refined sugar free chocolate: take one!

in my quest to find ways to eat brownies without succumbing to the sugar trap, i’ve decided to try making my own chocolate. here’s why:

1. a LOT of brownie recipes call for chocolate bars. most good chocolate bars contain refined sugar. i think it’s possible to make really good chocolate without refined sugar.

2. it’s really really hard to chocolate bars that are gluten, dairy and soy free. soy lecithin is a sneaky little ingredient that acts as an emulsifier in chocolate–essentially holding everything together to make it a solid. (i’ve mentioned this in other posts.) since soy is cheap in the U.S., it’s an easy to access cheap ingredient for companies to use. although soy lecithin is a derivative of soy bean oil, people with soy allergies often have sensitivity to it. technically, i do not have a soy protein allergy, but i’ve found that i’m extremely sensitive to soy and eating too much soy lecithin makes my body very grumpy.

3. making my own chocolate means i get to eat more chocolate more often and this makes me happy.

i started with this recipe. very fast, super easy. tastes amazing: like a dark chocolate peanut butter cup. just blend everything in the food processor and it’s a perfect fudgey chocolate dough.

make small little cups in a muffin tin and refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.

now the only issue will be trying not to eat all of them before i try to use them in brownies…