Chocolate!

We both love it, but have generally eaten sparingly of it. One of those "love-hate" things, knowing of the good, antioxidants, and bad, sugar. Chocolate having no sweetness at all, i.e. "baking chocolate", can scarcely be eaten without grimace.

Enter my wife, on her low carb mission. Unsweetened chocolate contains fats, antioxidants, various other very beneficial chemical compounds, so why not sweeten some with non-calorie sugar alcohols? She took Bakers Baking Chocolate, bitter as hell, melted in in the microwave, then tried adding Stevia (completely natural product) to some, Sucralose (artificial sweetener man-made, not found in nature) to some, and Erithrytol (another natural sweet material obtained from a plant) to some. All had a bit of sweet cream added, to keep the product from being very hard, as was the starting material.

She mixed the sweetener material and cream into each batch of microwave-melted bitter chocolate, poured the stuff into little molds she had bought, candy-sized about as big as a "jaw-breaker" gumball. Refrigerated.

The consistency of the candies is most remarkably like that of commercially-made, high-sugar, unhealthful product, as far as texture, taste, and "want-more" qualities go. And, 38 calories each portion , little "eaters' remorse"!

She took no pics, unusual. If you like, and like chocolates, ask. I'll post pics of the product and recipe. Frank

Edit: Carbs: Very low. Sugars, zero. Fat, dependent on cacao used and cream added. Bakers Baking Chocolate states ingredients: Cocoa, or chocolate. As a kid, my mother used it exclusively in all her baking, adding sugar, of course. Her doughs and batters for cakes and cookies and such left residue in the mixing bowl for which I hovered about, to lick clean the unbaked stuff!

 

Thanks for the information on sugar free chocolate recipe. We love chocolate too. I buy dark chocolate mac nuts when on sale for it's just .69 with sugar at 7 grams. Walmart has Russel Stover's sugar free candies for just 2.18 on rollback or 2.99 regular price. Sometimes CVS has sales on these sugar free chocolates for just 1.49 -1.99. Walgreens has Russel Stover's sugar free candies for 1.99 packages. Werther's has sugar free candies too. There are sugar free cookies from Murray too at Walmart.
We enjoy all these sugar free food, oh yes there's I found at Walgreens, Wyler's light sugar free Peach Tea free of aspartame. I hunt sugar free food always, lol!

 

Artificial sweeteners are not good for you - I tried dark chocolate a few years back, not so keen at first
but got used to the taste and stuck with it. Its very good for your health although I don't eat a lot of chocolate, I will have a couple
of squares

 

I am a chocolate lover especially with chocolate cake. Whenever we would go abroad, expect a ton of chocolate bars in our baggage. We always store chocolate in our bedroom refrigerator so we can have it anytime. However, we are conscious of the effect of chocolate on the body. It is an energizer like coffee which can rob you of sleep when taken at night in big doses. So I usually eat chocolate in the afternoon or after lunch but rarely do I eat chocolate after dinner.

Sugar free chocolates? No, I wouldn't like that since I am not diabetic.

 

Thankfully I'm not fond of chocolate. I can only take small amounts of it. A cake can have chocolate icing but it has to have yellow batter. The other way around is too much though.

I like a Reese's peanut butter cup on occasion but that's about it for chocolate.

One exception is a brownie with chocolate icing....I do like that.

 

Here is what's left of her first batch. They are really great! I forgot to mention, some have peanut butter mixed in. Low carbs. You may be able to see it in some. Also, chopped nuts. I prefer the plain. Nuts don't get along well with my rotten old teeth! Frank

PS: I don't have the recipe yet. Tonight, maybe.

 

I'm interested in the calories because usually sugar free chocolates that are sold at stores aren't that low. I know she's not watching calories but I am ...always.

How low carb is she doing?

I know lots of low carb yummies but depends on how low. My daughter makes an awesome muffin in a mug that's low carb.

I used to make a dessert with lowfat ricotta cheese, Splenda and either almond flavor or lemon flavor.

I also do the riced cauliflower but I buy it riced. I've made the pizza crust...it was ok.

I've made meringues with Splenda ...those were so so.

 

@Chrissy Page

But she is. Limited to 1200 to 1500 calories daily. The regimen goes like this: Of the grams of carbs, protein, and fat, goal is 5% carbs, 70% fat, 25% protein, with a MAX of carbs daily of 20g. She finds it is easy to often get too many proteins.

She uses Splenda, too, but not exclusively. I gave her a baggy of Erythritol from the stash I have squirreled away, destined for someday use I can't discuss. She finds the Erythritol to be less appealing than Splenda. Aspartame is now a no-no in our house pretty much. Daily, I use Saccharin (pink pkgs.) in my coffee. 1/2 pkg. per big cup.

She has been making "pancakes" without flour of any kind, that taste and feel, to me, just as good as traditional.
Frank

 

Ok, didn't know she was watching calories, most low carbers don't. 20 grams of carbs is very low! That's induction phase Atkins. Do you know that even spices have carbs ...it adds up.

I know Splenda is not good for you but I use it anyway.

I always did south beach or 17 day diets as they weren't as strict as Atkins. Have done the original atkins.

 

I just saw a recipe for a potato substitute but don't know how it would taste, looks delicious.
It says that when radishes are cooked they become sweeter. I've never cooked a radish so don't know. The recipe is sliced radishes, Italian seasoning mix, and butter. Cook til tender. One serving was 2.5 carbs.

 

@Chrissy Page
If the pic is the serving size, I may have to go this route! Looks delish! As a kid, closest thing we had in the house was Kohl Rabi, which the neighbor raised. Gave them to my Mother, who peeled them, cut them up, and I ate them raw, salted. Tasted almost the same as radishes.
Frank

 

Hungarians cooked kohlrabi ...my daughter loved it. It was like stuffed peppers but you hollowed out the ball and stuffed it with a rice and ground pork mixture. The inside you scooped out was diced and added to the sauce which was a buttery roux type sauce...sometimes parsley or dill was added and cream.

Just remembered I used to make a fake mousse with cocoa powder, Splenda a and whipped cream.

 

Here is the stuffed kohlrabi before it's cooked.

And what it kind of looks like after it's cooked. It was always a favorite at our house. Sometimes I would just dice up the whole kohlrabi and make the meatballs and cook them in the sauce....it was easier.

 

@Yvonne Smith ....22 grams a day is hard!