey sweetened chocolate options and found that there was only one organic honey chocolate option out there, and it was pretty expensive for me to want to buy on a regular basis!

I decided it would be better to attempt to make my own, and thankfully, making your own chocolate with honey is really easy!!

Here are a few ways we love to use this honey chocolate!

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Chips

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Coins

How to Make Honey Sweetened Chocolate

This super simple recipe calls for just 4 ingredients and produces and chocolate that is just as hard, shiny, and versatile and sugar sweetened chocolate.

It's tempered so it's shelf-stable and can be used in homemade candies without needing to be refrigerated like most homemade chocolates that use coconut oil!

We've used this in our homemade chocolate bars with all sorts of fillings, in these adorable Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs, and more!

Whatever you would normally use "regular" chocolate for, you can use this chocolate for instead!

It's also a great option for Paleo Honey Chocolate and Primal Honey Chocolate!

Step One:

Gather your ingredients: Cocoa Butter, Cacao (cocoa works too), Honey, and Vanilla Extract.

In a double boiler, melt cocoa butter. A glass bowl works best!

Step Two:

Remove glass bowl from heat and stir melted cocoa butter with a spoon or spatula for 2 minutes. You want to stir quickly enough to emulsify the cocoa fats, but not fast enough to introduce a ton of air into the mixture.

Step Three:

Transfer melted cocoa butter into a room temperature glass bowl. That part is optional, but it does cut WAY down on your stirring time!

Either way, continue stirring until cocoa butter is 90°. At this stage the temperature is low enough you still have the benefits of using honey! We use raw honey in our honey chocolate and since there is no high heat at this stage, none of the beneficial aspects are destroyed!

Reaching 90° while stirring constantly also serves to temper the chocolate, which is what allows it to remain solid and crisp at room temperature.

Otherwise it would be chalky in texture and would develop a white "bloom" after a few hours. This happens with all poorly tempered chocolates, not just honey chocolate.

Step Four:

Add cacao and honey, stir until well combined. Again, be careful not to add a lot of air to the mix. Add vanilla extract and switch to a whisk to get the mixture smooth.

Step Five:

Once mixture is nice and smooth, transfer your completely honey chocolate into whatever chocolate mold you want to use!

Here are a few we like:

Break Apart Chocolate Bar Mold
Mini Candy Bar Mold (perfect for homemade chocolate bars with filling)
Chocolate Frogs (super fun for this Harry Potter recipe!)
and many more!

And of course, these beautiful homemade kisses!

Step Six:

Wait until chocolate is completely solid before removing from molds. This wait time will vary based on how thick the chocolate is.

DO NOT place it in the fridge, or the chocolate will "bloom" and get white scale on it (still edible, but not as pretty).

Once chocolate has been removed from the mold, store at room temperature indefinitely. We have stored them for up to 3 years without issues and without any change in taste or texture!

See the entire process in this video, and get the full recipe below that! Enjoy!

UPDATE: This recipe has been updated to include weight measurements and nutritional information.

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (5)

Honey Sweetened Chocolate

Make your own dark chocolate at home using honey! This tempered chocolate is solid at room temperature, has a great snap and sheen, and can be used in any chocolate mold!

4.88 from 33 votes

Print Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: GAPS Chocolate, Homemade Chocolate Recipe, Homemade Dark Chocolate, Honey Chocolate, How to Make Chocolate At Home, Organic Honey Chocolate, Paleo Chocolate

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 5 ounces

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In glass bowl, melt cocoa butter (double boiler works best). Remove from heat and stir with a spoon or spatula for 2 minutes.

  • Transfer to a room temperature glass bowl. Stir for 2 minutes or until mixture is 90°.

  • Add cacao and honey. Stir well.

  • Add vanilla extract and stir with a whisk until smooth.

  • Pour into chocolate mold and allow to sit at room temperature until hardened.

  • Remove chocolate from mold and store at room temperature for up to 6 months!

Notes

To keep it to one page, this is a brief outline of the steps. For the full reasoning behind each step of the process, please refer to the post details.

* If you'd like to use maple syrup, maple sugar, coconut sugar, or stevia instead, it will work just fine with this recipe.

You would need to adjust for taste and don't go over 2 tbsp of liquid as it will cause the recipe to be too runny to harden properly.

If you use maple or coconut sugar, add it right away when transferring to a new bowl. It will need the additional heat to mix well (unlike the liquid sweeteners).

Homemade Honey Chocolate Nutritional Facts

This label assumes you used honey as the sweetener (2 tbsp)
Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (6)

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Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (7)

More Naturally Sweetened Recipes You Might Enjoy:

Paleo Coconut Flour Vanilla Cupcakes

Honey Sweetened Dark Chocolate Recipe

Homemade Marshmallows

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Kisses

Previous Post: « Easy Paleo Chocolate Fudge

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (12)Kyle says

    Thank you for the recipe! I was a bit confused with the cacao powder, since 1/3 of a cup was only 30g. I’m guessing it’s maybe 2/3 of a cup?

    Reply

    • Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (13)Victoria says

      Hi Kyle! It’s a 1/3 cup when I measure it, but not everyone measures the same, so that’s why I put the grams too :-) definitely go by the grams!

      Reply

  2. Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (14)Matthew says

    I tried this today, and it seems weird. There’s like little oil bubbles in the chocolate. Not sure what I did wrong.

    Reply

    • Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (15)Victoria says

      Hi Matthew, are they oil bubbles or honey bubbles? If oil, then I would double check how you were mixing – were you using a whisk during the oil beating phase? That would incorporate air and might cause bubbles.

