The BEST Sugar-free Dairy-free Homemade Chocolate Chips
These healthy homemade chocolate chips are possibly the best sugar free chocolate chips around. Seriously. They are not only dairy-free and sugar-free and low-carb / keto, but they taste amazing and are so easy to make.
I love making wholesome, allergy-friendly substitutes for many store-bought items, including Homemade Taco Seasoning, Easiest Coconut Milk, White Chocolate Chips, and Dairy and Sugar-Free Condensed Milk. One of the first recipes that I posted, and also one of my most popular, is my recipe for Homemade Chocolate Chips.
We make these fairly frequently in my home, but honestly, they almost never make it into cookies.
Once they're made my kids regularly ask them ....and since they are made with wholesome ingredients, I pretty much always say "yes."
The reasons that I initially set out to make my own homemade chocolate chips or homemade carob chips (we usually make them with carob so we don't get overstimulated from too much chocolate), were several.
Reasons to Make Your Own Homemade Chocolate Chips
Basically, the reasons are the same as they are for all of my make your own processed substitutes like:
- Powdered Sugar Substitute
- Moroccan Vinaigrette (this dressing is really good. A new recipe should be coming soon!)
- Homemade Protein Bars
- Homemade Egg Replacer
1. Control over ingredients
A lot of folks are on special diets these days, so more and more of us need control over what goes into our mouths. Here's how this chocolate chip recipe can help:
- there's no dairy in these chips!
- you can make these sugar-free. I use xylitol and stevia due to make a candida diet-friendly treat
- No trans fats in these chips (remember what those are? Partially or fully hydrogenated fat. Not good. Fake food)
- No artificial vanilla
- No soy
2. Cost savings:
I almost fall over in the grocery store or health food store aisle when I see the price tags on "wholesome" chocolate chips or carob chips. One bag of allergen-free chocolate chips that I saw the other day cost something like $4.59 for a 10 ounce bag....Whoa! That's $7.34 per pound!! Not on our budget!
3. Time Savings
Sort of.
Recently I've been having a kitchen-time epiphany of sorts.
I used to get really down about my messy kitchen and how much time I spend in it. But recently, I'm doing a little better about not getting down about the mess. A little.
Even if I spend a lot of time in the kitchen making whole foods, at least I'm not spending 1-3 hours in a grocery store with kids who bug me for stuff I don't want. (Really it's just my youngest who does most of that. He's a sucker for modern packaging.)
If you make your own everything (or lots of stuff....) you're saving time and money shopping. So you are probably going to buy less "impulse shopping" deals. Plus you get to save by not buying $3.79 / gallon gas, or whatever astronomical price it is in your neck of the woods.
4. Extra Bonus - Size Control
I personally like chips, but I really like chocolate chunks. You too? I figure it's a growing thing because now the stores are selling chocolate chunks. Well, guess what? It's a lot of work to make chocolate or carob chips, but with a knife and a cutting board, you can make chunks pretty easily.
Reasons I Revised this Recipe
1. Better Taste. My kids would say now and then that the original Chocolate Chip recipe was good, but they really didn't like it as well as they could.
2. More "Cookie Friendly". Like I said, the chips don't regularly make it into cookies, but when they have, mine have held together well. Like in my Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macadamia Cookies. (These are grain-free, sugar-free and great!!!)
A few readers have had trouble with this so I wanted to try another oil to see if they would do better.
And they did.
They taste great and hold much better for baking.
The smell of the cocoa butter, while it was melting, was a treat in and of itself and lends itself to a rich chocolatey flavor of the chips. My kids said that they were so good and tasted almost as, if not as good as, store-bought chocolate chips.
The Best Molds for These Chips
Most of the time I make Homemade Chocolate Chunks, but if you want to make cute Homemade Chips like those in these photos, get these molds!
You can also grab these super cute large chocolate chip molds--aren't they great?
Recipe Notes
- Where to buy oils. I am looking for a good bulk source for cocoa butter that won't break the bank and will be fresh. Most cocoa butter I found was $15/lb or more. This one works out to about $11 per pound and looks like a good source so I'd try that one for now.
- Carob vs Cocoa: You can use either for this recipe, making homemade carob chips if you use carob. However, if you use carob, you can reduce the sweetener since carob is naturally sweet.
- Sweeteners: Stevia extract seems really expensive, but it isn't! - what else would you consider paying more than $8 per ounce for??? Once you find you like it, you can purchase it in bulk. I purchase the 1-lb container and it lasts for a looooong time. You can find it for quite a bit less money on Iherb, one of my favorite places to shop.
These stainless steel mini measuring spoons from Amazon are super duper handy for measuring out stevia. The 2nd smallest is the size of 1/32 of a teaspoon so you can easily measure your stevia powder.
Alternatively, the Low-Carb Sweeteners here are really great and are a favorite of mine. Use code wholenewmom to get 20% off!
Need to substitute for the stevia? Here is my handy post on this fabulous sweetener.
- Sweeteners: I recommend powdering the healthiest granulated sweetener you can have. I've used xylitol as well as monk / erythritol blend and allulose works great too. This brand is quite reasonable and is made in the USA. For a low-glycemic sweetener, use 1/4 cup xylitol or 1/3 c organic erythritol. Approx. 2 tablespoons Homemade Truvia® would work well too. The stevia used is the equivalent of 1/4 cup of sugar so you can use sugar for that or another sweetener as you like.
