A Chocoholic's Crisis

[Seeking]

I do looooooooooooooooooooooooooove chocolate, and I'm sure many of you on this board are right there with me. But I'm having a crisis. I recently attempted 2 cake recipes using Now Foods Organic Cocoa Powder, unprocessed and non-alkalinized with all the caffeine, theobromine, flavanols and polyphenols still in tact.

And it hurted me!!!! Ouch! I did 2 different cake recipes; the first had 1/2c and the second had 1c. I had mild pain with the first one and a lot more pain with the second one.

Headache, neck pain, back pain, pain in my arms, dizziness, hardened stools followed by diarrhea. What's going on here?

Is it the caffeine? Is it the theobromine? Is it the flavanols or the polyphenols? Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!!!!!!!!!

This doesn't happen to me when I consume 60% and 72%% cocoa Ghirardelli bars!!!!!

[CarolynF]

What sweeteners did you use?

[Seeking]

Originally Posted by CarolynF

What sweeteners did you use?

Good old cane sugar. Never had that reaction from cane sugar though. I was gonna start out the recipe with cane sugar and then substitute on later versions with Stevia. I always try cane sugar on the first attempt to see if the recipe is going to be any good.

[rosethorns]

Gosh that's the way I get when I can't handle food (the suspect). But I'm allergic to a lot. Only my blood sugar will drop to the floor.

I bought some All Natural Egg White protein powder ( hormone and antibiotic free). That was so bad I just wanted to cry. The feelings I got were horrible.

I hope you feel better.

[Seeking]

I just got off the phone (again) with Now Foods regarding their organic cocoa powder; turns out that 1 slice of the cake I made has a fraction of the amount of caffeine found in a Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bar; so it isn't the caffeine.

It appears that the flavanols in the non-alkalinized chocolate are doing it to me. I wonder if anyone else has had this experience?

[Soobee]

Ae you sure it's the cocoa? Are there any other ingredients in the recipe which could be the culprit?

[Seeking]

Originally Posted by Soobee

Ae you sure it's the cocoa? Are there any other ingredients in the recipe which could be the culprit?

Pretty sure it's the cocoa, as I don't have problems with the other ingredients.

Cake Recipe:

1 cup butter - softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
10 eggs (at room temperature)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups coconut flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Now Foods Organic)
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup milk or half n half
Coconut oil

Icing recipe:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Now Foods Organic)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

[Soobee]

That's an awful lot of coconut flour (fiber). Have you ever had any trouble with that?

[Seeking]

Originally Posted by Soobee

That's an awful lot of coconut flour (fiber). Have you ever had any trouble with that?

I don't know; I suppose I should try and make this cake again without the cocoa powder to see. Would it even taste good if I did that?

[Charski]

Why not try making a one minute muffin or something single-sized that calls for the coconut flour, and see if THAT is the culprit?

If that doesn't bother you, then try making another one minute muffin with the cocoa powder - that should give you your answer!

[jm23]

i would be more suspect of the coconut flour and oil. I know a lot of people love it, but I tried the dark chocolate type fat bombs with it in the past, and it immediately gives me an upset stomach and almost flu type symptoms.

[That Girl]

coconut flour does that to me if I have too much in a recipe. I would think that amount of coconut flour would be impossible to mix given the amount of liquid that was used.

[ladeeda]

Yep, the coconut flour. I can get away with an 8parts almond flour to 1part coconut flour. Jennifer's Gluten-free mix also is okay with the small amount of coconut flour.

[Seeking]

Originally Posted by That Girl

coconut flour does that to me if I have too much in a recipe. I would think that amount of coconut flour would be impossible to mix given the amount of liquid that was used.

I had to add like 3-4 more cups of water to make the recipe work...it was too thick to mix before adding all that extra water.

Why is it that I keep finding recipes that fail? Is it me being a dummy or is it the recipe?

[Soobee]

There's a learning curve in dealing with all these new ingredients. When coconut flour first came out, we all tried to substitute it 1 for 1 with other flours with disastrous results. You will get the hang of it. At least it's probably not the chocolate bothering you. Thank God for that!

[Seeking]

Originally Posted by Soobee

There's a learning curve in dealing with all these new ingredients. When coconut flour first came out, we all tried to substitute it 1 for 1 with other flours with disastrous results. You will get the hang of it. At least it's probably not the chocolate bothering you. Thank God for that!

Learning curve indeed. But regarding the chocolate, the jury is still out until I'm done with Charski's suggestion:

Originally Posted by Charski

Why not try making a one minute muffin or something single-sized that calls for the coconut flour, and see if THAT is the culprit?

If that doesn't bother you, then try making another one minute muffin with the cocoa powder - that should give you your answer!

Making coconut flour muffins without cocoa, and wheat-flour based chocolate muffins; they are in the oven. We shall see in a while which one is causing me the problem...