I’m amazed at how this year has flown by! Easter is just around the corner. If you have a sweet tooth, it’s time to start gathering those yummy Easter Eggs to hide around the home and garden for the little ones to find on their Easter Egg hunt. 

But what if you want a healthier alternative to the store-bought Easter Eggs? Store-bought Easter Eggs and chocolates are full of cane sugar and dairy. I hate to put a downer on your inner chocoholic, however, both cane sugar and dairy are very acid-forming in our body.

What if you wanted to have your cake, and eat it too? What if I could show you a way to indulge in some scrumptious chocolate treats, knowing that those treats are healthy and good for you?

Today I want to share with you one of my favourite recipes for oil-infused home-made chocolates, that tastes like it has a caramel centre to it. Is your mouth watering already? Enjoy!

Why use essential oil to flavour food and drinks?

If you’ve never used essential oils as a food flavouring before, then you’re in for a treat. But there are some things you need to know before you get started.

You know the flavour burst you get when you chew on fresh peppermint leaves? The leaves contain Peppermint essential oil, so you are actually tasting the aromatic compounds present in the essential oil, combined with plant cellulose. When you chew the leaf, you are releasing the essential oil from the plant’s tissues, and that’s where the flavour burst comes from.

Instead of using Peppermint or Spearmint leaves to flavour a recipe, you can use essential oils instead.

It’s more convenient than having to go out and source organic herbs, so you’ve saved yourself some time.

And because essential oils are so concentrated (1 drop of Peppermint oil being equivalent to enough peppermint leaves to make 28 cups of Peppermint tea), you need so little, so it ends up really cost effective too.

Why essential oils are so cost-effective as a flavouring agent

In the recipe I’m about to share with you below, you need only 2 drops of Peppermint oil and 1 drop of Spearmint oil in the entire batch.

Given we have around 300 drops in a 15ml bottle and 100 drops in a 5ml bottle, that works out at AUD $0.47 cents for enough Peppermint and Spearmint oil to make a batch that serves 8 to 16 people.

As you can see, that’s really cost effective. When I go to the local organic farmer’s markets, I pay $4 or $4.50 for a bunch of Peppermint, and the same for a bunch of Spearmint (ie. 20 times the price of the essential oils in this dish!!!)

I wouldn’t need the full bunch of fresh herbs in the recipe, so hopefully I could use it in other dishes. But how many times have you had to throw out fresh produce because it went off before you had a chance to eat it?

I love that I can have a bottle of essential oil in my cupboard, and just pull it out when I need it. It doesn’t go off, and it tastes just as amazing as fresh produce. This makes soooo much sense.

Are Essential Oils as good as fresh produce?

When it comes to cooking, essential oils give us all the same benefits and taste as the fresh or dried herb. They just don’t have the liquid and fibre present.

This means in some cases you will need to top up your recipe with extra liquid or bulk. This would be the case if a recipe called for

Lemon juice, or Orange juice. If you use the essential oil instead, you’ll just need to add some extra liquid.

The other difference is that the essential oil is much more concentrated than the fresh produce, so always start with less, then build up to taste. It’s no different to how you would season a recipe.

You also want to make sure that your essential oil is produced without any synthetic chemical additives or pesticides and other sprays, as these can be harmful to your liver. Since a whole Peppermint plant is required to make a single drop of essential oil, if your plant was sprayed with herbicides, there’s a chance that traces of these herbicides and pesticides will end up in your essential oil.

That’s why I only use Young Living’s oils in my food and drinks.

Not only are Young Living’s oils produced in such a way that is beyond organic standards, 39 of their essential oils are compliant with Food Standards Australia & New Zealand for use in food and beverages. 

This makes them the perfect solution for your taste buds.

In Australia and New Zealand, we call these 39 oils our “culinary” oils. However, every region has different regulations in regard to using essential oils as flavouring agents.

If you live in the UK or Europe, you will use Young Living’s Plus Range of essential oils to flavour your food, and in the US you will use the Vitality Range. It’s the same oil in the bottle – it’s just labelled in a way that keeps our regulatory agencies happy.

But what about the frequency of herbs vs essential oils?

Fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables have a wonderful uplifting frequency, especially if they are produced organically and used in a dish that is made with love. You can taste the difference over using dried, store-bought packets of herbs. 

