Hippy-Hoppy the Healthy Homemade Chocolate Easter Bunny

For many families across the United States, Easter is a holiday that is equated to lots of chocolate. Chocolate eggs, chocolate chicks, and most of all chocolate bunnies. As a child, my mother avoided most of the sugar that the rest of the kids around me got for Christmas and Easter. She did this by filling our stockings and Easter baskets with all sorts of little goodies we could use instead. For my child, I am trying to do a combination of what my own mother did for me as well as making sweet little goodies I know are healthy, with ingredients I trust.

Healthy/vegan/paleo/GAPS/gluten-free

Frankly, chocolate has gotten a bad rap. The reason that chocolate has been hailed as one of those unhealthy foods, is because of many of the ingredients that is added to the mix, to make the finished candy. Chocolate itself is actually chock full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that your body needs! When made with coconut butter in this recipe, you also get the health benefits of coconut as well!  The great thing about this recipe is it's low-glycemic, vegan, and GAPS friendly!

Hippy-Hoppy the Healthy Chocolate Easter Bunny

You can add extra ingredients to this chocolate if you like, such as organic rice krispies, nuts, hemp seeds, or chia seeds to give the chocolate a crunch!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups fair trade organic cocoa butter OR coconut butter (You can also handcraft coconut butter)
• 1 cup cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder)
• ½ – ¾ cup raw unfiltered honey OR maple syrup (to taste)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of real salt (optional)

Directions

1. In a double boiler, melt the cocoa butter OR coconut butter. Once melted, remove from heat.
2. Using a whisk, whisk in the honey/maple syrup while VERY slowly pouring it into the melted cocoa butter (This helps to emulsify oil and water. Honey/maple syrup are water based ingredients while the cocoa butter/coconut oil are oil based ingredients. It's like making mayo! If your cocoa butter is too hot and you pour the honey in too fast, it will separate with the honey on the bottom).
3. Whisk in the rest of the ingredients and whisk until a pudding consistency is reached. Maybe a minute or two max. Be sure to get absolutely no water in the chocolate as this will make the chocolate have a mealy texture!
4. Spoon chocolate into bunny molds (you can choose all sorts of molds including small bunnies or chocolate eggs!).
5. Put your chocolates into the fridge or freezer to harden up over a few hours, before releasing from the molds. You can wrap in foil to place in Easter basket!