      If they are honey bubbles, then you likely used just a touch too much honey. When I eyeball the honey I often get honey droplets throughout the chocolate. It doesn’t bother me, so I don’t worry about it, but if you want a really smooth chocolate you’ll want to measure the honey really accurately.

      I hope that helps!

      Reply

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Honey Sweetened Chocolate Recipe (paleo, GAPS) - Solid at room temp! (2024)

FAQs

How to harden chocolate without a fridge? ›

The following are several ways to harden chocolate without a refrigerator that you can follow.
  1. Ice baths. As the name suggests, the tempering process through the ice bath method involves "bathing" the chocolate in water filled with ice cubes. ...
  2. Seeding. ...
  3. Microwaves.
Dec 27, 2022

What chocolate doesn't melt at room temperature? ›

Tempered chocolate is wonderful to use when making homemade candy, such as truffles or peanut butter cups, or peppermint bark, because it maintains a nice smooth, shiny, and hard texture even at room temperature.

How to keep chocolate without melting? ›

Storing your chocolate in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight is one of the simplest hacks to prevent it from melting without needing to use a refrigerator. By keeping chocolate at room temperature – ideally between 18°C and 20°C – you can maintain its delicious taste and texture for longer periods.

What do you add to chocolate to make it harden? ›

You don't add ingredients to chocolate to make it harden, you temper it by heating it to a specific temperature, cooling it to another temperature, then heating it again. This causes the chocolate to crystalize in a way that leaves it hard and shiny. The temperatures are different for different kinds of chocolate.

How long does chocolate take to harden at room temperature? ›

Chocolate typically takes about 20-30 minutes to fully harden and set at room temperature. By placing your melted chocolate in the fridge, you can cut these times in half, speeding up the hardening process.

Why is my homemade chocolate not hardening? ›

It could be that your room temperature is too high. If the temperature is over 68 F, this can cause problems. The ideal setting temperature is between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It could also be that the chocolate wasn't tempered, because untempered chocolate takes quite a bit longer to set.

How do you make chocolate stay runny? ›

To thin melted chocolate, add a small amount of neutral oil, like vegetable oil or cocoa butter, stirring gently until it reaches the desired consistency. Melt slowly to avoid overheating, and keep water out to prevent the chocolate from seizing.

Will melted chocolate with coconut oil harden? ›

Coconut oil is the secret to achieving a super-shiny chocolate coating. It brings a little extra luster to melted chocolate, which, on its own, can become matte when dry. Not only does coconut oil make your chocolate coating shine, but it also helps the chocolate harden.

What is the best room temperature for chocolate? ›

So instead of the fridge: Store it in a cool, dry place. When chocolate is kept at a consistent temperature below 70°F (ideally between 65 and 68°F), and at a humidity of less than 55%, the emulsion of cocoa solids and cocoa butter will stay stable for months.

How long can chocolate sit out at room temperature? ›

Generally, dark chocolate tends to last longer than milk or white chocolate due to its lower moisture content and higher cocoa content. Dark chocolate usually will retain its full flavor for about 1.5 to two years at room temperature, and milk chocolate and white chocolate for about one year.

What is the only chocolate that doesn't melt? ›

Although Flake is made from milk chocolate, the manufacturing process gives it a different arrangement of fat and cocoa solids, so the melting fat isn't able to lubricate the cocoa particles to the point where they can flow. In a bain marie, a Flake will never melt. In the microwave, it eventually just burns.

How to make homemade chocolate that doesn t melt at room temperature? ›

Instructions
  1. Chop up the chocolate. ...
  2. Melt the chocolate on low heat. ...
  3. Very carefully, heat your melted chocolate to 115 degrees Fahrenheit while stirring constantly. ...
  4. Remove the chocolate from the heat and stir in the unmelted chocolate you put aside earlier.
  5. Stir and monitor the chocolate until it reaches 84 degrees.
Aug 30, 2021

How to stop homemade chocolate from melting? ›

5 ways to keep chocolate from melting
  1. Keep away from sunlight or hot lamps. The first rule of storing your chocolate is to always keep it away from sunlight or an environment with a hot temperature. ...
  2. store in a fridge. ...
  3. use an airtight container. ...
  4. Keep track of expiry dates. ...
  5. use ziplock seal bags.
Apr 7, 2022

How do you keep chocolate from melting liquid? ›

The trick is getting the temperature right, not to hot, not too cool. You start by getting it hotter than letting it cool to about 90F (32C). Putting your chocolate into a a bowl of water helps keep the temperature stable too, if you've only got a little bit of chocolate.

Why is my melted chocolate not hardening? ›

The chocolate wasn't tempered (or pre-crystallised)

As a result, your chocolate won't harden and will continue to feel wet. Always temper your chocolate properly before working with it. How to temper chocolate?

How do you temper chocolate so it hardens? ›

Tempering Chocolate Method 1

Place two-thirds of the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler. Heat over hot but not boiling water, stirring constantly, until chocolate reaches 110°–115°F. Place the top pan of the double boiler on a towel. Cool chocolate to 95°–100°F.

How to make chocolate set hard for molds? ›

Two thirds of the melted chocolate is poured on a cold table marble surface. The chocolate is spread out and worked with a spatula until the temperature of the chocolate is approximately 81 degrees F (27 degrees C). At this stage, it is thick and begins to set.

How to melt chocolate that won't melt? ›

One method you can use is mixing teaspoons of boiling water into your seized chocolate over a double boiler. Add the teaspoons one at a time, mixing thoroughly each time, until your chocolate is liquid again.

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