Is Chocolate Gluten Free? Archive

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!!

Posted August 13, 2012 By Sandy

Dark Chocolate is one of my very favorite foods!  Me and my husband joke that it should be listed as one of the main food groups!  When I found out about my food allergies, and had to give up so many of the foods that I loved, I decided that I would find a way to continue to eat chocolate!

Our featured story is about, of course, Chocolate!!  Keep reading to find out how chocolate is made.

How Chocolastic!

The 10 Best Vegan Dark Chocolate Bars

Adopting a plant-based lifestyle may mean “giving up” a few things, but chocolate certainly isn’t one of them.

Unfortunately, it seems that chocolate has become synonymous with milk chocolate. But in reality, pure dark chocolate (you know, the heart-healthy kind), is totally plant-based! Here’s a quick primer on how most commercially available chocolate is made:

  1. Cacao pods are harvested from cacao trees growing throughout the tropics.
  2. The beans from inside those pods are then placed in earthen pits or wooden bins, covered with banana leaves, and left to ferment.
  3. After fermentation, the beans are dried in the sun for about a week.
  4. Dried beans are shipped to a factory, where they are first sifted and roasted.
  5. The beans are then cracked and winnowed, leaving the bitter but edible cacao nibs.
  6. The nibs are crushed and ground into a thick paste called chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor has a strong, bitter taste, and a grainy texture.
  7. To make what we know as chocolate, manufacturers then add sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla, yielding a sweet but still grainy mixture.
  8. Finally, manufacturers run the mixture through a series of steel rollers to refine the texture, and may add more cocoa butter and soy lecithin.

READ FULL STORY — including their list of the top ten favorite chocolate bars!

More links to articles on chocolate:  Choose Dark Chocolate for Heart Health

And it you love to make Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate dishes, check out the Amazing Gluten Chocolate Book

Great place to buy high quality dark chocolate:  Gnosis Chocolate

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If you are not familiar with the Healthy Chocolate from Gnosis Chocolate, let me tell you about it.

Gnosis Chocolate is owned and managed by a certified holistic health counselor who believes in supplying you with the healthy chocolate!

Vanessa Barg, founder of Gnosis Chocolate, started making chocolate in March ’07. Her vision is to make Gnosis an internationally recognized name that carries a profound message of health, well being, and awareness of environmental and societal condition.

Gnosis Chocolate still produced 100% by hand is carried in over 200 stores including Whole Foods!

And, if you are looking for ready made goodies, she has a full line of bars, truffles, hot chocolate, trail mixes, spreads and even body care items and supplements!

This spring Gnosis Chocolate is introducing 19 new bars — using three different sweeteners.  The following describes their Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate bars:

We begin with ethically sourced RAW Cacao from Bali, Ecuador, Peru, Grenada, & Madagascar – and add low-glycemic sweeteners, nutrient-dense superfoods & medicinal herbs sourced fastidiously from the Amazon to the Himalayas. Our products are Certified Organic, Vegan, and Kosher, and are free of soy, gluten, and dairy. The result is a functional, decadent chocolate that will delight your taste buds, awaken your senses & provide profound nourishment.

Gnosis Chocolate

Click Here to Order Gnosis Chocolate

Even if you don’t wish to order Gnosis Chocolate, I would HIGHLY recommend you check out their website.  Lots of interesting info!!

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Guilty-Free Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate

Posted February 6, 2012 By Sandy

Premium chocolate is one of the best treats for Gluten Free Vegans.  More and more studies are coming out telling of the health benefits of chocolate.  If you are a chocoholic like me, this is GOOD NEWS!  The following article explains some of the benefits.

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate

5 Health Promoting Qualities of Chocolate

February is American Heart Month. Thankfully, one of our favorite treats, chocolate, comes with plenty of built-in health benefits, especially where heart health is concerned.

The more the chocolate is processed, the fewer health benefits remain in the finished product. This is one reason why raw cacao products have become so popular. However, many health benefits remain in non-raw dark chocolate and cocoa, as long as there aren’t too many added ingredients like high fructose corn syrup to counterbalance the benefits.

READ THE FULL STORY to find out the 5 health promoting qualities of chocAmazing-Gluten-Free-Chocolateolate

If you would like some great recipes to make wonderful and amazing gluten free vegan chocolate dishes, click here.   You will find the most delicious looking and tasting chocolate dishes anywhere — and all gluten free and vegan!!

 

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