Raw. Vegan. Gluten-free.
Raspberry cream. Dark chocolate.
Bite-size. Melt-in-your-mouth.
Invented on the fly at 1:00am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, and SO worth the lost sleep. They’re a bit messy and time-consuming to make, but once you taste one, trust me, you won’t mind one bit.
You’re going to LOVE these!
Raw Raspberry Cream Filled Chocolate Candies
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely grated cacao butter
- 3/4 cup raw cacao powder
- 1/2 cup maple syrup, agave, or coconut nectar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 (10-oz.) bag frozen organic raspberries, thawed
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for 2-4 hours
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- 2 tablespoons ground chia seeds
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- Pinch of sea salt
For the chocolate:
For the raspberry cream:
Instructions
- To make the chocolate, gently melt the cacao butter in a dehydrator or in a double boiler over low heat. Add the cacao powder, sweetener, vanilla, and salt. Stir thoroughly to combine, and set aside.
- To make the raspberry cream, combine the raspberries, cashews, dates, chia seeds, lemon juice, and salt in a high-speed blender and blend until completely smooth. (At this point, you can strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve if you like, but I find that my blender does a good enough job at pulverizing the seeds that I don't have to strain it.)
- To assemble the candies, spoon the chocolate mixture into molds (for best results, use a shape with a good amount of depth) about 1/3 of the way full. Add a small amount of the raspberry cream to fill the mold 2/3 full. (You'll probably have some leftover. I trust you won't have a hard time finding ways to eat it!) Add another spoonful of the chocolate mixture to fully fill the mold. Freeze for several hours or overnight, until completely firm.
- The next day, when the candies are fully set, pop 'em out of the molds and INDULGE!
- These are best stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
© 2013 ChefAmberShea.com
The rich dark chocolate enrobes the more delicate, slightly icy raspberry cream like a dream. If you make these, please come back and tell me how much you love them!
…because oh, you WILL love them.
3 years ago…
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2 years ago…
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1 year ago…
Vegan Treats chocolate-peanut butter bomb cake!
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SO gorgeous! Wow, good job!
Thanks, Emily! These are really worth the time investment.
These look so amazing! I’m literally drooling just at the photos!
Quick, move your keyboard out of the way!
Thanks Liz!
Those looks so wonderful!
I mean, those LOOK so wonderful! I’ve been hearing a lot about raw chocolates lately and I’m intrigued to try it out.
You SHOULD! I think all vegan chocolate should be raw anyway, when you think about it. What ingredients in there actually require cooking? Hmm. But seriously, even if you’re not into raw foods in general, raw chocolate is a whole other story.
Thank you Kelly!
Buhhh this is even better than any reeces cup vegan or not! YUMMMOOOOOO in my tummoooooo
Now THAT’s a compliment! Thanks!
ooh yum! you should sell those ;D
Hehe, think so? I wouldn’t mind being a chocolatier on the side!
Dude. THESE ARE AMAZING!!!! Seriously. Stuff like this could make me go raw … okay, at least for a little while until the chocolate ran out.
Haha, thank you! Clearly, the trick is to keep an unending supply of raw chocolate treats on hand.
Rock on beautiful talented Amber! Love ya! xo
Hope you don’t mind, but I shared this on my FB page with full kudos’ to you! I think they look so darn beautiful and I bet they taste amazing. Love your food and love you lady! xo
Of course not Priscilla, share away! I appreciate it!
Thank you Priscilla! Much love to you <3
Looks divine – now on my list ‘to try soon’! Thank you for sharing!
Yay! Let me know how you like ‘em!
Those look amazing!! I love chocolate + raspberry. In fact, just the raspberry cream would probably make me happy.
Even though I didn’t mention it in the post, you CAN certainly just make the raspberry cream and eat it with a spoon, like a mousse
I ate my share of it in that manner!
These look fantastic. Have to make! Thanks
Please do! And report back
That bright pink color really pops. Hayden and I’ll have to make these for a girlie girl treat.
Indeed, even I was surprised when I bit into one! Surprised and pleased.
These sound as incredible as I expected! mmmm
Thanks Jessica!
