Substitutions in cooking

newbies
science
food
chocolate
(Mg ) #1

Good day
I do sweet keto sample bags for friends and newbies.
Small keto blueberry muffins, fudge, Carmel peanut butter chocolate frozen Reece cups, homemade chocolate chip cookies. People say my products are incredible.

I am adding a new one to my sample pack.
Homemade cookies and creme candy bars.
This is the link… https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/sugar-free-white-chocolate-bars-low-carb-gluten-free/#pinit
I want a zero carb bar and I think I’ll achieve it.
Questions

  1. Is heavy cream powder the same as powered coffee creamer? I realize the difference in ingredients. I just need to know if it’s the same in cooking white chocolate? I have access to zero carb vanilla powered coffee creamer. If it is similar but you don’t think it will work, can you be specific why?
  2. Can lecithin be a substitute for xanthan gum in cooking white chocolate?
    If not can you explain why?
  3. Is cocoa butter cacao butter? I’m confused?
    I ask because I experiment to produce the best product I can.
    With these answers it saves me precious money, time and aggravation.
    Hope I get a chef or chocolatier knowledgable in keto.
    May not be easy. Asking a lot.
    Thank you so much in advance
(Bob M) #2

Holy crap, that website is terrible. For me, it puts a huge video advertisement over the recipe, making the recipe unreadable. I’ll never go there again.

As for white chocolate, I use a recipe I make for my kids that uses cacao butter, coconut milk powder, powdered vanilla, salt, a sugar substitute (swerve).

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #3

Wouldn’t know without trying… I would think the fat content would be most important.

Lecithin is usually found in generic chocolate candy. Usually made from soy. 1 net carb per TBsp

Is cocoa butter cacao butter? I’m confused?

It is the same.

(Mg ) #4

Thanks so much. Following the recipe the gentleman posted. Looks easier. :rofl:

(Mg ) #5

OK I put those ingredients in and the recipes came up. That is a nightmare that site. Thank you so much for your input.

(Betsy) #6

ctviggen, would you mind listing amounts of the ingredients in the white chocolate recipe?
Thank you

(Bob M) #7

Let me see if I can remember to do that. I have the book at home.

(Betsy) #8

Thank you

(Bob M) #9

Shoot! Forgot last night. Set an alarm this time.

(Betsy) #10

That’s okay, these things do happen. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Bob M) #11

Here’s the white chocolate recipe. If you make many fat bombs, and we still make them sometimes although I eat lower fat now, the book is Martina Slajerova, Sweet & Savory Fat Bombs. I weigh everything in grams.

6 ounces/170g cacao butter
1 cup/4.2 ounces/120g coconut milk powder
1/3 cup/1.8 ounces/50g powdered erythritol or swerve
2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla powder
pinch salt
few drops liquid stevia, to taste/if you want

You melt the cacao butter in a double boiler, remove from heat, add everything. Then put it in food processor 30-60 seconds or until smooth.

What I do is put everything but the vanilla (I use powdered) and stevia in the hot cacao over the boiling water. I think this provides better absorption. Then, I take it off the heat, add the vanilla and stevia (my kids like it sweeter), and then put it in the food processor. I pour into a glass measuring container that has a pouring lip, then from there into molds.

It might help also to stir with a wooden spoon right toward the end. It can get a little gritty, even with the food processor.

For my tastes, I would back off the sweetener. But since my kids eat these, mainly, I don’t.

(Betsy) #12

Oh thanks, I appreciate that. I like recipes that don’t have a long ingredients list.

How are you feeling eating lower fat? Did you raise protein?

(Jane) #13

I don’t really care for the taste of coconut. I know, I’m weird.

What could I substitute for the coconut milk powder?

(Bob M) #14

@betsy2 Years ago, I read Jimmy Moore’s book (Keto Clarity) where he advocated eating higher fat. What I found was that higher fat was not really satisfying. Then, I bought a CGM to test whether high protein would cause my blood sugar to go up. Many of those tests were done with low fat protein sources (eg, shrimp, mussels, lean beef).

I found I liked lower fat better. For instance, I switched from eating pepperoni to eating ham. Right now, I’m testing higher protein again. I do like it, but I’m also more muscular than many and I’ve gained a ton of strength during covid. So, I’m a prime candidate (male, muscular) to do higher protein.

If there’s one topic that tends to sets off arguments in the keto space, though, it’s protein. My experience may not be the experience of others, so, as always, it’s beneficial to test things on yourself.

@janie I don’t know of a substitute for coconut milk powder. I’m not sure what function this serves, and we had to buy it on the Internet to even get it. Coconut milk powder mainly fat with a few carbs.

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I will say that the white chocolate has no coconut taste I can discern. I am not known for my tasting skills, though. If my wife and I go to eat out and each of us orders a different red wine, I can tell I like one better. But I can’t tell that one has more of one flavor than another. I’ll never make a chocolate or wine critic.

If I had to guess the function of the coconut milk powder, I’d say it’s to add some smoothness to the final result. If you have ever had just cacao butter, it’s really hard. I assume if you use only cacao butter, your chocolate would be very hard. You’d have to add something to increase the creaminess. I’m not sure what that is though. Butter? MCT oil? (But if you don’t like coconut, that might not be good either.)

#15

I used butter in chocolate (or what I call chocolate, I don’t use cocoa butter as it’s very expensive, hard to get and I didn’t like its taste when I tried. I just use coconut oil - but I can’t make a nice white chocolate) before and it was nice! I probably would use coconut oil and cocoa butter together when making this recipe… And milk powder instead of coconut milk powder as I dislike coconut flavor in my chocolate too (I tried coconut milk powder in it, maybe not the flavor was the only problem but I wasn’t happy with the result). Yeah, milk powder is very very sugary, so? I had 20% sugar wine on keto before, it’s all about the amounts :smiley: (Of course if someone is sensitive to it, that’s another matter.) It’s easy for me as I stopped wanting chocolate so my consumption is near zero all the time. But anyway, I rather eat a few grams of something I like than a lot from something I don’t. And I can’t imagine another substitution… So I would use milk powder or just forget about it. Milk chocolate has a subtle flavor but even dark chocolate can’t mask the flavor of coconut milk for me…

(Bob M) #16

I was going to add butter to one batch to see what it’s like.

I got the idea from some dark chocolate with “browned” butter my wife got me. That chocolate was great, though a little higher in sugar (70 or 72% chocolate, I believe). I’d try the browned butter, but I’m not sure my kids would like that.

When I try the butter, I’ll see if I can remember to report back.

#17

That’s a nice percentage, I never liked anything above that. But of course I don’t want the totally pointless and worse sugar (I don’t even need sweeteners for my chocolate… not like I often fancy chocolate but it’s fun mixed with mascarpone or whipped cream. that’s what I had in the absence of milk chocolate, another type of chocolate I just couldn’t make). That’s why I make my own almost-chocolate that is way below 50% cocoa powder and zero cocoa butter (and usually zero sweetener but a tiny bit is fine too). I like my “sweets” quite fatty and I don’t often eat my chocolate alone.

Browned butter sounds great, keto caramel starts like that, at least the recipe I know (my first batch was perfect. I never could make anything similar again, it’s a tricky thing. oh well, caramel isn’t needed for life).

(Betsy) #18

Thanks, Bob, I will make them today.

I am not too rigid in my thoughts on the best diet. Everyone’s body is different.