Sugar Free Chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I am responding to the recent comments about sugar-free chocolate bars. I learned about xylitol and stevia over 10 years ago while I was doing research for my doctoral dissertation in Holistic Nutrition. I developed numerous recipes using xylitol as the only sweetener and incorporated them into my cookbook, Sweeten Your Life the Xylitol Way, now in its second edition. This cookbook has been well received by individuals and companies who sell xylitol, such as Xlear, Xylitol USA (formerly Emerald Forest Sugar), Epic Dental, and Now Foods. A few years ago, I began also incorporating erythritol into my recipes to reduce the carb count and calories even further.
Within the past year I have focused on developing dark chocolate bars sweetened only with the natural sweeteners xylitol, erythritol, and stevia. My husband is a chocoholic and had been urging me for a long time to develop sugar-free dark chocolate so that he could enjoy it and not have to deal with the harmful side effects of sugar. I now have four variations of these chocolate bars in limited production. They are all dark chocolate, low glycemic, and dairy-free. The basic bar is 77% cacao and is sweetened only with xylitol and stevia; I have used this bar as a basis to develop two flavored versions, mint and raspberry. The low carb bar is 75% cacao and is sweetened only with xylitol, erythritol, and stevia. This low carb bar has been successfully tested by a Type 1 diabetic who verified by using a continuous monitor that there was little or no effect on her blood sugar levels.
I am not making the chocolate bean to bar. I start with unsweetened chocolate liqueur and add my own flavorings and sweeteners, then I mlange, temper, and mold. I am looking into purchasing additional equipment so that I can produce these chocolate bars in larger quantities. Im currently selling these bars, as well as my other sugar-free products such as fudge, hot cocoa mix, brownies, dark chocolate glazed peanut butter cookies, and granola at local farmers markets. I am planning to add the chocolate bars to my website after I have increased production and have the cold packaging developed for shipping in hot weather.
My goal has always been to create recipes and develop products that taste at least as good as, if not better than, the commercially available sugar-sweetened version of that recipe or product, and this has been verified by my customers. I welcome comments and other discussion about naturally sweetened sugar-free chocolate.