Those are gorgeous! And the texture looks so smooth and creamy. This is one of the most beautiful and scrumptious looking things you’ve ever made, can’t wait to make some for myself!
Wow, thank you! That’s a huge compliment. I’d love to hear about it if you make some for yourself!
Wow I would love one of these right now!
That makes two of us!
Such brilliant colors on your candy….. would love to take a bite of this incredibly good chocolat!!
Thank you, Malli! The colors really do pop, don’t they?
These look yummy. I am so going to make these with my little girls for our halloween treats. Yay for healthy chocolate!
That’s so great, Jane! I hope you all love them!
Nom, nom, nom!!! So very beautiful ♥
Thank you, JorDanna!
How pretty! Granted, I wouldn’t go for the raspberry center, but I see no reason why I couldn’t sub in strawberries or cherries….or, heck pretty much any fruit I see fit! Blueberry lavender comes to mind….oh, my imagination. I need a job.
Ah yes, you and the raspberries
But certainly, switch up the berries as you please! Blueberry lavender sounds divine!
Wow, those are making my mouth water. They look delicious AND beautiful!
Thanks so much, Debbie! That was my goal
can you mail some to me? … they look good.
Hehe! I’m not sure these are mail-stable…you’ll just have to make them yourself, methinks!
Looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!
Thank you, Ellen! Let me know if you give them a try!
Yum! Chocolate and raspberry is such a great combination. So beautiful too. I’ve been thinking about making some chocolates again–it’s a disincentive, though, to think that I really shouldn’t eat choc, have gotten pretty clear that it’s not worth how it makes me feel…
Disincentive, indeed
It’s the cacao powder specifically, though, right? Maybe you could experiment more with carob, or even white chocolate (YUM!)…
It’s like a healthified Reese’s gone raspberry!
Hehe, well said!
I think you always need to spend the wee hours of the morning in the kitch if this is the kind of goodness you come up with. Raspberry is Erik’s favorite, and he loves it even more with chocolate. I’ll definitely be making these! Yum
Good point!
That’s great; let me know how you both like them!
Maybe I missed it? But how many does the recipe make?
It’s totally dependent on the size of your chocolate molds. I used a variety of shapes/sizes, and I got a good 4 dozen, if not more.
Aw ok awesome, thank you! I don’t actually have any molds so I needed a sense of how many I need.
In lieu of molds, you could try layering the ingredients in mini muffin tins, ice cube trays, or even a couple 9×5-inch loaf pans! You’d just need to fully freeze each layer before spreading the next one on top of it.
Great ideas! Thanks!!
My pleasure!
yes please! bookmarking this and making it ASAP! i was thinking earlier about how i needed a baking project for the weekend. these little babies seem perfect to make then take to the library for study fuel.
Oh man, YES! I wish I had study fuel like this when I was still in school! Do it
those look SOOOOO good! i cant believe they r raw!
Believe it! Raw chocolate is the best!
You are such a natural with chocolates…this makes me hungry. Looks so delicious. Thank you for being so creative.
Aw, thank YOU, Sonia, for reading and enjoying my posts.
These look amazing….great recipe!!!!!
Thanks so much!
Oh so tempting! Though it would be very naughty of me to splurge on cacao butter when I still have 95% of the jar of coconut oil I got for Christmas…
You could try coconut oil instead! The finished chocolates would be a little fudgy rather than hard and snappy, but you could just store them in the freezer.
I was about to ask the same question – I’m adding these to my ‘to make’ list for the week with coconut butter. I may make a few with un-raw peanut butter, as I love me some pb+choc!
Hey Michelle – just be sure not to sub in coconut butter for the cacao butter. You can use coconut OIL to substitute, because cacao “butter” is actually an oil, but coconut butter (or PB) will not allow the chocolate to set up. You can, however, sub coconut butter or even PB for the cashews in the filling! Basically the chocolate needs an oil, while the filling needs a butter (the cashews more or less become cashew butter when blended). Hope that helps!
MmmmMM! Talk about midnight craving?
I will have to try these some time…
I’d love it if you would
i just made these and WOW is all i can say
great recipe, I like that its easy and yet delicious! I used a few dashes of chipotle in the raspberry sauce and some cinnamon in the chocolate sauce… 
thanks for sharing!