Essential oils taste just like the natural produce. You usually can’t tell the difference between the fresh herb and the essential oil that comes from that same plant when they’re used in food or beverages. The only exception is if you’ve been too heavy-handed and overpowered a dish with too many drops of essential oil.

Because they are so concentrated, essential oils take the frequency of your dish to a whole other level – far more than what the herb alone will do.

The aroma of essential oils works through the limbic region of our brain, activating our brain in a way that uplifts our moods and emotions. Imagine biting into an Orange and Poppy Seed cake make with Orange essential oil, and being carried into a state of joy and euphoria! 

That’s a very big reason that I love to use essential oils to flavour my food and beverages. 

Are you curious to learn more about the emotional and spiritual uses of essential oils? I have another blog that I write, which offers plant and animal wisdom, life-journey tips, and insights into the emotional and spiritual uses of essential oils. I shared about the frequency of essential oils in a recent blog. If you love learning about this aspect of essential oils, make sure you subscribe.

Treat yourself to healthy home-made chocolate this Easter 

Now that you’ve learned more about essential oils, let’s jump into this amazing recipe. This recipe uses Peppermint and Spearmint essential oils, and some optional chilli. It’s absolutely scrumptious, but if you are making it for younger children, simply omit the chilli and use 8 drops of Young Living Orange oil instead of the Peppermint and Spearmint.

You might wonder why we use both Peppermint and Spearmint oils, and not just Peppermint oil on its own. The reason is because Peppermint oil is quite strong on its own, whereas Spearmint oil is softer and helps to balance out the Peppermint.

If you’re not a fan of Peppermint as a flavour, there are so many other options. Citrus oils like Orange and Tangerine are always a great flavour for chocolates, and so is Ginger oil. You can even use Geranium oil to create a flavour that tastes like Turkish Delight. Just start with 1 drop and build up to taste. I’ve destroyed many a dish by being too heavy handed with my oils.

How to make Chilli-Mint Raw Chocolate Easter Eggs

For this recipe, you will need some silicone moulds or an icecube tray for pouring in your Chilli Mint Chocs. Silicone moulds come in a variety of shapes, including easter eggs and hearts. You will also need a double boiler OR a stainless steel bowl and a frypan OR a Thermomix. The ingredients marked below with a star (*) can usually be found in a good health food store.

Ingredients: 

• ½ tsp of vanilla powder* or vanilla essence (optional)
• ½ tsp of cinnamon powder* (optional)
• ½ tsp of Maca Powder (optional)
• 3 tbsp of organic virgin coconut oil*
• 2 tbsp of coconut nectar*. Other sweeteners can be used instead of coconut nectar, but it’s the nectar that caramelizes for that extra yummy flavour.

• 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder*
• 3 tbsp of cacao butter, finely chopped*

• 2 drops of Peppermint oil
• 1 drop of Spearmint oil
• ½ a red chilli, finely chopped (increase to a full red chilli if you like more spice, or omit if you don’t want any spice)

Method: 

If using a double boiler, add 3cm of water to the base of the boiler and bring to the boil. Then add the above ingredients into the top of the boiler and stir until melted.

If using a stainless steel bowl and frypan, put 3 cm of water into the bottom of a frypan and heat until it is just simmering. Add the above ingredients into a stainless steel bowl which sits in the frypan, and stir until melted.

If using a Thermomix, add all ingredients into the Thermomix, set the heat to 37 degrees, put it on low speed for 5 minutes to warm and melt the ingredients, then blend at high speed into a smooth sauce.

After the ingredients have melted and been stirred or blended together, spoon the mixture into your silicon moulds or ice cube tray. Don’t fill it all the way up (leave a bit of space there).

When you were making the chocolate, the coconut nectar will have sunk, leaving a small amount in the bottom of the bowl once the rest of the chocolate has been spooned out.

Use a spoon to collect small amounts of this sweet nectar and put drops of it into each of the moulds.

As soon as you’ve put the residual coconut nectar into the moulds, place the moulds into the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes in order to quick-set them (so the ingredients don’t have time to separate).

These chocolates will melt at room temperature, so take them from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving. If you leave them out for longer than that, they will start to melt.

That gives you a short time span if you are hiding easter eggs for the kiddies….but at least you know they are having a really healthy treat!

Makes 8 to 16 small chocolates or small easter eggs. 

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