|
Post by ochocolat on May 2, 2020 14:46:06 GMT -5
I am experimenting with making sugar free chocolate. I am sort of following the ingredients of Lily's chocolates who I believe has the best tasting sugar free chocolate out there. I am using Erythritol and Inulin, I have not used Stevia yet. I figured to keep the cooling effect from Erythritol at bay I cannot use more than 10%, but the question is what is the proper ratio of Inulin to Erythritol to get a good balance. Any ideas an suggestions are welcome!. Thanks
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 4, 2020 17:25:53 GMT -5
Are you looking to do a "bean to bar" chocolate, or just make a quick, cheap chocolate chip substitute for Lily's? (No judgment! It's where I started! 😉)
I've been making some really terrific sugar-free chocolate using Allulose with a touch of monk fruit to boost the sweetness. (Erythritol and Allulose have a similar "sweetness factor" at about 70% that of sugar.)
Swerve(tm) is (I believe) Erythritol and Inulin. This is supposed to be a 1:1 replacement. I would suggest you start with that and work from there. If you know how sweet inulin is compared to sugar, I might be able to help you get to a direct 1:1 replacement for sugar. I had to create a formula to balance allulose and monk fruit.
There are some other considerations. Since Erythritol is not as sweet as sugar, you either need more or something like stevia or monk fruit (inulin might, but I don't really know its properties). As you try to balance the sweetness, you end up changing the ratios of the other ingredients. This can become a vicious cycle as you may need to increase to cocoa butter to keep enough fat in the mix (which, of course, cuts the sweetness)!
Erythritol has its own inherent difficulties with digestive issues and the cooling effect.
I have also been experimenting with heavy cream powder instead of milk powder. It has less lactose, which helps keep the glycemic load down. I've made some really good semi-sweet and am working on a cream "milk" chocolate.
If you would like to try Allulose (assuming it's available near you), I can help with that.
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 4, 2020 22:44:48 GMT -5
Hi Jim,
First of all thank you for taking the time to reply, I really do appreciate it. I eat low carb and I am trying to make my own "keto" chocolate. I like Lily's but I would rather make my own. I am not really going bean to bar....more like chocolate mass/paste to bar, I know, I am cheating but it's faster. I have tried to make chocolate with Allulose a couple of times and ended up with a rather nasty bitter aftertaste...and for some reason, I don't tolerate Allulose very well, it gives me digestive issues. I have experimented more with Erythritol because I can tolerate it better than most sugar alcohols, but if I have too much it will send me to the toilet as well. I have had some success recently with a 1:1 ratio of Erythritol and Inulin...the Inulin seem to ward off the cooling effect from the Erythritol....to this mix I've added a very small amount of Monk Fruit, the alternative is Stevia, but I am not a big fan of it's aftertaste. I know it's a really tricky to get the ratios correct, but hey it's a challenge...one sweetener that seems promising, but I have not tried yet in chocolate is Bochasweet bochasweet.com. I've tasted in tea and its darn close to sugar, but it's expensive and some people report digestive issues with it too. I promise to come back and let you know what happens with Bochasweet. I've experimented with heavy cream, but because of it's fat content it can throw the consistency of your chocolate way off....I put too much in the grinder once and I ended up with a thick paste. Anyway...thanks again and let me know how your experimenting goes.
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 5, 2020 13:04:27 GMT -5
I've heard that many cannot tolerate Allulose despite the claim that it is not like the sugar alcohols! It makes me wonder whether there might be an allergy or something to fructose based sweeteners?...
Anyway, because Allulose and Erythritol have about the same sweetness, I thought this might be helpful: I use about 1/2 teaspoon of monk fruit for every pound of Allulose to make up the sweetness deficit. (I should note that I'm using SmartMonk brand as there seems to be a lack of standards! And that it says it is 64x as sweet as sugar.)
Let me know how the inulin goes. It looks like it is being added to foods for reasons other than its sweetness.
I'm not doing keto, but it's hard to find real diabetic sugar-free recipes. (Seems everyone thinks sugar, brown sugar, and molasses are fine.... just increase your insulin dose to accommodate it. But I'm not taking insulin! I'm thankfully able to control my blood glucose through diet & exercise.) Keto recipes give me a start at reformulating those treats I've been missing!
I'll be making another try at "milk" chocolate using cream in a week or two. I'll let you know how it goes.
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 5, 2020 17:41:52 GMT -5
Hey Jim,
I have read that Inulin is also used as a sweetener, as a matter of fact, Inulin is one of the ingredients in Lily's chocolates. Their recipe in order of quantities used are : Erythritol, Inulin and Stevia. Again, the ratios are a mystery but I read somewhere that it's best to use equal ratios of Erythritol to Inulin and very small amounts of Stevia because of its powerful sweetness. I also use SmartMonk, it's certainly powerful stuff, but it goes great in small quantities. If you want to experiment with Erythritol/Inulin/Monk Fruit let me know how it turns out...I am trying out the Bochasweet as well in different foods to see if I have a bad reaction to it. I don't want waste good chocolate if it's going to give me digestive problems on it's own. Anyway...I'll report back and look forward to hearing about your heavy cream chocolate.
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 6, 2020 7:40:35 GMT -5
Thanks for the info. I'm a bit curious about inulin - I had seen it used for another brand of sugar-free chocolate (although it wasn't very good!), but I have read that it doesn't have much sweetness - only 35% of sugar, which is half as sweet as erythritol. Are there varieties that are sweeter? As a bulking agent, I can see it being useful in baking. While allulose is superior to erythritol to add bulk, it can burn quickly at "normal" temperatures and it tends to add a certain "fluffiness" which may not be what you want in brownies or cookies! Adding inulin to erythritol would improve baking results. That being said, what effect does it have in chocolate making? Do you need to increase cocoa butter to improve (lower) viscosity? Are you adding it because it is in Lily's or for other reasons. (They might be using it as a filler!) I hope this doesn't sound like a "3rd degree" - I'm truly curious. (I'm curious about stevia as well...) Let me know how the digestive trials go.
