I’ve always had a weak spot for white chocolate. I even have fond childhood memories of picking through the (wrapped) candy bowl in search of the white Lindor truffles that may be buried in there. I’m not a white chocolate snob though – I’ll totally eat a plain white chocolate bar just as happily. And now, thanks to my new recipe, that can be low carb sugar-free white chocolate. Purists might complain that white chocolate is not “real” chocolate since it doesn’t include cocoa powder, but I’d have to respectfully disagree. It’s still made with cocoa butter, so I say that totally counts.
Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good sugar-free white chocolate bar on the market. I wish I could buy them ready-to-eat, the way I do my beloved milk chocolate bars at Trader Joe’s, but they don’t make a white chocolate version. That could only mean one thing – it was time to make my own! When I first set out to make my own sugar-free white chocolate, I pored through ingredient lists for white chocolate bars I liked to find the common ground. I figured that would point me in the right direction of how to make my sugar-free white chocolate. Of course, they were all made with sugar, cocoa butter, milk, vanilla (or unfortunately synthetic vanilla flavor called vanillin), and often lecithin as a stabilizer. This list was far from ideal, but I had to start somewhere.
It was time to make some ingredient replacements. I’d previously heard somewhere (wish I remembered where!) that the milk listed on chocolate bars was actually milk powder to avoid introducing excess liquid, so I knew that was what I had to use. Originally I made this sugar-free white chocolate recipe with whole milk powder. After a reader suggested heavy cream powder, I changed it to that instead to lower carbs more. And, it tastes better. Otherwise, I made the natural swaps of erythritol for sugar and real vanilla extract for vanillin. Make sure to use powdered erythritol, so that your sugar-free white chocolate is not grainy. I skipped the stabilizer in my original recipe. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a mistake. The low carb white chocolate recipe ended up causing problems for people. Sure enough, when I tried to make it again, the chocolate didn’t emulsify properly. As a result, I modified the steps to include sunflower lecithin. I figured that would help since most commercial chocolate bars contain soy lecithin. I opted for the sunflower kind to avoid soy. Just a teeny-tiny bit worked wonders! I threw in a pinch of sea salt for depth, but you can skip it if you’d like. Once I had the ingredient list figured out, it was simply a matter of testing out different ingredient ratios, primarily the relationship between cocoa butter and heavy cream powder. Both contribute to the unique flavor we know and love in white chocolate. I settled at a ratio of one tablespoon of powder per ounce of cocoa butter – a wonderful combination of smoothness and white-chocolatiness. In addition, my revised sugar-free white chocolate recipe includes a tablespoon of coconut oil. I found that this helped to make it creamier. So, are you ready to make your own sugar-free white chocolate bars? With the holidays coming up, having a sugar-free, healthier option for white chocolate is much-needed. I’ll bet these keto white chocolates and keto chocolate bars would be so cute wrapped up as little gifts, too.
Double boiler – For melting the cocoa butter and coconut oil. Highly, highly recommend this, otherwise there’s a good chance the chocolate will burn or separate. Chocolate bar molds – I like this pack because it’s 4 for one low price. And, the chocolates pop out effortless because they are food-grade silicone. Chocolate chip molds – If you want white chocolate chips, this mold makes the same shape as real store-bought ones! Sunflower lecithin – Many people aren’t sure where to get this, so I wanted to point it out here. This is the one I use. It’s a must to stabilize the sugar-free white chocolate and help keep it smooth. Heavy cream powder – This is harder to find in stores. I buy it here online for making low carb white chocolate. Plus, you can reconstitute it with water to use as actual heavy cream in recipes.
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