Raw Chocolate Dip

I eat a lot of fruit for snacks and dessert. This week my sweet tooth kicked in and I wanted something more than just fruit. But I have a to do list as long as my arm, so it needed to be something quick and easy, using ingredients I had on hand.  I also have a love of raw desserts -my favorite is this raw blueberry pie,  and I recently made this raw walnut spice cake that Chris at irawvegan came up with. It was so good it was gone before I could photograph it!  So I came up with this ridiculously simple raw chocolate dip.

It too was mostly gone before I remembered to photograph it. I used raw honey for this. I have been reading a lot lately about just how processed agave is and I choose to avoid it now. It is neither natural nor healthy. It contains almost twice the amount of fructose that high fructose corn syrup does. That concentrated fructose has been shown to cause fatty liver disease, raise triglycerides, and increase insulin resistance among other problems. Here are a couple of links I found interesting- a piece in the Huffington Post by Dr. Jonny Bowden, and a Study written up in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

So what sweetener is best? Really, using none is the best choice. And we all know this. But many of us are not willing to give up all sweeteners. So I will continue to use raw organic honey, it has not undergone any processing and has been used since biblical times. I just keep its use very limited. 

The dip I made went well with strawberries, and would be good with any fruit. It made enough to serve 4 sweet tooths. (Sweet teeth?)  It doesn't harden, so it can't be used to coat chocolate covered strawberries. It is meant to be used as a soft dip.

Raw Chocolate Dip

1 T. raw cocoa

3 T. raw honey

1 -2 T. water

Combine cocoa and honey and 1 T. of water, if too thick add a bit more water. Serve with fruit and enjoy!