Chocolate is supposed to be good for you – if you can avoid the high sugar found in most chocolate. For years, I’ve gnoshed on the Lindt 85% dark chocolate, and though I never was a big dark chocolate fan, this is really good dark chocolate and I always buy it.
If you just can’t stand the thought of a dark chocolate, your options begin to rapidly go downhill. The problem with chocolate (and baking as well) is that the creation of the stuff is more of a science than, say, a stir-fry. If you get the proportions wrong, you’ve made a puddle of chocolate goo. This is part of the reason that you find sugar alcohols in a lot of low carb chocolate bars – and we all know that sugar alcohols are great as stalling Atkins dieters trying to do induction.
In the Great Low Carb Craze of 2003, when everybody was doing low carb, there were some OK chocolates. Yeah, they used sugar alcohols, or those chemicals that end in ‘ol’ – sorbitol, malitol, etc. These aren’t calorie-free, but they have less of an impact on blood sugar – a major bugaboo on Atkins.
Also – eating too much of the stuff could have a laxative effect – think Alli with a chocolate flavor.
I used to keep some bars in the freezer, break off 2 squares a night, and I was able to stay in ketosis. Did it slow my progress? Maybe, but at what point does a diet become so restrictive that life stops being worth living?
As I’ve mentioned in my about page, it did take some time to lost my 80 lbs, and I’m up 15 now, but I still look back and think a 65 lb. weight loss sustained over 5 years ain’t shabby.
The low carb chocolate you could find at your local grocery store is no more, however – low carb has gone underground, like the French Resistance in WWII. We now have to find foods that are only accidentally low carb – it’s almost as if the label ‘Low Carb’ is the kiss of death to a product.
Truth is – the low carb chocolates weren’t all that good. They were a bit waxy. Better than nothing, but about the quality of no-name Easter chocolate.
I’m sure that some of you will mention that there’s this great ‘chocolate bar X’ that I can order over the internet – but I don’t want to buy food over the internet. I know a number of you don’t have a choice in this because of your location, but I just don’t want to get in the habit. Call it a mental block – I’ve never bought low carb food over the internet.
So now we come to the item mentioned in the title of this posting. I was reading on one of the low carb forums about a chocolate ‘bark’ made of coconut oil, chocolate, and Splenda. I had purchased some coconut oil – without a clue what to do with it – based on a suggestion that some research points to coconut oil helping in weight reduction.
You can read more on all this in the forum post – I won’t attempt to cover it here. What I will cover is my version of the chocolate bark recipe. I used the following:
- 1 cup coconut oil, heated until it liquifies (it’s solid at room temperature)
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/4 cup granulated Splenda.
(As the proportions for each are 1/2 of the previous ingredient, it is easy to scale this recipe up and down without much calculating.)
I mixed these well and used the top of a large tupperware casserole as a plate, lined it with tinfoil, and poured in the mixture. I then covered the top with tinfoil (to prevent a God-awful mess from a shallow plate of chocolate goo pouring all over the inside of the freezer) and put in the freezer for a half-hour.
The result was unbelievably good. I had bought a high-quality coconut oil and there was no coconut flavor at all. It tasted like a high-quality milk chocolate, with the same texture.
It is a disaster waiting to happen as it melts quickly – care is advised with children and white slipcovers (from actual experience)
Dangers aside, this was a great find, and I’ll do this one again, most certainly.
While cocoa has carbs in it, cocoa is a great expenditure of your daily carb allotment, in my opinion. Probably safe for induction, if you don’t overdo it, but it’s so darn good you’ll have a hard time resisting ‘just another piece’.
Nutrition Information
I just love this ‘calculating’ part…not really. Anyway, if we assume that you’ll get 16 pieces of chocolate out of this, perhaps using one of those silicone ice cube trays to measure the stuff out in portion-controlled doses (which I was too stupid to do when I originally wrote this 5 years ago), I see you coming up with the following per little chocolate:
Calories: 140
Fat: 14g
Carbs: 3g
Net Carbs: 1g
Protein: 1g
Low Carb Confidential 
I’ve made something with similar proportions from another low carb site and used it to cover strawberries. Worked great. I meant to throw some nuts in and try but haven’t got around to it. I’ve done it with a low card chocolate off the internet that I won’t tell you about also.
Thanks for the recipe! I ran right to the kitchen to whip some up…’cause I was seriously craving some chocolate. This tastes great, and a little bit really satisfied the craving.
I did find that the granular splenda did not mix well, so next time I may try some simple syrup.
I’ve tried it and it serves it’s purpose for the craving. I bought some unsweetened coconut (hard to find) and threw some in for some extra chew. Thanks for the recipe…we’ve all gotta do what it takes to stay on track, ya know?
In my past life I was a mounds or almond joy junkie, so I always look for alternatives. At Walmart I found a box of Atkins Endulge Chocolate Coconut Bar that really tastes good. I usually hate any kind of “bar”, but this one is yummy…1g sugar, 3g net carbs, low-glycemic impact, ya da, ya da….
I use liquid dark chocolate stevia in place of the splenda, it mixes up quite nicely. I have tried mixing in peanuts, almonds, and macademia cashew butter — all 3 varieties were great. I will try the coconut next.
how much stevia?
The recipe I made used the granulated Splenda, which measures the same as regular sugar. It stands to reason that you should use as much stevia as you would need to approximate 1/4 cup of sugar. Do keep in mind that everybody’s sweet tooth is different, and 1/4 cup worked for me. Taste it as you mix in the sweetner so it works for you. Enjoy.
Regards,
LCC
best chocolate everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I put mine in the molds that you can buy at a craft store for melting regular chocolate, and am taking them to work tomorrow as treats for my boss ( who is diabetic and HAS to stay in the induction phase in order to control her diabetes) and my 2 co-workers (one is on atkins and 1 is not.
I found silicone ice cube trays for making long, thin ice cubes for water bottles – it works nicely. BTW – how do you travel with these? I find them more delicate than ice cream.
I love this recipe however I find myself eating the entire thing within two days.. Have you done math on the carb count? Wanted to track it in my atkins tracker app. Thanks
I added it to the post, Janean – a lot of people view this particular post so I figured if you’re asking, other will too – but are too shy to leave a comment (I get a lot of that).
I also recommend those silicone ice cube trays for freezing and portion control – way simpler than my original approach.