What Can I Cook With Cacao Nibs? Tips, Hints and Recipes Using Cacao N

What can I cook With Cacao Nibs? And just what is the deal with Cacao Nibs? When I first heard about raw chocolate, years before converting to a plant-based diet, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to source any of the above raw chocolate ingredients anywhere. Back in those early experimental days, you had to purchase things online. No popping to Tesco or Sainsburys for your Maca Powder or Cacao Nibs back then. How things have changed.

Nowadays, whole foods have become the norm, and I don't have to order unusual ingredients online and wait for them to arrive (generally). That is the beauty of the plant-based food movement: so much is now available to us that there is really no excuse for not giving it a try.

I admit, being a major chocolate fan, that I was incredibly excited to try cacao nibs. I had heard interesting things about their health properties but more importantly (to me anyway), their taste! Little did I know that raw chocolate and only the purest, unrefined chocolate would become an integral part of the vegan baker's repertoire!

I love to deeply inhale the rich, earthy smell of raw cacao nibs, more redolent of purest cocoa powder than chocolate bars.

• Taste wise they are much like a very high cocoa content chocolate: the flavour doesn't come through straight away, but it gets stronger as it melts and the taste lingers on your tongue. There is a slight smokiness to the nibs and they leave a not unpleasant bitter taste in the mouth.
• Cocoa nibs do not contain sugar.
• They are unprocessed chocolate.
• They are made from raw cacao beans
• Cacao Nibs do not melt during baking
• The nibs themselves resemble tiny wood chips and their texture is not far off wood either (not that I am a secret wood nibbler). Very crunchy but in a very pleasant way.
• They are a healthy snack on their own, or make your own trail mix, adding them to some dried fruits and coconut flakes
• Throw them in your smoothie for a delicious boost of their health benefits
• Add them to the top of ice cream for a yummy but grown up treat.
• Stir them into muffin batter instead of normal chocolate chips.
• They are a great addition to a spicy chili
• In this purest of form, they are apparently a great aphrodisiac, one of the greatest sources of anti-oxidants and are good for boosting your mood. I can't vouch for any of these claims but I can wholeheartedly confirm their intensely delicious taste when cooked or mixed with a natural sweetener.
• Cacao Nibs are a truly raw form of chocolate, although you can also buy them roasted

Jennifer Murray has written an excellent article over at The Spruce explaining the scientific differences between Cacao and Cocoa, and I highly recommend that you check that out!

Utilising unusual ingredients into 'normal' recipes such as cookies, or even chilli is important as a cook. To familiarise yourself with recherché ingredients, and to use them in everyday recipes is the best way of achieving this familiarity.

I thought it would be interesting to use the cacao nibs in truffles, using pureed dates for moistness and sweetness, nibs for the chocolate hit and sesame seeds as added texture. A dash of Vanilla Extract adds a delicate flavour, but you could add coffee, orange, peppermint essences too.

These are made using a simple combination of nibs, vanilla, dates and sesame seeds, taking no longer than five minutes from start to finish. Therefore, it is feasible that you can be sitting down, bowl of truffles on your lap, watching The Crown before the craving has barely kicked in. I like this kind of cooking!

Don't be fooled by the ingredients: will these taste like some mealy-mouthed, flavourless substitute for rich, dairy truffles? Far from it! Whilst the texture is unlike that of creamy truffles, my cacao nib truffle recipe has a grainy bite that is not at all unpleasant. They taste substantial, and the caffeine in the nibs gives you a great sense of well-being. My cacao nib truffle recipe is an instant good mood hit. The sesame seeds add a tasty nutty flavour and, when rolled in some deep, dark cocoa powder, taste sensational, perfect for those chocolate cravings.

Also try my raw fudgy brownie recipe that uses cacao nibs, my super-easy peanut butter cacao nib protein balls or stir them into banana bread.

Yes! I decided to bake a batch of simple sugar chocolate chip cookies using half a cupful of the cocoa nibs used instead of chocolate chips. If you are expecting an overt chocolate flavour, you will be disappointed though. In much the same way that 100% dark chocolate is very bitter and tastes less like the chocolate we know, so too is the cacao nib flavor. You might like to try mixing in some normal chocolate chips for a textural difference: the crunch of the nib and the melt of the normal chocolate.

Interestingly, nibs don't melt like chocolate chips but retain their crunchy texture. For people with nut intolerances, the texture is redolent of chopped hazelnuts with the flavour of rich, dark chocolate. I love these little bits of chocolate that you find in cookies.

What can I use instead of cacao nibs? If you can't find cacao nibs locally, Amazon supply them here, but there really isn't anything too similar, except maybe toasted nuts or very dark chocolate chips. However, I hope to have given you a few cacao nib recipes to make it worth buying a small bag to try!

• Keto Chocolate Truffles
• The Best Vegan Brownies Recipe
• Cacao Nib Peanut Butter Protein Balls
• Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cacao Nib Cookies