Chocolate 'bark' with coconut oil

[Kevinpa]

After making this a bunch of times, my preference to sweeten this is a powdered erythritol/splenda quick pack mix.

[metqa]

I just ordered a bottle of something called "EZ SweetZ(sp?)" I figured i could use that in such a small recipe, but it is just sucrolose with no flavor, so i guess I'll try whizzing my Xylitol.

Thanks, Jacksmixedtape, for the tip about that!! I decided to add the Xy because I heard it can help maintain bone density and protect teeth, and since it is kinda cool and minty feeling it would make the chocolate taste better. With the CO, That makes 3 healthy things in one treat.

[Cynthia12368]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

After making this a bunch of times, my preference to sweeten this is a powdered erythritol/splenda quick pack mix.

Hi Kevin,

Would you pleaese post your exact Bark recipe? Also, doesn't the Chocolate Bark get bitter with the Splenda? Please let me know.

Thank you.

[Kevinpa]

Yes,splenda by itself is a bit bitter in coconut bark which is why I mix it with powdered erythritol. You will have to look back but I have at least 4 or 5 recipes eariler in this thread.

[beachbumwannabe]

Here's another variation....

3 T coconut oil
1 T natural peanut butter
1/2 T cocoa
1 T vanilla Da Vinci's
1 T unsweetened coconut
1 t vanilla

Melt together coconut oil and peanut butter, whisk until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and whisk again. Cool and enjoy!

[metqa]

I'm hoping to make a few peanut butter balls. then i can pour a little chocolate bark in the bottom of a mini silicon muffin, let it harden, then place the peanut butter balls in the center of that and pour the rest to cover the ball. . . peanut butter cups?

[vonnygirl]

Originally Posted by metqa

I'm hoping to make a few peanut butter balls. then i can pour a little chocolate bark in the bottom of a mini silicon muffin, let it harden, then place the peanut butter balls in the center of that and pour the rest to cover the ball. . . peanut butter cups?

Wow, now my mouth is watering!!!

[jigglenomore]

Subscribing!

Elaine

[metqa]

I made a new batch using 2 drops of EZ-SweetZ, 5 drops of vanilla extract, 1 1/2 T cocoa, and 4 T coconut oil. I poured a little bit into the bottom of a mini silicon muffin shape and put it into the freezer to set up. Once it became solid, I put some almond butter in the center. . .

( I actually ran out of almond butter and used a prepackaged sample I got from a store that was blended with maple syrup, I'm sure I could make my own using pure almond butter and SF syrup or sweetener, anyway . . .)

I pushed it down to flatten it and spread it almost to the edges but leaving room for the chocolate to cover. I then poured the rest of the liquid chocolate to surround and cover the Almond butter, then chilled it till solid.

It tasted great out of the freezer, but maybe I will let is warm to room temp a bit since the chocolate snapped when I bit it since the center was softer. Delicious. I love PB cups. Now with no SA. Yay!

BTW, I made them six at a time since the coconut chocolate divides nicely between that many cups and I have a mini muffin pan that has six spaces to nicely hold the silicone cups. They pop right out!!

[Tweaker Geek]

Great idea metqa, I love pb cups too! I don't have the silicone cups but I do have the mini paper cups, mini muffin pans and a pb cup candy mold. Don't ya just know I'll be making these real soon!

Let me know how the chocolate holds up at room temp..

[metqa]

Update: It may not be such a good idea to let them come to room temp. The chocolate is just fine but as it is more slippery at room temp, the nut butter oozes out that much more easily, Whoops!

I always liked my PB cups straight from the freezer anyway, I just remembered. I'm not going to eat the whole batch, I'll let a couple stay in overnight to see how the nut butter handles being actually frozen inside the chocolate. But I doubt, under normal circumstances, they'd last long enough to get frozen

I still can't believe I'm eating coconut oil and liking it. It feels so naughty. I told my BF, "I guess I shouldn't have more chocolate", then I said "wait a minute? I'm Supposed to eat all of it! That's my daily dose." He said, "Your chocolate is a supplement?" How mixed up is that?

