These Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cups are vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free and made with just 6 simple ingredients including sea salt!  

As I was scrolling through Pinterest for Halloween treat ideas these bloody chocolate cups caught my eyes and I knew I had to make them right away!

Making your own dark chocolate is one of the easiest things ever! You only need 3 basic ingredients: good quality (preferably raw) cacao powder (that has much higher levels of disease-fighting antioxidants), coconut oil and natural sweetener of choice (I like to use pure maple syrup – well cause I’m Canadian lol).

You can jazz it up however you want, by adding a dash of unrefined sea salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper or any other spice your heart desires! If you want to take it to a whole new level of deliciousness, then you should try this fancy-looking, yet easy-peasy recipe with a raspberry layer in the middle.

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cups #vegan #dairyfree #glutenfree #soyfree #Nutriholist

Raspberries are my favorite berries after white mulberries, which is impossible to find fresh here in Canada unfortunately. (Can you find fresh white mulberries where you live? I’m very curious to know!)

Now back to raspberries… Well not only do they taste heavenly good (are you with me on that?!), but they also include a vast majority of phytonutrients such as anthocyanins, flavonols, flavanols, tannins and more, in significant amounts. Therefore, they help to protect us against the dangers of oxidative stress and excessive inflammation, lowering our risk of chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis (1). I highly recommend going for organic varieties, since raspberries are often heavily sprayed with pesticides and their fuzzy exterior makes it more difficult to wash them off.

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cups #vegan #dairyfree #glutenfree #soyfree #Nutriholist

OK, without further ado, here is the recipe for these raspberry dark chocolate cups, aka little bites of heaven. Hope you get a chance to try them out. And as always, if you do, please tag me in your photos @nutriholist on Instagram or Facebook, so I can see and share your creations. Nothing makes me happier than to see you all inspired to eat more healthy nutritious foods and enjoy them too 🙂

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cups #vegan #dairyfree #glutenfree #soyfree #Nutriholist

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cups Recipe

Yields 12 pieces

Ingredients

Raspberry Filling

  • 1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean powder or vanilla extract

Dark Chocolate

  • 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
  • 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • Pinch of unrefined sea salt

Directions

  1. To make the raspberry filling: Add raspberries to a small pot over medium-low heat. Let the berries simmer until they get soft and the juices thicken up. Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temperature
  2. To make the dark chocolate: Melt coconut oil in a pan over low heat. Then remove from heat, add in the cacao powder, maple syrup, and sea salt, and mix well with a spoon until smooth
  3. To assemble: Line a mini-muffin tray with paper cups and fill them 1/3 way with melted chocolate. Put the pan in the freezer or fridge for about 15 minutes until the chocolate sets
  4. Take the pan out and add the raspberry filling in the middle so that the cups are 2/3 way full. Then fill them up with the remaining liquid chocolate and transfer back to the freezer or fridge until hard. This usually takes 1 hour if left in the freezer and 2-3 hours if stored in the fridge. Enjoy!
(1) http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=39