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 6, 2020 14:19:13 GMT -5
Well, trials with Bochasweet are disappointing. The stuff tastes great, it's really 1:1 with table sugar, but the digestive issues are not good. I guess I have a fairly sensitive stomach. It might be too much information but Bochasweet gives you the most horrendous gas, I nearly killed myself with my own farts lol. Going back to the Erythritol/Inulin mix, I haven't done an official chocolate trial, I am waiting to get a micro-batch accessory for my Melanger so I can experiment in small quantities. I have been mixing the blend and adding it to hot beverages (tea) and yogurt etc. it really does go well together (with a little monk fruit added for good measure). I've tasted Inulin by itself, and it is sweet, it is not super sweet, but it has a pleasant sweet taste. I don't know if there are sweeter varieties of Inulin, I bought a 2lb bag on Amazon. I am not using inulin because it's used in Lily's, I've read that it is not only used as an added sweetener it also compliments Erythritol really well and counteracts its "cooling" effect...and I can tell you that it's true. So, once I make a batch of chocolate (I want to try milk chocolate) I'll let you know how it turns out.
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 8, 2020 7:57:00 GMT -5
Too bad about the bocasweet.
Let me know how the inulin goes. If you know how sweet it is, and the ratio you will use with erythritol, and the strength of your monk fruit, I can run it through my calculator spreadsheet to give you a starting point for how much monk fruit to the mix to get a match to sugar (or a percentage thereof, if you would want something like 80% as sweet as sugar). My only other thoughts with inulin are that it is used to add bulk in some recipes; how does that affect making chocolate?
I'm not doing keto, but it's hard to find real diabetic sugar-free recipes. (Seems everyone thinks sugar, brown sugar, and molasses are fine.... just increase your insulin dose to accommodate it. But I'm not taking insulin! I'm thankfully able to control my blood glucose through diet & exercise.) Keto recipes give me a start at reformulating those treats I've been missing!
I'll be making another try at "milk" chocolate using cream (with allulose) in a week or two. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm concerned that if I use enough cream to get a "milk" chocolate, that the "mouth feel" or possibly the taste will be "off."
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 8, 2020 17:57:48 GMT -5
Hey Jim,
The plan is to make 500 grams of milk chocolate and divide the ingredients equally, ie. 125g of each: cacao mass, cacao butter, milk powder, and sweetener. The sweetener I plan to divide it as follows: 50% Inulin and 50% Erythritol, and add the Monk Fruit to this blend using your 1/2 teaspoon per pound rule...because I don't really have a pound of sweetener in the recipe (I have about 4.5 oz.) I am going to add about 1/8 of a teaspoon of Monk Fruit and I may have taste it along the refining process to see if it needs more. Let me know what quantity you recommend of the Monk Fruit based on those numbers. Thanks!
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 9, 2020 10:59:34 GMT -5
Can you tell me how sweet the inulin is compared to sugar? That will make a difference!
I usually add the monk fruit to the melted cocoa butter to disperse it more evenly. It is so potent that, unless it get mixed enough, you might get "hot spots" of extra sweet! Adding as you go in those small amounts may be hard to mix it around.
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 9, 2020 13:57:34 GMT -5
Jim I am pleased with the results. I blended the Erythritol and Inulin and then added a little more than 1/8 of a teaspoon of monk fruit. IMO the flavor is spot on. Here's a picture....I painted the mold and added some roasted almonds. I call it my 5150 bar Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 10, 2020 12:30:05 GMT -5
Hi Jim, Look at the ingredients for this, other than the soluble corn fiber, it's the same sweetener recipe I am talking about.... Wondrose sugar
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 10, 2020 12:47:13 GMT -5
Hey, that really looks great! I couldn't get a calculation for you because I didn't find a good data point for the sweetness of inulin. And depending on which monk fruit you use it could be off by half or twice as much. If what I saw as inulin being 10% as sweet as sugar, and if your monk fruit is 50% mogroside, then a little more than the 1/8 tsp should be dead on. (Of course a weaker monk fruit with a sweeter inulin could get you there too! I'm glad it worked. Now for the digestive test....! I've read inulin can have a laxative effect! 🤢 I hope that's not the case!
|
|
Jim B.
Novice
Newbie
Posts: 118
|
Post by Jim B. on May 10, 2020 12:55:15 GMT -5
The Wondrose looks interesting. I wonder what the percentages are. The corn fiber surprised me. Personally, I enjoy corn products, but I see a lot of keto advocates won't touch anything with it. I just wish these things weren't so pricey.
|
|
|
Post by ochocolat on May 10, 2020 13:14:56 GMT -5
Hi Jim,
There's no reason to buy that Wondrose Sugar...it's easier to buy the Inulin, Erythritol and Monk Fruit and mix it yourself. As far as the soluble corn fiber in Wondrose I don't know why it's there....it doesn't add anything other than bulk. I also don't know what they mean by "Natural Flavors" ingredient...that could be anything...I would be careful
I am happy to report that I have no digestive issues with this blend provided I don't over do it and have way too much. My next challenge is to make white chocolate with this blend.....that may be a tall order, but I will try. I am thinking of making the blend in larger quantities (put it mason jars or something), since I am also using it for tea, yogurt and foods that need sweetener.
|
|