That is SO wonderful to hear! Love the additions of chipotle and cinnamon. I’m thrilled you love them!
Yum! These look delicious! I’ve been talking about making a bunch of different vegan truffles for holiday presents this winter. I might just have to try these out ahead of time they look so good!
These would make a GREAT holiday gift!
ordering some cacao butter asap! thanks for losing sleep to benefit us all!
Haha! You are quite welcome
Wow. The more I read about raw desserts, the more I crave them!!!!
And usually (this one being a bit of an exception) they’re so EASY to make! You must start trying out some raw dessert recipes…may I suggest my 5-minute blondie to start?
Amazing! I have to get some cashews and then i’ll be making this for sure!
Awesome! Remember you can sub macadamia nuts for the cashews too, if you have those. Let me know how you like it!
ok, cool! The only nuts I have right now are almonds. I’ll let you know as soon as I make it
I haven’t tried almonds, but those might actually work just fine too! As long as it’s 1/2 almonds and 1/2 walnuts or pecans.
They were d-lish! Looking forward to eating more soon. (hint!)
Thanks honey! Glad you liked them as much as I did. :* Psst – I still have a few stashed in the freezer…
Eeee! I can’t wait to make these!
Awesome! I hope you love ‘em, let me know!
Oh oh oh! These are so BEAUTIFUL!! And they came at the perfect time! Im on a huge home made raw chocolate-kick right now, and Im SO making this ASAP!!!
Perfect timing! I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!
What a beautiful post, Amber!! These look just sooo awesomely yummy!
Thank you dear!
Yummmmmy Amber… I’ll take 1000 please
Hehe, an order that size might take some time to fill
Hi Amber,
These look delish. I will be making these. Maybe this weekend. I just have enough cacao butter for another batch. You can never make enough chocolate. Love the raspberry idea.
Sasha, that’s great! Please let me know what you think of them once you try them.
ok..just got done making these!!! oh my GOODNESS!!!! replaced the cacao butter with coconut oil as you suggested, as well the coconut butter for the cashews…sooooo awesome!!! I even did a couple filled with just almond butter!! YUMMMMM!! thank you!!!!
I LOVE hearing that, Lisa! I’m so thrilled you like them!
These chocolates look heavenly! I can’t believe that this gorgeous deep shade of pink can be achieved with natural products: thank you for the idea.
I will make a raw raspberry cake for my little girl’s next birthday.
Thank you Anastasia! The raspberries really do a stellar job of coloring it, don’t they? A raw raspberry birthday cake sounds like a winner to me!
Amber your Rasp Cream Choc candies looks seriously dangerously insanely good!!!
Thanks Tanya! That’s the HIGHEST compliment coming from the chocolate wizard herself!
These look absolutely amazing! My only problem is that I don’t have some of the ingredients on hand. Hmmmmm, these may be transformed into peanut butter cups tonight and then I can try the real deal when I get my hands on some raspberries…
Ooh, let me know how that turns out!
Oh my GOSH!!! I did make these last night, only I quartered the recipe just in case. I used coconut oil instead of the cocoa butter for the chocolate and used peanut butter and agave for the center. OH. MY. HECK. They are absolutely incredible. One of the tastiest desserts I’ve made, and I’ve made a LOT! So easy, too, and so few ingredients. Just wonderful. I found your site at exactly the right time. I’M JUST SO HAPPY!!!
I’m exstatic. I think chocolate really is a drug.
Now I’m really, really looking forward to seeing you speak at the Texas State Veggie fair this weekend…almost as much as I’m looking forward to going home and devouring another one (or three?) of those amazing peanut butter cups. *DROOL*
And I really do know how to spell ecstatic. See?
I’m so so happy to hear that! Oh, they sound DELICIOUS they way you made them. Little PB cups, MMM! Maybe you should bring me one on Sunday, hehe!
Hi, I just saw this and really really want to make these, but my sister is allergic to cashews and all other nuts. Is there a substitute for the cashews? Would peanuts work? I would prefer something other than peanuts though. She is not allergic to peanuts since they are legumes.
Thanks so much! I love your website and all the recipes.
