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Chocolate bars made with honey, not sugar

Mollie McPhee

Many experienced chocolate makers told them it couldn’t be done. But that did not discourage Julie MacQueen and Carrie Raho, founders of Pure 7 Chocolate, from developing raw and organic chocolate bars sweetened with honey instead of sugar. They tested recipes until they came up with bars that are 85 percent cacao or higher, made with organic cacao powder, organic cacao butter, raw local honey, and a handful of other ingredients, in six varieties ($5.79 to $7.50). Using honey was tricky, the friends agree. MacQueen and her family follow what she describes as a “Paleo-type diet.” Raho’s family doesn’t adhere to any defined way of eating but is very health conscious. Pure 7 Chocolate is named both for the chocolate makers’ children — between them they have seven under age 10 — and the number of ingredients in the original dark bar. They produce bars in a commercial kitchen built in a barn in MacQueen’s Carlisle yard, turning out about 2,000 every week. “Honey tempers the bitterness of dark chocolate,” says MacQueen. Available at Cocoanuts Boston, 28 Parmenter St., Boston, 857-263-7768; Cambridge Naturals, 23 White St., Cambridge, 617-492-4452; Idylwilde Farm, 366 Central St., Acton, 978-263-5943; or go to www.pure7chocolate.com.

ANDREA PYENSON

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