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  #1   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 02:37
susansmum's Avatar
susansmum susansmum is offline
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Posts: 28
 
Plan: Unsure yet
Stats: 150/132/115 Female 5ft4in
BF:31%/31%/20%
Progress: 51%
Location: Oz
Default SF/semi sweet chocolate??

Hi,

I have started on the SBD again and would like to know where to purchase sugar free or semi sweet/unsweetened chocolate. I have looked at some if the blocks of cooking chocolate in Coles and the carbs are huge!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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  #2   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 03:02
Rosebud's Avatar
Rosebud Rosebud is offline
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Posts: 23,882
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 235/135/135 Female 5'4
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Me again, Michelle,

Unfortunately I still haven't ever found unsweetened chocolate anywhere, but there are still options.

The best chocolate to use that is freely available in supermarkets is the Lindt 85% cocoa choc. It has 19g per 100g, which is still not exactly low carb, but it packs a big punch. I find it a bit too dark. Less dark, but of course a bit carbier is their 70% cocoa choc, but it has 32 carbs per 100g.

If you are desperate, there is always Cadbury Lite, which some people enjoy. I don't mind the taste, but trust me, I shall never, never eat it again. Sugar free chocs always seem to have sugar alcohols of some sort, and they (SA) give rise to all kinds of "gastrointestinal distress." For me, the Cadbury Lite produced wind which is indescribable in sheer volume apart from anything else... My DH will surely leave me if I ever try it again!

The other thing you can do is substitute some recipes with cocoa and butter.
Quote:
A one-ounce square of unsweetened baking chocolate equals 3 tablespoons of cocoa plus 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening or oil. Do not use butter or margarine. This is also the substitution for 1 one-ounce envelope of pre-melted unsweetened chocolate.
http://www.cce.cornell.edu/yates/5708.htm

Bear in mind that they tablespoons they refer to are American, ie 15 mL cf our 20 mL ones.

HTH!

Roz
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  #3   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 03:39
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EmmaB EmmaB is offline
Happy Loser!
Posts: 814
 
Plan: Atkins food, IF 20/4
Stats: 287/238/165 Female 5'7"
BF:
Progress: 40%
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default

The Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate from http://www.usafoods.com.au/ costs $9.99 per 8 oz (about 220g) plus postage. I've found it good for cooking. Each 1 oz square is individually wrapped and scored down the middle to split easily into two 1/2 oz pieces.

The ingredients are "chocolate, milk solids".

Nutritional Info for 1/2 oz:
Calories 70
Total Fat 7g
(Saturated Fat 4.5g)
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 0mg
Total Carbohydrate 4g
(Dietary Fibre 2g)
(Sugars 0g)
Protein 2g

I assume this conforms to the standard US labeling so the net carb count is 2g (Total Carbs - Fibre). So that's about 14g net carbs per 100g.

I ordered two packets from them online and they arrived 3 days later. Good service, no hassles at all.

Alternatively, you can buy much more expensive and presumably much higher quality chocolate (Unsweetened 99% Courverture Chocolate) from http://www.passthetoast.com which is an Australian site. The choclate page is here - $23.00 per 250g plus postage.

Ingredients: Cocoa liquor, vanilla, emulsifier (lecithin).

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Quantity per 100 g
Energy 2200kJ, Protein 10.9g, Fat, total 54.9g, - saturated 32.6g,Carbohydrate 27.0g
(-- sugars 0.5g), Sodium 10mg

Rosebud, I'm sorry I hadn't realised this info wasn't known by all the Aussies here, otherwise I would have passed it on sooner!

Emma
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  #4   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 04:33
susansmum's Avatar
susansmum susansmum is offline
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Posts: 28
 
Plan: Unsure yet
Stats: 150/132/115 Female 5ft4in
BF:31%/31%/20%
Progress: 51%
Location: Oz
Default

Substituting cocoa and shortening or oil sounds like a good (and less expensive) way to go. I have just bought a small box of Home Brand Cocoa powder which has 13g carbs per 100g. Only 1g is suger

Does this mean that I can make my own chocolate this way?

Will go and look for recipes that I can use the cocoa powder/oil/shortening substitute for.

Thanks for your help.

