Not fond of dark chocolate

(Jon) #1

Hopefully my tastes are adjusting a little bit on keto, but I’m still not a big fan of dark, bitter chocolate. So I find lots of recipes that make a point of they have a darker chocolate flavor … what if you prefer a regular chocolate flavor or a milk chocolate flavor?

What would I best prefer to add to manage to go for a less dark chocolate flavor? More sweetener? HWC? Heavy cream powder? Increase the butter? Or something I can’t even think of? How much of whatever would I want to use to balance out per tablespoon of cocoa powder?

Anybody have some recommendations?

#2

That’s a hard one I think. … I haven’t looked into Chocolates that much to be truthful, but I do eat 92% Dark Chocolate myself here and there, and it actually doesn’t taste bitter to me. (Though the 100% one does) Though I can’t say if that would have been the case before 2 years ago? Back then I ate Milk & Dark, and probably preferred Milk Chocolate. But I hope some here might have some information they can share with you, if you find the Dark too bitter for your liking.

(Bob M) #3

For me, I can tolerate dark chocolate (say 80+ percent) – sometimes. Lately, I’ve been eating more of the lower percentage stuff, say, 70% or so, as it tastes less like dirt. I just take the carb hit.

Another thing to do is to combine it with yogurt (and I’ve been adding cream lately, to up the saturated fat) or something to minimize the taste.

You could make your own (not hard to do), using chocolate, your sweetener of choice, and cacao butter (or even butter). I don’t have a recipe, though.

I make a white chocolate recipe that adds coconut milk powder. That is useful, too, though does have maltodextrin and fiber usually.

#4

I strongly preferred milk chocolate before.
Well, I had to give it up. It’s not such a big deal, actually and I got used to my dark chocolate :slight_smile:
Cream doesn’t help, I dislike the taste of coconut milk powder… It never was important enough to try normal milk powder but probably that wouldn’t be so great either…

Sometimes I really want a normal chocolate (mine doesn’t even contain coconut butter, I tried and it wasn’t much better, just much more expensive and more work). I buy some white chocolate (I should try one without sugar) and use a very tiny amount in my dark unsweetened one. I can’t use enough to have a really milky taste and a lighter color as a too sweet chocolate is inedible to me.
Almost a decade since I avoid sugar pretty much, well, my taste changed drastically.
I can’t stand bitter. But I don’t feel my very fatty unsweetened chocolate or my weak black coffee bitter (it depends on the coffee brand) anymore.

Chocolate mixed with whipped cream is interesting, sometimes I do that and put into the freezer for a little time :slight_smile: But it’s not like milk chocolate at all.

Do you need chocolate all alone? I have desserts where chocolate plays a role but a tiny one so I mostly feel the other ingredients… They are way more nutritious and satiating than my chocolate alone too… Win-win.

I still dislike very dark chocolate. Anything over 70% is… Well I rather drink water instead, it’s so not worth it for me :smiley: It tastes like cocoa powder. Definitely too much cocoa for me. I use significantly more coconut oil than cocoa powder for my own chocolate (my SO, on the other hand prefers the same amount). Of course, much depends on the cocoa powder. For a normal chocolate, you use cocoa butter too. And I had some chocolate with normal butter, it was midly interesting.

So I don’t know any way to make proper homemade milk chocolate but there are so many chocolate-y desserts and they aren’t like dark chocolate.

#5

Choc Zero and Lily’s both make sugar free Milk Chocolate

(Diana) #6

I’d recommend mixing the dark chocolate with heavy cream and some cocoa butter and maybe a little stevia or whatever sweetener you prefer. Then resolidify it should make it sweeter. Your other option is as someone recommended Choc Zero. Super tasty but for me made my stomach gassy.

(Jon) #7

I tried a chocolate mousse that didn’t do much for me, so I’m sticking with my peanut butter mousse. Chocolate mason jar ice cream is quite decent, even though it is made with just cocoa powder. I’ve tried some chocolate chip cookies that were slightly bitter, but fairly all right. And a few days ago I made a pretty decent chocolate buttercream frosting, a small batch, that will probably frost six to eight mug cakes before all is said and done. It came out a little thinner than I might have liked, but I found the taste quite nice.

What I’m looking at right now are homemade Crunch bars using protein puffs. Don’t want one more than every week or two, but should make a nice fat bomb for the occasional need to balance out the macros. In time I will do several versions (white chocolate with chocolate puffs for a cookies and cream taste, and there’s also a sort of crispy peanut butter cup version, but I’ll be starting out with the basic vanilla puffs in chocolate. Just the guy who posted the recipe commented on the darker chocolate taste, and I’d prefer a less dark chocolate version. I’m still new to this, and learning substitutes and things.

Also considering trying dutch chocolate to see what the difference is. Supposed to be a mellower flavor. We shall see. Lots of ingredients still to buy before I am ready to try all these different versions, get a few more ingredients, try a new recipe every few weeks.

@Ifod, may have to think about that. They just seem fairly expensive from what I can see.

@Finishingtouches, yeah, the guy with the recipe mentioned the possibility of cocoa butter, and recommended lightening up a little on the cocoa powder if you went that route, to keep the chocolate flavor from being overwhelming.

#8

So, using a bain marie, melt 1/2 cup dark chocolate pieces- say 88 to 95%, melt it with about 1/4 cup solid coconut oil until all melted together. mix in a tsp or so of a granulated sweetener - splenda, stevia, sweet n low, or whatever, along with vanilla powder or any other flavoring, and a pinch of salt. You can pour it into little molds, or just pour it onto a parchment lined pan to cool. You’ll end up with a dark chocolate melt-away.

Brands vary in taste due to the formula used in production. When you see 70% dark chocolate on a label, that number represents the total amount of cacao bean used in that formula. Could be 30% solids, and 40% fat, or vice-versa - 40% solid and 30% fat. Thinking of solids as the flavor part, and the fats (cocoa butter) as the flavor carrier; the latter formula will taste a little more bitter than the former. I can eat an 88% bar of Endangered Species dark chocolate quite easily with no bitterness whatsoever, but another brand I might have to spit out the 85%.

So, why the salt? Salt messes with taste buds - esp when eaten with dark chocolate. The bit of salt kinda tricks the taste buds into thinking the chocolate is sweeter than what it is. That’s part of the reason dark chocolate sea salt caramels are all the rage. (I made over a thousand of them last Christmas, and it still wasn’t enough to fill orders!)

You could add in some creme de menthe flavoring - and get a mint meltaway. =) Or coffee extract, hazelnut extract, etc…

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #9

@Batchman So what’s the problem?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

When I started eating a ketogenic diet three years ago, I found unsweetened chocolate far, far too bitter to be edible. Nowadays, however, I enjoy it just fine. It’s not sweet, by any means, but it’s tasty. There was an intermediate stage when I used to heat the unsweetened chocolate in the microwave, add a bit of heavy cream, and some artificial sweetener (stevia blended with erythritol, in my case). That did the trick back then; now I can’t be bothered.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #11

For those who are, I don’t want to say addicted, so let’s say attached, to the chocolate flavour I suggest trying cacao butter. No, it’s not the same and I won’t pretend it is, but it does have a chocolaty flavour that is very similar although much milder in intensity. It’s also 100% mostly long chain fatty acids, very satisfying (in terms of satiety) and nutritious.

(KCKO, KCFO) #12

Plain full fat greek yogurt, 100% raw cacao powder, add the keto sweetener that works for you to taste. Top with a tad of whipped cream. My husband really enjoys this, I like the darkest chocolate I can make or get my hands on.