If you don’t like the quality and taste of store-bought sweets, then it’s time to find out how to make chocolate at home - from natural products, without additives and synthetic dyes. 

Cocoa beans contain 300 biologically active substances that affect the functioning of the whole organism but are especially beneficial for the heart and blood vessels. 
If you periodically enjoy natural chocolate, you can normalize blood pressure, strengthen memory and performance, protect yourself from stress and cheer yourself up because this dessert stimulates the production of endorphins - the hormone of pleasure. 
And to make the enjoyment as complete as possible, you need to cook truly delicious chocolate and buy high-quality products for this. 
It's definitely not worth saving on chocolate!
The minimum set of products for homemade chocolate consists of three ingredients - unrefined edible cocoa butter, 
grated cocoa beans and sweetener. 
You can give the chocolate a pleasant sweetness using sugar, honey, malt, jam, agave, or Jerusalem artichoke syrup (as well as any other syrups), sweeteners of all kinds and stripes, and even condensed milk. 
For spice, you will also need spices and additives - nuts, berries, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pieces of dried fruit or candied fruit, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, nutmeg, citrus peel and coconut flakes, puffed rice balls, waffle or cracker crumbs. 
You can also use butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, carob, milk powder, or regular milk, flour, coffee, and cream, depending on the recipe. 
You can add a little chili pepper, mint, or sea salt to the chocolate - this is original and unusual! 
Additional ingredients are ground in a blender or introduced into the chocolate mass in pieces.

Choosing raw materials for chocolate

Without cocoa butter, which is the squeezed fruit of the chocolate tree, natural chocolate cannot be prepared. 
This product is incredibly rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and fatty acids that help in the prevention of atherosclerosis, heart attack, and stroke, but the most important thing is 
cocoa butter pleasant taste, so desserts with it are excellent. 
Choose butter that is yellow, creamy, or light brown in color, as whites tend to be rancid or unnatural. 
Also, pay attention to the texture of the butter - at room temperature, it should not melt because good cocoa butter is the same consistency as regular chocolate. 
Be sure to smell the product - a clear cocoa aroma should be felt. 
If the oil does not smell, it has been processed, after which there is nothing natural left in it or even a fake. 
That is why you should buy this oil in specialty pastry stores and not in pharmacies since unscented refined oil is usually sold for cosmetic use.
Grated cocoa is obtained from roasted beans of the chocolate tree, which are ground and heated to form a liquid mass; butter is melted from it. 
Outwardly, it looks like a chocolate pebble, from which pieces are easily separated. 
Grated cocoa is a natural raw material for making chocolate, if it is dried and ground into dust, cocoa powder is obtained. 
When choosing powdered cocoa in the store, study the composition - it should not contain additives, and the ideal fat content is at least 12%. 
Cocoa powder should have a natural brown color, a uniform texture, and a subtle chocolate flavor. 
Rub the powder between your fingers - after high-quality cocoa, a brown mark with an oily sheen will remain on the skin. 
If, after drinking at the bottom of the cup, you see brown sediment, then the cocoa is natural, and it can be safely used in culinary experiments.

Secrets of chocolate making

The classic technology for making homemade chocolate is quite simple - you need to mix the main ingredients (liquid cocoa, cocoa butter, butter, sugar) and melt them in a water bath or over low heat with constant stirring. 
Some confectioners melt grated cocoa and cocoa butter separately, others combine them in advance - everyone has their own traditions. 
The proportions of cocoa butter and grated cocoa depend on what you want to end up with since the more butter, the softer the chocolate. 
Sometimes raw materials are mixed in a certain sequence during the heating process, and spices and additives are added gradually or after removal from heat because there are many recipes for making chocolate. 
By the way, do not heat food too much to preserve its natural taste and aroma, and many confectioners do not recommend using a microwave,
The maximum heating temperature is 40 ° C, so use a special kitchen thermometer for accuracy, and to ensure uniform heating, lightly chop the food before cooking.
If you use cocoa powder to make chocolate, sift it before mixing it with other products so that lumps do not form, and it is better to replace regular sugar with brown sugar. 
It will give the chocolate a nice rich flavor. 
Let the melted chocolate mass cool slightly, and when it thickens, even more, pour it into silicone molds and let it harden. 
Additives can be introduced either at the stage of mixing chocolate or by pressing nuts and dried fruits into the chocolate mass directly in the molds.
It seems that making natural chocolate at home is 
easy, but if you are preparing this dessert for the first time, limit yourself to a small portion to start with.

Bitter and refined

Subtle connoisseurs of 
dark chocolate will love this aristocratic delicacy with a minimum of sugar. 
Of course, you can completely do without it, but then it will turn out too bitter - for an amateur.