-Melissa
That’s too bad about your sister’s nut allergy
Can she eat coconut products? Even though it’s technically a drupe, I know some people with nut allergies are sensitive to it. If she CAN eat coconut, you can replace the cashews with an equal amount of softened coconut butter. If she can’t, you might try something unconventional – 1/2 cup of cooked white beans, pureed in with the raspberries. Sounds weird, but I bet it’d work well! Just add a couple more dates for sweetness if you use the beans. Hope that helps; let me know how they turn out! 
Nope, no coconut either! I’ll think on the beans. It sounds so weird. Would the peanuts or peanut butter be ok? I do like peanut butter cups and my sister likes peanuts. Would the raspberry peanut combination be weird? Also, I went looking for cacao butter and didn’t find any. Would nibs work? And what sort of molds did you use? Sorry for all the questions, but I have never made chocolates before!
Thanks!!!
No worries, questions are good! The beans do sound weird, I know, but I bet it’d actually be really good. However, I think peanut + raspberry could also be tasty! Or maybe peanut + strawberry, like a peanut butter sandwich with strawberry jam, mmm…covered in chocolate!
Cacao nibs definitely wouldn’t work, as they’re just crushed whole cacao beans. Cacao butter is actually an oil; it’s the fat that’s extracted from the beans. It looks like this: http://www.nutsonline.com/nuts/cacao/butter.html Coconut oil would be a decent substitute.
If you don’t have chocolate molds, you could use mini muffin cups and just make larger chocolate “disks,” or even use a loaf pan and make one huge layered chocolate bar!
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll experiment and let you know how they turn out:)
How did I not see this one!? Those look so awesome. The colors are crazy!
I know, right? The raspberry filling is totally pink-highlighter-colored!
Wow, they look beautiful. And totally yummy! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Debra!
Oh my gosh, I need to try these!!!!! They look absolutely beautiful!
Thank you, Nikki!
I shared this on my health-coaching blog! SO GOOD! I only wish I had a Vitamix… my cheapy always has a hard time with those dates.
Thanks Christie!
You could always try subbing in 1/3 cup coconut nectar or agave nectar for the dates…it’ll make a slightly thinner cream, but it’d still be delicious!
I just made some of these. One word; Delicious <3
Thank you
Yay! Glad to hear it, Michelle!
I love this idea – we’re dairy-free, gluten-free and nut-free in our household. Thanks for the tips on subbing white beans or coconut.
You bet, Amanda! FYI – my upcoming second cookbook Practically Raw Desserts contains dozens of nut-free treats, and many of the nut-containing ones come with nut-free variations!
Coconut butter instead of cashews? What a delighful and cheapest substitute!
Actually, here in the U.S., coconut butter is FAR more expensive than an equivalent amount of cashews! But if you can find super-cheap coconut butter in France (or if cashews are terribly pricey), go for it.
Really?
Well, I was thinking about making my own coconut butter, really cashews are too expensive, even if I’d like to give them a try in sauces…
Here coconut,hazelnuts and almonds are not too pricey.
Pacanes, Macadamia nuts, Brasil nuts and Walnuts are expensive.
Ohh, how interesting! (Lucky you that you can get cheap hazelnuts!
) Yes, this would definitely work just fine with homemade coconut butter. If you’ve never made it before, I have a ‘recipe’ for it in my cookbook, Practically Raw!
HMM, I won’t tell cheap
the cheapest are the peanuts but I prefer not to use them because of the saturated fats they contains
I am on a 30 day juice fast right now, but I can assure you one of my reward treats will be this divine looking recipe. So eye-appealing with the festive colors that says, “One will certainly not be enough” Thank you! My anticipation of these tempting treats make my journey even more festive. *-)
Aw, thank you so much Pamie! Congrats on such an impressive juice fast – I’ve never gone that long, myself. These will make a wonderful reward for you at the end of it all.
Not only beautiful and healthy, but WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT TO GRATE COCOA BUTTER before melting it?!! Brilliant. Love, love the color of these! :0
Hehe! It’s always little things like that that cost or save me the greatest amount of time in the kitchen.
Thanks Ricki!
Just made those for the four men in my life (my husband and 3 sons). It will be their Valentine’s Day treat.
