Fatty Chocolate

Hello, I would like to share something that I have been doing to make my chocolate even more fatty.
I take 2 100g bars of my favourite brand of dark chocolate, the darker the better,
then I melt it on the stove in a glass bowl,
I add one block of 250g lard to the bowl and melt it all together,
I then add a few spoons of xylitol to the bowl and mix it with a hand blender.
I pour it out onto a tray then put it in the fridge till it's hard again and voila! Double the chocolate and much more fat content!
It tastes creamy and soft.
My only issue is that the xylitol doesn't melt into the mix and it tends to sit at the bottom of the chocolate so it's got a sweet crunchy layer.
I tried doing this with goats butter but I really don't think it tastes good at all and it melts when it's out the fridge so I've stuck with the lard which holds together and travels quite well.
I guess you could do all sorts of things like add vanilla or coconut cream or you could pour the mixture over dessicated coconut and make little individual chocolatey balls in cupcake papers and so on.
Very simple to do and more cost effective than eating the chocolate bars by themselves.

Perhaps if you stir the chocolate mix in a bowl sitting in cool water, so that it becomes semi-solid first, you will get the xylitol mixed more even?

Yeah I could try that. I've never tried stevia before, perhaps that melts better.
Apologies, this was meant to go in the recipes section, feel free to move it if necessary.

lainey said:

My only issue is that the xylitol doesn't melt into the mix and it tends to sit at the bottom of the chocolate so it's got a sweet crunchy layer.

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Maybe it could help if you first make powder of the xylitol with a blender and then add it to the rest ingredients. And thanks for sharing your recipe.

lainey said:

My only issue is that the xylitol doesn't melt into the mix and it tends to sit at the bottom of the chocolate so it's got a sweet crunchy layer.

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Grind the xylitol to a powder in a coffee grinder first then add. Crunchy layer at the bottom gone!

This stuff is surprisingly delicious. It's like like proper melt in your mouth stuff. I'm thinking the addition of a bit of coconut oil may bring it as close to the taste of my favourite chocolate as a kid - ice cups :D Not sure how to get past the Xylitol issue, but i'm sure some of the culinary experts here will have some ideas - like ines says, maybe grind it? Added - Joe has confirmed ;) Fwiw, i dislike that stevia tastes like flowers.

Thanks for sharing Lainey.

Joe said:

lainey said:

My only issue is that the xylitol doesn't melt into the mix and it tends to sit at the bottom of the chocolate so it's got a sweet crunchy layer.

Click to expand...

Grind the xylitol to a powder in a coffee grinder first then add. Crunchy layer at the bottom gone!

Click to expand...

Hmmmm a good excuse to buy a coffee grinder and some coffee. Perhaps I could do coffee flavour chocolate! Thanks for the suggestion.

You can also add a little peppermint oil for some mint-flavored chocolate. If you can't afford a coffee grinder, stevia works just fine as a sweetener in this recipe.

Lainey, when I made chocolate, I would add the xylitol to coconut oil or butter in a double boiler first on low heat. It takes time and patience to wait for the xylitol to melt, but this worked best and I didn't get the crunchy texture unless I got impatient! I am wondering if you could do something similar using the lard, then once the xylitol is melted into the lard, add the chocolate into the mix.

Powdering the xylitol first does help it go faster!

... or maybe dissolve the xylitol in a bit of warm water first and then mixt that into the chocolate? I haven't tried that myself, but that's what I would do.

Joe said:

lainey said:

My only issue is that the xylitol doesn't melt into the mix and it tends to sit at the bottom of the chocolate so it's got a sweet crunchy layer.

Click to expand...

Grind the xylitol to a powder in a coffee grinder first then add. Crunchy layer at the bottom gone!

Click to expand...

This does work. I can attest. :D

Beau said:

You can also add a little peppermint oil for some mint-flavored chocolate. If you can't afford a coffee grinder, stevia works just fine as a sweetener in this recipe.

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I think you've hit the jackpot with this one! I love minty chocolate, I'm going to try this out next

nicklebleu said:

... or maybe dissolve the xylitol in a bit of warm water first and then mixt that into the chocolate? I haven't tried that myself, but that's what I would do.

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When you put in water into melted chocolate / couverture the chocolate gets sort of gritty / granular. You can still eat it though. I used to coat dates and other fruit / nuts with chocolate. But when I took too watery fruit like apples or of some water of the water bath accidentally got into the melted chocolate, it became gritty / granular. :/

The crunchy layer sounds quite palatable to me. Might be interesting to mix in some salt in the same way. Mmmmmm... texture. :)
Any added water will break the chocolate emulsion. You might try first mixing the sweetener in something already emulsified, like non-homogenized (cow fresh) heavy cream (if you are ok with using dairy). It blends nicely into warm chocolate.
Probably an egg yolk would work the same way, but I'm not sure about the food safety issues with raw yolks.

liffy said:

Perhaps if you stir the chocolate mix in a bowl sitting in cool water, so that it becomes semi-solid first, you will get the xylitol mixed more even?

Click to expand...

I don't have a coffee grinder but this has worked well for me when doing recipes with lard and chocolate. I usually leave the mixture in the fridge for a little while until it becomes creamy again, then I add the xylitol and mix it very well again. It's even better with a blender.

You can also use chocolate shapes to make some nice-looking chocolates, I really like that! :) I did it with regular ice-makers, but if you can get the shapes made of silicon, it makes it easier to take them out after you leave them on the fridge.

I've found that coconut oil changes the consistence of the end result, it's great but you get a softer chocolate (not so hard as with lard).