If there is one thing that makes people happy, it’s chocolate. I found it the hardest thing to stop eating when doing strict paleo. But store bought chocolate isn’t really your friend. This delicious stuff is sugar free, dairy free, paleo and vegan.  And it IS your friend.

I have made this with cacao butter before, but honestly, it’s pretty expensive, and I don’t have it in the cupboard very often. So today’s recipe is simpler, more like a chocolate substitute, yet still freakin delicious.

Cashew & Cranberry Chocolate

1 c coconut oil (I always use organic cold pressed)
1/2 almond butter (I usually have my own one in the fridge, you can find the recipe here)
2 heaped tblsp cocoa (or cacao)
1 heaped tblsp coconut palm sugar
splash of vanilla essence
around 1/4 c dried cranberries
around 1/2 c roasted & salted cashews (do this yourself, it’s easy)

Put coconut oil and almond butter into a saucepan, heat gently to melt and stir to combine. Stir in the cocoa and palm sugar, splash in the essence, until all is combined. It doesn’t take very long. It looks like what the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate factory should ACTUALLY look like.

Chop the cashews roughly, and sprinkle them in along with the cranberries. mix it all out. Line a dish/container/plate of your choosing with baking paper. It depends how thick you want the chocolate. You be the judge of that. spread it a little to make sure the chunky bits are evenly distributed.

Put the dish in the freezer until set. When it’s hard, pull out the baking paper and chop it all into lovely chunks.

VERY IMPORTANT: Be sure to keep it in an airtight container in the freezer, because it will melt pretty quickly. Snack on it at your leisure. That’s what I do. And I don’t really feel bad about how much I eat, because it’s got to be better than hydrogenated fats and bucketloads of sugar right!?