The Whole Truth

I was intrigued when I came across The Whole Truth brand of chocolates. I love dark chocolate, but I always imagined it was tricky to make. So dark chocolate made from two ingredients, one of which is iron and fiber rich seemed like an impossible dream.

My curiosity got the better of my skepticism and I decided to try their 71% dark chocolate. It was awesome with a rich, smooth texture, a perfect balance of flavors, and an aftertaste that leaves you wanting more. In fact, I must clarify that it wasn't just awesome for a healthy fiber rich chocolate free of refined sugar and artificial sweeteners, but awesome, period.

Having eaten these several times with consistent results I began to wonder, if these chocolate bars really contained just two ingredients, couldn't I make it at home? That way, I could tweak the ratios ratios of cocoa to dates to optimize it to my taste.

My Truth

So, I tried mixing cocoa powder with dates in a mixer, and the sticky mess it produced was a total disaster. In fact, it was so difficult to get it all out of my mixer, that I added some Amul butter to smooth out the mixture, hoping it would come off more easily. I had to add a fair amount of butter, but eventually, I managed to get it all out of my mixer into a bowl. There I kneaded it by hand and wondered what it all tasted like. To my surprise, messy as the whole experience had been, the mixture tasted fantastic.

And that’s when it struck me, that the Whole Truth Chocolates contained only 2 ingredients, cocoa and dates, but on further inspection I realized that the cocoa itself included the cocoa nibs and cocoa butter. So my original mixture was missing the cocoa butter, but regular butter as it turned out was a good enough substitute.

In fact, since I had used salted Amul butter, the salt enhanced the chocolaty flavor.

So the next time I made these chocolates, I did not even bother with the blender. I kept teh date soutside the fridge so they were soft and easy to mash. I kneaded the dates by hand until they had a smooth texture, then added cocoa powder and half the total amount of butter and kneaded it all together for sometime to get a thick dough.

Then I added the remaining amount of butter and kneaded until the mixture was smooth. I rolled the mixture into balls.

I tried different ratios of ingredients to get the perfect flavor and texture blend. The following proportion of ingredients worked best for me:

• 4 seedless black dates

• 2 and a 1/2 heaped tea-spoon mildly alkalized cocoa powder (This Urban Platter brand works best or us. We later tried other brands with not so good results)

• 2 and 1/2 teaspoon butter

Depending on your tastes you can tweak the ratios of the ingredients. The chocolates, when they are made, are little soft, so for best results, keep them in the fridge for at least 4 hours before consuming.

Fun Truth

These chocolates are so tasty and easy to make, my twelve year old daughter makes them for herself. The above recipe will yield about 2 chocolates, just right for enjoyment without over indulgence.

During Christmas season, we wanted to spread the joy, so my daughter made about two dozen of these to give her grandparents and aunts. She shaped them into Christmas trees and snow men for fun.

With Valentine’s day coming up, we are planning on making some heart shaped chocolates. After all, Valentine’s day is all about healthy hearts and dates, isn't it?

XOXO