This Low Carb Dark Chocolate Candy will kick your cravings to the curb. Dark chocolate, pecans, and vanilla sea salt give this snack a great sweet-salty flavor. It’s the perfect snack or gift for every day or special days like Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Big Game Day and well, any day that ends with the letter “y”. I’ve seen them called a fat bomb but you can just call them a delicious candy treat.
For this recipe you’ll need: coconut oil, unsalted butter, Hershey’s Extra Dark Cocoa, erythritol, Stevia (these are my favorite sugar free sweeteners), pecans, and vanilla sea salt.
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Table of Contents
Is dark chocolate keto?
Yes. 10 net carbs are in 1 ounce of dark chocolate. For an average 2,000 calorie per day diet, you want to keep your net carbs to no more than 25. So 1 ounce of dark chocolate is 40% of your carb limit for a day. That means you can have 1 ounce of dark chocolate in a day, but you’ll need to really watch your carb intake for the rest of that day. But keto chocolate is kind of a fib because yes it’s keto but it does take up a huge portion of your daily net carbs.
Instead, you could make the best low carb dark chocolate recipe here yourself and be able to indulge as these have only 1 net carb per serving.
Is milk chocolate keto?
No. Milk chocolate is made of sugar and milk which makes it too high in carbs for a keto diet. The nutrition facts for milk chocolate show the first ingredients as milk and sugar. Both bad for a keto diet. Cocoa solids is what comes from cocoa beans after cocoa butter is extracted. Milk chocolate has less than dark chocolate. Have you ever tried to eat baking chocolate chips when making chocolate chip cookies? They are kinda bitter huh? That’s because baking chocolate chips don’t have the sugar that milk chocolate has so you taste more the of cocoa solids which are naturally bitter. So the sweetness you get form milk chocolate is really from the sugar and milk that is used to make it.
What is the difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate?
Milk chocolate’s primary ingredients are milk and sugar. Dark chocolate contains no milk. Dark chocolate contains cocoa butter which is the fat from the cocoa bean. Dark chocolate has more cocoa and has theobromine and antioxidants which are good for us. Theobromine can help reduce blood pressure and help balance your cholesterol levels. That said, it’s not as healthy as broccoli so moderation is key.
What about white chocolate? It’s definitely not what you want in a keto chocolate bar. The nutrition facts show it’s made of sugar, milk and cocoa butter with an emphasis on the sugar and milk. In the US for example, white chocolate can contain up to 55% sugar. 55% of that white chocolate candy could be sugar. Definitely not what I’d call keto candy.
Are there heavy metals in dark chocolate?
Yes. Consumer Reports recent research found lead and cadmium in most every popular brand of dark chocolate. Here’s a link to their test methodology. The good news is that there are very small amounts and not eating a ton of dark chocolate every day will mean you are okay to enjoy the flavor and other health benefits of dark chocolate. They do recommend pregnant women and children may want to avoid it. Further, the National Confectioners Association said they expect new handling practices to reduce the lead and cadmium that gets into the cocoa powder used to make the candy bars.
Low carb dark chocolate recipe backstory
I got some heart shaped silicone molds for Christmas and I have been wanting to use them but my time has been very limited.
I’ve also been doing some research on my thyroid issues and why low carb was really not giving me the weight loss results I felt it should have been. I found out that I have been eating too much protein! I had no idea but it’s not just carbs that can get turned to glucose in your body. If you eat too much protein the same thing can happen. So, I started eating about 75% fat and working the rest into a more keto diet. Amazingly I went into ketosis almost immediately and best of all, I wasn’t tempted by other foods.
I worked out every day like I had been. I do weights then walk on the treadmill and didn’t do anything else different. In one week, I have lost more than I did in an entire month before.
This low carb dark chocolate candy is amazing . Not just because of the decadent flavor, but because you really don’t want more than one. They are really rich. Like the richest dark chocolate bar you’ve ever had. You do have to keep them in the freezer or fridge because they’ll liquefy at room temperature. I like to leave them out for a few minutes to let them soften a little before devouring them, but you may like them right from the freezer.
They are super easy to make and I have a ton of ideas spinning around in my head now. You probably have most of the stuff that you need right in your pantry like sugar free sweetener. I use Hershey’s Extra Dark cocoa powder instead of sugar free chocolate chips. There’s just so much more flavor in the unsweetened chocolate powder and less other stuff in it.
Low Carb Dark Chocolate Candy with Pecans and Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil organic
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup Hershey’s Extra Dark cocoa
- 3 tablespoons Erythritol
- 1/16 teaspoon of white stevia powder
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Sea Salt if you can’t find vanilla use Fleur de Sel
Instructions
- Melt the coconut oil and butter together in a heavy pan.
- Whisk in the cocoa, erythritol, and stevia until smooth and well blended.
- Add some of the nuts to each of 21 silicone molds.
- Sprinkle a pinch of the salt in each mold, over the nuts.
- Carefully pour in the cocoa mixture.
- Place the molds in the freezer for 20 minutes, until firm.
- Pop the candy from the molds, put in a resealable plastic bag and store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Nutrition
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What brand and size are the molds you used? I am not getting close to the same number of pieces, so I want to get the same or a more similar mold.
Serving size 1? Do you have you have the macros?
I’ve just added them… Serving size 1. 0 Carbs.
can I delete ertrytol?
You’ll need some sort of sugar-free sweetener.
Can you differentiate between the erythriyol and the stevia? Is one liquid and the other powder? Or one granular and the other powder? Because stevia is erythtritol, isn’t it?
No. Stevia is a herb and erythritol is a sugar alcohol. They are very different.
Marye, congrats on your weight loss. No wonder, these candies look super healthy!
thanks!