As we progress into the New Year, we are taking the opportunity to work with new ingredients, and create some new recipes and products.

Our latest culinary adventure has been into the world of cacao butter, and freeze dried fruit powders. Freeze dried fruit powders come in a variety of flavours, such as banana, strawberry, raspberry, mango, feijoa. They are a great way to add in the vitamins and minerals of fruit, without the moisture or the pulp, eg when making pancakes, biscuits, meringues, or chocolate. They are packed full of flavour, and often you will find that you don’t need to add any sugar or other sweeteners. 

Cacao butter, or cocoa butter, is the extract of fat from the cocoa beans. The beans are harvested from the cacao pods, cleaned and roasted. They are then crushed into cocoa nibs, which are ground down to make a liquid called cocoa liquor. This liquid is then pressed to separate the fat. This fat is the cocoa butter. 

Cocoa butter is a great source of vitamin E, which is extremely good for you in many ways and is a powerful anti oxidant. Vitamin E is great for your skin, so using cocoa butter consistently will help to improve your appearance. It is also a good source of vitamin D, and is rich in potassium, phosphorous (for bone health), copper (for good brain health), iron, zinc for good immune health, and magnesium, which is essential for muscle and nerve health (www.healthline.com). 

We made some delicious treats with our cocoa butter and some freeze dried fruit powders. We used banana powder, strawberry powder, and carob powder for a chocolate version. Our treats are all very high in protein, low in carbs, and high in good e healthy fats, so they would be suitable for inclusion in a keto eating regime. We made high-protein strawberry and turmeric bliss balls with an almond and cocoa butter coating, and we also experimented with incorporating puffed amaranth into the cocoa butter mix to make our version of rice krispy treats. We are quite delighted with our results!