[Cynthia12368]

Help, please! I made some Chocolate Bark yesterday and when I tried it this morning it was SICkLY SWEET. I wanted to use the combination of Powdered E and a Splenda quick pack but the only recipe that had those measurements contained cream cheese and I was making just basic Chocolate Bark, so I sort of combined parts of different recipes. Can someone please suggest how I can correct my mistake and cut down on the sweetness? Should I just melt it, add more Coconut Oil and then chill it again? Here is what I used:

3/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup extra dark Hershey's cocoa powder (4 carbs)
1/4 cup powdered erythritol (or it might have been a 1/2 cup, I can't remember)
1 Splenda Quick Pack

[lisabinil]

Originally Posted by Cynthia12368

Help, please! I made some Chocolate Bark yesterday and when I tried it this morning it was SICkLY SWEET. I wanted to use the combination of Powdered E and a Splenda quick pack but the only recipe that had those measurements contained cream cheese and I was making just basic Chocolate Bark, so I sort of combined parts of different recipes. Can someone please suggest how I can correct my mistake and cut down on the sweetness? Should I just melt it, add more Coconut Oil and then chill it again? Here is what I used:

3/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup extra dark Hershey's cocoa powder (4 carbs)
1/4 cup powdered erythritol (or it might have been a 1/2 cup, I can't remember)
1 Splenda Quick Pack

Too much Splenda Quick Pack-that equals a whole cup of granular Splenda sweetening. I would cut back here. It's 3.3 carbs for the Splenda Quick Pack.

[Cynthia12368]

Thanks for your reply Lisabinil. To correct what I have already made do you think I should add another 1/2 cup of Coconut Oil or more?

[amadeus4313]

I have a question about the type of Coconut oil. I am a soapmaker and I buy coconut oil by the drum for my soapmaking. Would this work just as well?

[crazywoman-n-wy]

Originally Posted by Cynthia12368

Thanks for your reply Lisabinil. To correct what I have already made do you think I should add another 1/2 cup of Coconut Oil or more?

[COLOR=red]Cynthia, I would add both more coconut oil and cocoa. Sorry, I'm not sure how much at this point. Sorry, I just can't think what the amounts would be....[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000]Maybe someone else can suggest...[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000]But I would also add more cocoa, or you will still have a very sweet concoction.[/COLOR]

[Cynthia12368]

Thank you crazywoman-n-wy for your suggestion. I will give that a try.

[Soobee]

Amadeus4313, I bought some coconut oil at Whole Foods. It was in the cosmetic department. You can use it as long as it's food grade. It should say so right on the labels.

[amadeus4313]

Thanks so much. I'm guessing it would be food grade, but I will check with my supplier.

[lisabinil]

Originally Posted by Cynthia12368

Thank you crazywoman-n-wy for your suggestion. I will give that a try.

How did it turn out?

[Cynthia12368]

I turned out much better. I added between half a cup and a cup more of Coconut Oil and a few more teaspoons of cocoa powder and some heavy cream. It is still sweeter than I would like but I can tolorate it. Next time I make it, I will add the cocoa powder and the sweetner seperately so that I can taste the sweetness as I add it. Is it just me or does the sweetness intensify as it cools?

Thanks again.

[Tracey40]

How did you enter into ****** for the original recipe?

I made the recipe with CO, cocoa, splenda and walnuts last night - very good!!! It could become addicting so I best not make it that often! LOL

Just looking for a breakdown unless I need to gather all information and then divide and put in per serving in ******?

Tracey

[metqa]

I entered it into fit day for two recipes. One uses two packets of splenda and the other uses two drops of EZ-Sweetz

the First is 4T oil, 1.5T cocoa, sweetner and 5 drops of vanilla extract which I rounded up to a teaspoon in ****** ( I have no drop conversion table)

507 cal, 55g fat, 7g carb, 2 g fiber, 1g protein, 1g alcohol, (5g net carb)

Using the sweetZ it is : 499 cal, 55g fat, 5g carb, 2g fiber, 1g protein, 1g alcohol, (3g net carb)

I didn't include the nuts or nut butters in the counts, this is just the chocolate. If you use a different sweetener you'll have to figure for that. The EZ-Sweetz claims zero cal, zero carb, and it doesn't taste bitter at all so I'm sticking with that. I'll have to find another use for my xylitol.

I divide mine into six mini cups, but I eat all of it usually. If I don't eat it all I just enter a fraction amount, like .66 servings cause I consider all of it to be a serving for the day.

[metqa]

REESE CUP FILL CANDY

1 lb. butter
2 c. peanut butter
2 1/2 to 3 c. 10x sugar
3 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugar until consisting to form balls the size of large marbles. Add melted chocolate and paraffin in double boiler. Dip balls in chocolate using a toothpick to dip and place on wax paper.

