Chocolatarian, Really?

Yes, really!

Well, okay… Not really.

Sort of.



I have been a vegetarian for around 20 years. Recently I've been having a lot of trouble with my allergies, so my dermatologist sent me for some testing. The tests came back positive for a milk allergy. [Gasp] Noooooooooooo! Not milk. Anything but milk.

So suddenly I'm vegan.

Plenty of people are vegan. There are loads of great recipes and products for vegans out there. What's the big deal? Why convert to chocolatarianism?

One reason. I am allergic to all things palm, including [drumroll, please] COCONUT.

If you know anything about coconut and/or palm, you'll know they're in everything. And in vegan products, they're in everything twice.

Dairy makes everything creamy — duh! If you want to skip the dairy, you can use coconut / palm in its place. Butter is a fat that's solid at room temp. Ditto coconut oil. Vegan margarine — you guessed it — coconut and/or palm fat.

So, where does that leave me if I want to eat food that's vegan, delicious, (sometimes) healthy, and won't cause my body to freak the frak out?

COCOA BUTTER!

So, yes, I've recently begun cooking everything in and with cocoa butter. So far I've managed the following.

1. Spiced cocoa ghee
2. Two Ethiopian-style stews, the key ingredient of which is the ghee from above
3. Banana muffins with 'buttercream' icing
4. Chocolate mousse-torte-thing
5. 'Fish' pie with a cocoa roux and cocoa mash
6. Apple crumble
7. Cashew vanilla cream
8. Chocolate chip cookies

The most disappointing thing so far has been the cookies. They tasted far too healthy for my liking. On the whole, things that ought to taste and smell like chocolate, do. The things that shouldn't don't.