Chocolate

[exec]

Does anyone know how to make chocolate bar out of pure cocoa powder?

[Mr Flibble]

Good luck :)

[harpy]

Wouldn't you need something like cocoa butter to glue it together? Someone did once give me a commercial chocolate bar that was more than 90% cocoa and it was quite a mouth-puckering experience!

If you google there is some discussion of this topic, e.g. http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/77832

[Maisiepaisie]

You can't make it from cocoa powder. You need to use cocoa beans. I looked into a while ago but decided its too much hassel and time consuming http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Chocolate

[exec]

Arggg... so what would you guys suggest me do should I buy a pack of pure cocoa powder? I am currently in Japan and it is very hard to find pure chocolate bar in the market. Even if I happen to be able to find one, it is expensive and there is no way to tell whether there is dairy product in it. So I was thinking it is safest to prepare myself.

[harpy]

Oh dear. Maybe you could buy the cocoa powder and make some chocolate-flavoured things with it - puddings, sauces etc? It doesn't sound as if it would be easy to make it into a bar, although it might be fun to experiment!

Here's a pudding recipe you could try. Someone gave it to me years ago, I haven't made it recently but I seem to remember it was quite good. You mix everything together but then it mysteriously separates into sauce and pudding as it cooks.

chocolate self saucing pudding
Title says it all really! I made it last night- it's *so* easy.

1 cup Self raising Flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup of soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
30gm vegan margarine

Saucy bit
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cup hot water

Sift flour, sugar & cocoa into a bowl.
Make a well in the centre.
Gradually stir in milk, vanilla & melted margarine.
Beat until smooth with a wooden spoon.
Pour into a lightly greased oven proof dish. *

Sift brown sugar & cocoa together.
Now sift again evenly covering the top of the pudding mixture.
Carefully pour hot water evenly over the top of the pudding.
Bake in a moderate oven ** for 50 mins, until pudding feels firm to the
touch.

* needs to be about 2 litre capacity dish
** I used gas mark 4

If you want to make it caramel pudding:
Omit the cocoa from the recipe, substitute brown sugar for the 3/4 cup of
sugar & substitute the cocoa in the saucy bit for 1 tablespoon of
cornflour.