You-Wont-Even-Know-This-Is-Sugar-Free, Sugar Free Chocolate

Good evening friends!!  Like most Americans, I have a serious sugar addiction.  It's not entirely my fault, as our food is laced and laden with this poison processed white stuff.  It's hard to avoid when it's in places it really has no place in being and when it has such addictive qualities!!!  So after trying to "cut back" and really failing but not quite wanting to commit to cut it out entirely (for fear of giving up and failing...) I decided to challenge myself and give it up for the season of Lent.  No, I'm not Catholic, but I do believe in fasting for the Lord.  And when you give up something that is central to your world, you struggle.  That's the point of Lent... to struggle and lean on the Lord for strength.  When I decided to give up sugar for Lent, I stocked up my pantry with sugar free alternatives.  Now those of you who know me know I am NOT a proponent of frankenfood.  I don't do "sugar free" or "fat free" cookies/crackers/crap.  So when I say I stocked up my pantry, I mean I bought nuts and beef jerkey and fruit/veggies/cheese for the fridge, and made sure I had some erythritol and xylitol on hand for baking and natural, liquid stevia for yogurt and oatmeal and coffee and things.  I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I LOVE to bake so I wanted to  be sure I had some healthy alternatives available when I felt a sugar craving hit.

So in removing all these foods from my diet, (including all wheat and most other carbs with the exception of fruit and having pizza one night at my nephews bday) I knew there was one thing I needed to find in a healthy sugar free alternative:  CHOCOLATE.  

Hi, my name is Kristen and I am a choco-holic.  Big time.  In fact, when deciding what to give up for Lent, it came down to sugar or chocolate.  I chose sugar.  And my googling began to find a good sugar free chocolate recipe to get me through.  I think I tried 4 or 5 different ones but none of them were THEE one.  One was to bitter.  One was too gritty.  One had a "sugar-free" aftertaste - they just weren't right.  So I decided to come up with my own recipe.  So without further adieu, here's my own sugar free chocolate recipe.

Ingredients:

• 5 TBS coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup regular cocoa powder (I used Hersheys..I'm sure there are better brands)
• 1/4 cup extra dark cocoa powder (again, Hersheys)
• 2 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1.5 TBS erythritol, powered in a high-powered blender or coffee grinder
• 1/3 dropper of NuNaturals pure liquid vanilla stevia

Instructions:

1. Melt coconut oil over VERY LOW HEAT.  If the oil is too hot when you melt the chocolate, the chocolate will burn and seize (harden).  Melt over a double boiler if you have it, or just in a pan but make sure your heat is super low.  
2. Remove from heat when oil is melted.
3. Add vanilla, powdered erythritol, and stevia to your oil and whisk for a minute or two to mix up and help melt erythritol.
4. Add cocoa powders to your pan and whisk, whisk, whisk until mixed.  Consistency should be dip-able, but not too thin.  If your mix gets too thick, you can add a little melted coconut oil, to thin. Likewise, if it gets too thin you can add as little more cocoa powder to thicken.
5. If you're dipping things in this chocolate, dip away!  Otherwise, spread mixture on a silicone silpat and place in fridge to harden. Once hardened, you can break it into pieces and store in a container in the fridge, or just leave on the silpat and nibble off of it!  You can also chop to make chocolate chunks to use for chocolate chips.

IMPORTANT:  Do NOT add any liquid to the mix once you've added the chocolate!!!!  (oil for thinning does not count as liquid because it is not water-based)  Adding liquid to chocolate causes it to seize and get hard.  It's still edible, but it's not smooth and you can't use it for dipping.  When this happens to me (can happen from liquid or too-high heat) I eat it plain, use it for baking, or make chocolate chunks out of it.  (I made an amazing paleo banana chocolate custard with some seized chocolate...  It was so rich and so delicious...  perhaps I should post that recipe too, hmmm?)

And there you have it!  Delicious sugar free chocolate!  You can use this in any way you would use regular chocolate, it's just much tastier and much healthier.  Try it out and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!
KDH.