From scratch · S’mores from scratch
Chocolate from cocoa powder and cocoa butter
The easy way: melt cocoa butter, whisk in cocoa powder and sugar, and pour it into bars. Reliable, about 30 minutes.
✋ 20 min hands-on
⏱ 1 hr 28 min start to finish
🍽 About 8 oz (230 g) of dark chocolate, roughly 60 percent cocoa.
Ingredients
- 100 g cocoa butter (food grade), food grade, chopped
- 60 g unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process, sifted
- 70 g powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ g table salt
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Time
Hands-on time is when you’re busy; the rest is rising, simmering, chilling or cooling, when you can do something else.
| Step | Hands-on | Waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Melt the cocoa butter | 5 min | 8 min |
| Whisk in the cocoa and sugar, and cool while stirring | 15 min | – |
| Set | – | 1 hr |
| In all | 20 min | 1 hr 8 min |
How long it keeps
- Cool, dry place, wrapped, at 60 to 70°F, away from strong smells. NDSU gives opened chocolate about 1 year; homemade chocolate without emulsifiers can turn dull or streaky sooner, which is harmless.
Nutrition
Estimated from the ingredients’ USDA FoodData Central numbers.
Steps
You’ll need: heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (or a microwave), instant-read thermometer, whisk and silicone spatula, fine sieve, chocolate mold, small loaf pan or parchment-lined dish.
- Melt the cocoa butter in the bowl over barely simmering water, stirring, until it is clear and about 115 to 120°F. Keep every drop of water and steam out: a little water makes chocolate seize, turning it thick and grainy.
- Take the bowl off the heat. Whisk in the sifted cocoa, powdered sugar and salt a spoonful at a time until it is completely smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla if you like.
- Stir now and then as it cools to about 90°F so the cocoa stays mixed in. For snap and shine, temper it now by the seed method in the note below; otherwise go on.
- Pour it into the mold or lined pan and tap it on the counter to pop the bubbles.
- Let it set at cool room temperature, about 1 hour, or 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Unmold and break into pieces.
⚖️ ScalingKeep the weights in proportion: about 40 percent cocoa butter, 25 percent cocoa and 30 percent sugar. More sugar makes it sweeter and milder.
Good to knowTempering is what gives chocolate a snap and a shine. Seed method: melt dark chocolate to 120 to 122°F (milk chocolate to 115 to 117°F), then stir in chopped tempered chocolate, about a quarter of the weight, until it cools to 88 to 90°F for dark (86 to 88°F for milk). Fish out any unmelted pieces. Test a smear on foil: at room temperature it should set firm and glossy in about 5 minutes.
Good to knowUntempered, this chocolate still tastes good: it sets soft and matte and melts at warm room temperature. For s’mores, which melt it anyway, that is fine.
Good to knowMilk chocolate: use 100 g cocoa butter, 30 g cocoa, 40 g whole milk powder and 80 g powdered sugar, and temper to 86 to 88°F.
Good to knowGranulated sugar stays gritty; powdered sugar (or sugar ground fine in a blender) melts in smoothly.
📜 The old waySolid eating chocolate is younger than you might think. In 1828 Coenraad van Houten patented a press that squeezed cocoa butter out of ground cocoa beans, leaving cocoa powder; putting extra cocoa butter back in is what made smooth bars possible.
Sources
- Chocolate Handling and Tempering, Guittard Chocolate Company (technical guide). Accessed 2026-10-25.
- The Art of Candy Making, Utah State University Extension. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Food Storage Guide (FN579), NDSU Extension, reviewed January 2023. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Chocolate, Grokipedia. Accessed 2026-10-25.