Can you make your own healthier chocolate?

cherryblossomzel

cepheus wrote: »

I'm not sure why we use sugar in anything if its sweetness can replaced with something safer. Not on same wavelength! Why didn't I just Google?

Homemade Chocolate Chips | Carob Chips Recipe

Carob is naturally sweet because it contains sugars (mostly sucrose, with some fructose and glucose). According to a few sites I looked at, it's almost 50% sugar, whereas Bourneville cocoa powder is about 1.5%. That's why you have to add sugar to the cocoa.

I think people started using it as a substitite for chocolate of cocoa becuase it is low in fat and caffeine free, rather than anything to do with sugar.

Anne_Marie_2

VJsmum wrote: »

Just buy a higher cocoa solids chocolate.

Aldi do a lovely one at 85% cocoa - Moser Roth.

You find you don't need as much of it to feel satisfied.

Quite agree with you there. I only buy high cocoa solid chocolate and find that I can never eat more than two squares. A bar lasts me ages. Lidl do some decent ones too, which don't cost the earth, much like the Aldi ones.

Mojisola

Aldi do one with chillis which I like. It's not as high as 85% but comes as smaller wrapped bars and one is enough.

Anne_Marie_2

Next time I'm back in the UK, will check out the chilli chocolate in Aldi. I love chilli choc.
Got some ginger dark choc in Lidl in Cyprus a few months back, goodness it is good. Worth checking to see if they have it in UK stores. Sorry, it's all gone now, so can't say what percentage of cocoa it had.

retiredlady

Try mixing cocoa, coconut oil and sweetener to taste. I use liquid Splenda. Put it all together and melt in microwave till the OKL melts, won't take long. Using a roasting tin lined with parchment paper pour out the mixture. Let it set. Break into pieces, Store in fridge and enjoy!
I often sprinkle almonds or other nuts in the pan before I pour on the chocolate but you can add whatever you fancy.
It needs to be stored in the fridge as the coconut oil will soften or even go liquid in a warm room.

meritaten

Why on earth would people want to add chemicals to chocolate in the form of 'artificial sweeteners? I really don't see why it would make them 'healthier'? at least sugar is a natural substance even if it is 'refined'.
There is a lot of concern over artificial sweeteners at the moment - gut instinct tells me that something concocted in a laboratory is more likely to be harmful than a crop harvested from a field.

gayleygoo

It might be possible to do with cocoa powder or raw chocolate, plus organic cocoa butter, but I'd still prefer to add sugar rather than an artificial sweetener - I really don't believe that they are any better for you, unless you have health concerns that mean you can't eat sugar.

Reminds me of the time I bought a bar labelled "100% chocolate", it was truly disgusting and everyone who tried it agreed. It tasted like antibiotics and I had to throw it out because it ruined anything I attempted to use it in!

natlie

Hi


You need to use this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Willies-Venezuelan-Black-Carenero-Superior/dp/B008EQIWMU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1421403143&sr=8-5&keywords=willie%27s+cacao


Mix it with processed dates to make truffles or you can make a ganache type truffle with coconut cream. No need to add sugar - dates are naturally sweet as in coconut cream, you can also make protein balls with oats and peanut butter and cacao and dates - think of it as more of a truffle type thing rather than a bar

penguine

A lot of the calories in chocolate come from the high fat content so if it's weight gain you're worried about I'm not sure making your own chocolate will help.

Cocoa powder however is much lower in fat so I try to get my chocolate fix from homemade chocolate mousse or black bean brownies and stay away from the solid chocolate as much as I can.