- Parchment: You will have an easier time getting the chocolate / carob mixture out of the baking pan if you line it with parchment. I just choose not to do so because I'm
cheapfrugal. - Variations: For a yummy variation, add some extract like in Mint Chocolate | Carob Chips.
- Cocoa Butter: You can use organic palm shortening or organic palm oil instead of cocoa butter.
- Carob: You can use organic carob powder instead of cocoa, but cocoa is a better low-carb option.
- Coffee Substitute: You can use a coffee substitute instead of coffee.
Special Diet Substitutions
AIP: If you are on the AIP diet, use carob instead of chocolate and use an AIP sweetener like maple syrup, coconut sugar, or honey. I haven't tried these, but I'm sure the coconut sugar will work. You would likely want to powder it first, however.
THM: This recipe is THM:S using the low carb sweeteners.
Keto / Low-carb: This recipe fits both diets using a low-carb sweetener.
Paleo: Follow the AIP info above.
Vegan: Using most sweeteners, this will be a vegan recipe.
How can you use these Chips?
- Of course, in cookies and bars
- Eat them "as is" - like eating chocolate chips out of the bag
- Break into bigger pieces and use as a rough-shaped chocolate or carob bar
- Pour into candy molds like I did in my Healthy "Almost Reese's" Candy post and make candies any time of year. I purchased star-shaped silicone molds like these to use on the Fourth of July.
- Add to homemade ice cream like in Chocolate Almond Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream or Mint Chocolate Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream. With temperatures the way they've been around here, I will definitely be bringing out the ice cream maker soon!
- After melting, drizzle on top of fruit or dip fruit or other things for a special treat. How about chocolate covered strawberries? bananas? nut clusters? Endless possibilities.
- Drizzle on cake - this would be fabulous on a cheesecake. Take a look at these fabulous Dairy-Free Cheesecake Tarts from my friend, Ricki Heller. Instead of apricot, drizzle melted chocolate or carob chips on top - Yum!
Equipment Needed
Chocolate Chip Mold
or Baking Pan
Saucepan
Non DIY Alternative
If you still want to buy some sugar-free chocolate chips to have on hand for whenever you don't have time to make these (even though they are so easy to make), here are my favorite options
Lakanto
Lakanto has delicious sugar-free semi-sweet chocolate chips and you can get 20% off with code WHOLENEWMOM.
ChocZero
ChocZero has a bunch of delicious options for chocolate chips from dark to milk to white, and sometimes other options.
Code WHOLENEWMOM gets 10% off there. And they don't use sugar alcohols either.
Homemade Chocolate or Carob Chips ~ {Improved} (dairy, soy, and sugar free)
Ingredients
- 6 2/3 ounces cocoa butter (about 7/8 cup)
- 1 cup cocoa
- 1/4 cup powdered low-carb sweetener (see Recipe Notes for other sweetener options)
- 1/16 teaspoon stevia extract powder (or 2 scoops; see Recipe Notes above for more info on and alternatives)
- 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract (optional but extra yummy)
- 1/2 tablespoon granulated instant coffee (optional, but extra nice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt cocoa butter over very low heat in a medium pan.
- Transfer cocoa butter to a medium bowl.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix well. I have used my Bamix immersion blender with great success. You could also put the mixture in a blender, but it will be messier to deal with :-).
- Pour mixture into an 8x8 baking pan (other pans will work as well, but your chunks will be thinner or thicker, depending on the size you use.)
- If you want to make chips instead of chunks, pour into a chocolate chip mold.
- Let set to solidify, or chill in fridge or freezer.
- For chunks, use a knife or spatula to break large pieces out of the pan. Chop on cutting board to desired size with a sharp knife.
- For chips, push the homemade chips out of the mold when set.
- Store in a cool place such as the fridge until ready to use.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Coming soon -- a recipe for White Chocolate Chips. And maybe--a few will make their way into some cookies!
Hope you love these as much as we do.
How will you use these Homemade Chocolate Chips?
Can these be made unsweetened?
I think you could, yes. Let me know how it goes! They aren't sweetened much at all, by the way. Enjoy!
Are you just trying to avoid any sweeteners?
Hi any chance you could add in weights as well as measures?? I find things are far more accurate when weighed, thanks.
Hi there - so sorry about that. We'd have to go through and do it for each recipe. This one is very forgiving--we love it every time we make it even without taking care to measure exactly. Hope it works out well for you!
First time making them and just pulled them out of the fridge! Yum! I would like mine a little more sweet. This is a yummy dark chocolate to me. If I were to add more of the "sweetener of choice" would that ruin anything? So glad I found your recipe, because I buy sugar free chocolate chips at the store all the time for a treat and WOWza it gets pricey!
Thank you and SOOOO glad you loved them - sounds like as much as we do! Yes, you can do that! I KNOW they are $$$$$$$! Hope to see you around again! We are planning a sugar-free giveaway in my Healthy Living Community hopefully really soon if you're interested!
I made these for the first time today and they are really good! But I am not a huge fan of the flavor of cocoa butter. If I were to sub it with palm shortening, do I measure the palm shortening by cup (like the coconut oil version) or by weight (like the cocoa butter version)? I may even try doing half cocoa butter, palm half shortening! And I'll definitely add more coffee flavor. Thanks!!
I think the weights are really close but I would go w/ volume. SO glad you like them!