Licked the bowls mixing the chocolate and the raspberry mousse and just couldn’t stop until they were clean.
Wow!! I think Louis, Tomas, Jacob and Lucas will just loooooooooove these raw candies.
Thank you for sharing!
Marie-Guy
That is wonderful, Marie-Guy! I hope all your boys LOVE them.
Happy V-Day!
mmm… just checked on my candies and I think I will have a hard time taking them out of the moulds. I used a tin for tiny muffins. Do you have a trick?
Thanks!
Uh-oh, did you line them with paper or silicone mini muffin liners? If not, you may just have to pry them out with a knife! =/
Oh no! This was so stupid of me. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.
I blame myself, I should’ve put a note in the recipe that if you use anything other than chocolate molds, you’ll probably need to line them for best results. So sorry, Marie-Guy! But do your best to pop them out of the tin with a knife. Maybe let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to allow the candies to loosen from the sides a bit, then try prying them out with a knife…and/or, turn the muffin tin upside down and smack it against a large, clean surface to see if they’ll fall out that way!
I’ll try those tricks. Thanks! I’ll let you know how everything turns out.
Anyway, they’ll still be tasty even if they don’t look so hot.
Very true! It’s the taste that counts.
All right! They didn’t look very nice. I will not be posting a picture here.
But the boys loved them! They had them for breakfast.
I will be making this recipe again, but will do it properly next time.
Thank you!
What’s important is that they were TASTY! Happy to hear it.
And better luck next time with the molds, hehe.
Gorgeously deliciously brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing it! I featured it today on my blog!
Cheers
Thanks! However, because my recipes are copyrighted, I have to ask you to remove the recipe from your blog. You are welcome to link to the recipe here on my blog, but I can’t allow the recipes to be reproduced elsewhere. Thanks so much in advance!
Hi Amber,
My girls and I made this recipe, and the filling was all you promised it would be — absolutely delicious! At the request of my middle foodie daughter (age 12), we are planning to make the filling as a stand-alone dessert, a kind of mousse, maybe with cacao nibs on top for a little crunch.
I have a question, if I may, about the chocolate coating. I wanted to make that according to directions, but when I went to purchase the cacao butter, I found it to be $25 / .5 pound! Ouch! So I decided to just use some chocolate I had at home, melted and poured into the paper liners as though I were making peanut butter cups. Put chocolate on the bottom, froze; raspberry filling in the middle, froze; more melted chocolate on the top, froze. Looked great, but when we went to eat, the chocolate was pretty hard and and the filling was slipping and sliding off the chocolate. (We had to eat them like Or****s, which I can’t eat anymore because of being GF now.) Obviously, we didn’t follow your recipe for the coating, and I guess the chocolate has things in it that make it brittle when frozen rather than creamy, as well as oils that made the filling want to slide off in a patty. Not that all this wasn’t tasty! Anyway my question is this. Is there a way to make these successfully with a variation on the raw chocolate coating in someway that it would be affordable? Can we use a different kind of coating that would be less brittle and slippery than the chocolate we used?
Thanks very much. And by the way, our library just tracked down a copy of your Practically Raw book for me. I have it here in front of me, and it looks wonderful! I truly appreciate your practical approach for those of us who live in blended families: that is, in our case, a blend of omnivore / vegetarian / high raw. It’s a challenge to have a sit-down meal, to say the least.
Sorry so long. Your availability is much appreciated, and it is so tempting to write long stories about our food interests.
Have a great day,
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca,
YIKES! That cocoa butter was outrageously priced! A dozen or two people in the comments section here have asked where I get mine, and I’ve given them all the same link: http://www.nuts.com/nuts/cacao/butter.html It’s $15.99 for a FULL pound there. Much better!
I have not tried any other way to make the coating, so I’m afraid I can’t help you there…but let me know if you experiment and come up with anything! You might just have to eat them straight out of the freezer so they don’t melt.
I love your idea of making the filling as a mousse, topped with cacao nibs! I am definitely going to have to do that myself, sometime!
I made these for my kiddos for Easter & they were a hit BIG time. Thank you!!
That’s awesome, Jennifer! You are very welcome!