I found this recipe in Cooks.com, and since I want to keep making the nut butter filled cocoa bark cups, I'm going to try to make a nut butter filling. This uses SO MUCH sugar that I'll bet it affects the consistency. Almond butter is thicker than peanut butter though I'm afraid without the sugar the butter would make it too loose. I guess I will experiment a lot since I make it one batch at a time each time.

BTW, does anyone feel guilty about eating this stuff? I mean, I read someone saying they wouldn't make it too often cause it was addicting. Isn't the coconut supposed to actually be good for us in the first place? If you make a lot of "chocolate" out of 4T of oil, and you are supposed to take 4T of oil each day, then isn't o.k. to eat All of it? I'm also assuming you makes only one days worth each time so that once it's gone you'd have to get everything out and make it again which would be embarrassing to one's self control.
What say you?

[PghPALady1974]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]I always forget about making this stuff. I made a batch yesterday. I put unsweetened coconut flakes in mine. I may have to make another batch to leave in the freezer at work. If I say it's low carb nobody will touch it! [/COLOR]

[Tracey40]

Originally Posted by metqa

I entered it into fit day for two recipes. One uses two packets of splenda and the other uses two drops of EZ-Sweetz

the First is 4T oil, 1.5T cocoa, sweetner and 5 drops of vanilla extract which I rounded up to a teaspoon in ****** ( I have no drop conversion table)

507 cal, 55g fat, 7g carb, 2 g fiber, 1g protein, 1g alcohol, (5g net carb)

Using the sweetZ it is : 499 cal, 55g fat, 5g carb, 2g fiber, 1g protein, 1g alcohol, (3g net carb)

I didn't include the nuts or nut butters in the counts, this is just the chocolate. If you use a different sweetener you'll have to figure for that. The EZ-Sweetz claims zero cal, zero carb, and it doesn't taste bitter at all so I'm sticking with that. I'll have to find another use for my xylitol.

I divide mine into six mini cups, but I eat all of it usually. If I don't eat it all I just enter a fraction amount, like .66 servings cause I consider all of it to be a serving for the day.

Thanks!

[Cocapelle]

I made two batches yesterday. This batch,
4 Tbs coconut oil
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbs sliced almonds
1 tbs SF Davinci Banana Syrup

I used hazelnut, and it didn't have much flavor, and wasn't sweet, like a candy bar.

Then, I made Kevin's recipe, using walnuts and walnut extract. It was better, but, the erythritol didn't dissolve. I guess, instead of just melting the coconut oil, it should have been hot. I don't know, but, it left it gritty. Had better flavor, though

[mauitammy]

Marking my spot for future reference. Thanks for all the recipes and advice everyone!

[metqa]

Hmm, I've got some Cooking with Calcium-Calcium Gluconate (It blends in tastelessly to almost everything)

Silly me thought it would be a great Idea to make my cocoa bark have extra calcium. Idiot me put the whole Tablespoon in Not only did it come out gritty, but it seemed to swallow up the sweetness!

So I'm eating this batch with almond butter, and I've decided that plain roasted unsweetened almond butter is sweet and tasty enough that I won't bother mixing it with butter and sweeteners anymore. Next time I make my filled cups I'm gonna add it straight from the jar! YUM happy accident discovery.

Plus I think I like the Special Dark Dutch Cocoa Better, My cups look almost black and tastes delectable.

[metqa]

WOW, I just had one of my Dark Chocolate cocoa bark pieces with plain almond butter for the first time and It was so perfect. Before it was just like candy the chocolate was sweet and kinda dwarfed the nut butter. However the dutch cocoa with the same amount of sweetener, tastes much more mellow and smooth and makes the natural sweetness of the nut butter excel! This has got to be the best tasting candy I've have had!

I won't always be making them with the nut butter filling so this will be a treat worth looking forward to. Actually with the Dutch one, I didn't even fill it, I just dipped it in the butter and chomped it.

BTW, I don't know if it is the CLA or the CO, or the ton of vitamins I took before work today, but I am feeling a bit more energy, when I feel it. my low energy times still plague me. I'm thanking the CO for a lot of it, since it keeps me from feeling ravenous when at work surrounded by HIGH ENERGY (SUGAR) POWER HEALTH BARS