Chocolate Powerberries
I recently tried Trader Joe's dark chocolate Powerberries- a blend of superfruits encased in dark chocolate. The ingredients were listed, so I decided to try my hand. Though not quite as store-able or visually appealing as the original, I think you'll find this copycat recipe captures the essence and flavor!
Ingredients:
Blueberry concentrate*
Pomegranate concentrate*
Cranberry concentrate*
Acai concentrate*
Gelatine
Dark chocolate
*As you can see in my ingredients picture, I used various methods for obtaining concentrate. Where I had access to fresh fruit, I made fruit concentrate (here's how). When there was pure, 100% juice available, I used the same instructable (the freezing method). The acai, I could only find in blended juices. However, Whole Foods sells a freeze-dried powder which I used instead.
- Mix juice. The proportions I used: 1/4 cup each blueberry, pomegranate, and cranberry concentrates; 1 tablespoon acai.
- Make gummies according to my gummies Instructable. Pour them as small as possible into molds, or pour thinly into a rectangular pan and cut them apart into little chunks. Probably the chunk method works best- the ones I put in molds came out thin and wide, which made them difficult to embed in chocolates. Don't coat them in sugar or corn starch after removing them from molds.
- Heat dark chocolate in a double boiler. (About one bar of chocolate should cover enough candies to fill a Ziploc bag.)
- When chocolate is sufficiently melted, pour it into lightly greased molds(I recommend a mold for break-apart hard candy, the hexagonal mold shown) . Do not fill the molds completely! Do a little at a time (on my mold, a couple of rows at once), then press a chunk of powerberry gummy into the middle. Use your finger to pat some of the chocolate over the top to cover it. (This will be messy.)
- Cool in the refrigerator for a short while, until chocolate is firm.
- Carefully remove from molds. Eat! Or store in refrigerator.
They aren't quite as pretty as the Trader Joe's version, but they're definitely delicious, and ..arguably healthy? We'll settle for: you know exactly what goes in them, so make your own nutrition facts.
Enjoy! Eat responsibly.
I also made some dark chocolate "Power Stars" with a lot more gummy to chocolate! They're in the last picture.