I’m trying to make sugar free chocolate. I’ve been experimenting with unsweetened baking chocolate and splenda (plus a couple of other secret ingredients). I can get the results I want by adding in white chocolate, because the cocoa butter helps the texture, but of course that adds back in a little bit of sugar too.
I did a search online, and the only resources I have found are soapmaking supplies. I’m fine with using cocoa butter intended for soap, if it’s pure, there’s no reason not to eat it, but I’m wondering about the suppliers. I’ve found a bunch of home-made sites that I’m a little wary of handing my credit card number over to without a recommendation.
Does anybody have one for me? Or do you know a store I could walk into to buy it?
Stores that focus on health foods or organic ingredients tend to carry cocoa butter. The kind used in soap is indistinguishable from any other kind. Soap can also call for olive oil, castor oil, palm oil, you name it. Foody fats add smoothness and moisture to soap as much as they do to food. So go ahead and buy the kinds recommended for soap-making: it won’t make any difference.
http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com - hopefully that loads… they carry everything under the sun and are considered a “soap making” site, though I use them for supplies for lip balm and lotion… you should be able to find a “food grade cocoa butter” -there’s another type that’s been treated to remove the cocoa scent, IIRC.
ditto the health food store suggestion -that might be quicker if you’re a bit impatient.
megaira_13@yahoo.com is my email… I’d love to know how your sugar free chocolate turns out, I’m interested in trying it since I deal with an anxiety disorder and sugar/caffiene make it hard to deal with… I can handle the caffiene in chocolate, it’s the extra sugar that pushes me over the edge.
meg
Thanks for the ideas everyone. I have a couple of leads on places to look locally tomorrow.
I have PCOS, which is similar to diabetes and have to do the low carb thing. All of the sugar free chocolates I’ve tried use malitol or sorbitol, which not only tastes funny, it is a laxative. This is not a good thing, but I refuse to give up chocolate.
I have achieved a perfect dark chocolate truffle. They are firm and fabulous both with and without walnuts.
My current issue is that my mom has put in a request for milk chocolate, and I would like to achieve somethig closer to a hershey kiss, or candy bar. To do this I need to get extra cocoa butter into the chocolate.
The grit that my darling boyfriend described is a problem with getting the milk into the chocolate without the extra fat.
I will start a thread and post the recipes when I am done, if anybody is interested.