Oh PS I have seen the cadbury lite, but since I couldn't pronounce half the ingredients in it, I figured that my body was probably best without it
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  #5   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 10:42
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fatburner fatburner is offline
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Posts: 151
 
Plan: low low carb
Stats: 142/146/148 Male 177
BF:?/?/22%
Progress: 67%
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Hi Chocoholics. Cadbury Lite never gives me intestinal distress, but the aspartame in it always seems to lead to over- indulgence. Isomalt is one of the more intestinally benign S.A's but I'm sure it still gives some people strife. Besides, Cadbury Lite is milk chocolate. A bit of a waste of cocoa, don't you think? .
Anyway, you can get excellent unsweetened bakers chocolate in 5kg blocks for $75 from Jimele Distribution in Slacks Creek in Brisbane -38082037. From memory their delivery charge to anywhere in Brisbane is very low. If you're lucky they will have a broken block sitting around and you'll be able to get less than 5 kg's. In any case baker's chocolate, contrary to all popular advice, can safely be refrigerated for up to 5 years. The cocoa butter will migrate after about 6 months causing the surface 'bloom' we have all seen on refrigerated chocolate. But you'll eventually be making your own chocolate or using it in cooking which effectively reincorporates the cocoa butter anyway. If you keep it at room temp as all the chocolate wankers suggest, it won't last longer than a couple of months, or even at the 18 deg C experts (like Jimele) recommend, it only has a shelf life of about 18 months. After that the flavour of both the cocoa butter and the cocoa solids start to deteriorate. 18 month's is probably heaps for most people, but then 5 kg is a lot of chocolate. Bakers chocolate is about 50% cocoa butter. If you want to up the fat content you can also buy 1kg buckets of it from Jimele for $20. Jimele are the Brisbane agents for a Sydney based outfit - Apromo trading, who will direct non- Brisbanites to their other Capital city agents. There is another Brisbane based supplier of chocolate making stuff, including bakers chocolate - Kempe Australia. But the prices are a fair bit higher, and the guy who runs it is a bit of a twit. If you do go for the 5kg block and refrigerate it, it's a good idea to break it into much smaller amounts beforehand, and then make sure every piece is absolutely hermetically sealed. Moisture and air are both deadly to chocolate. Freezing increases bakers chocolate shelf life to about 7 years. But surely you can get through five kgs before that! Remember, you can't long term refrigerate the finished eating chocolate, only the bakers chocoate. If you are making your own chocolate, it is really important to gradually warm the bakers chocolate to prepare it for adding the sweetening. Microwaving, however gently, is useless. Hotspots will form and you will ruin the whole batch. The best way is to put a 25 watt light bulb in some kind of insulated enclosure (cardboard is ideal) under the bowl containing the bakers chocolate. This way of melting obviates the need to even stir it- even though stirring will speed up the process.

BTW. modern cocoa powder is fine enough to use for making chocolate without the gritty taste 'unconched' chocolate was notorious for. But you MUST use cocoa butter as the shortening. No other fat has a high enough melting point and your chocolate will be a puddle at room temp.
Tempering is an often neglected stage in successful home chocolate making. If you want chocolate that is hard at room temp, even using proper cocoa butter, you must temper the cooling chocolate. Commercial chocolate makers do this with sophisticated cooling , reheating, cooling again, reheating again and then finally cooling again to very critcal temperature profiles - pretty well impossible in a domestic kitchen. So if you want chocolate that sets in a mould, you will never be able to properly temper your own chocolate. But as long as you don't mind irregular roughly broken bits, you can easily and properly temper the cooling chocolate by pouring the still warm sweetened liquid chocolate onto a sheet of aluminium foil and then stirring the puddle gently with anything ( I use a bamboo skewer) for about five minutes until the chocolate crystals ( at a microscopic level) start to form and the chocolate really suddenly feels really stiff. Stop stirring it immediately and leave it for about and hour, after which you break the now hard and very glossy looking chocolate into bite size bits....... and start eating it . You will need to use erythritol (or some other sugar alcohol, but all the others are rubbish, so don't bother ) with whatever intense sweetener you are using - sucralose, acesulphame K , stevia, or saccharin - none of them work on their own.
Most home chocolate making stuff you learn in courses, on the net, or in books neglect the essential stage of tempering, probably because people seem to want neat little squares from chocolate moulds. Unfortunately without a programmable tempering machine you'll have to get over eating the regimented squares. It shouldn't matter though. Once you taste your own properly tempered home made low carb chocolate, you won't mind what shape it comes in

Last edited by fatburner : Tue, Jan-04-05 at 06:55.
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Jan-03-05, 16:25
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ausgirl ausgirl is offline
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Plan: atkins
Stats: 209/196/143 Female 161
BF:
Progress: 20%
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re fatburners comment'

Wow you sure know your chocolate!

Maybe you could make the chocolate for us and post it!
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  #7   ^
Old Tue, Jan-04-05, 07:09
fatburner's Avatar
fatburner fatburner is offline
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Posts: 151
 
Plan: low low carb
Stats: 142/146/148 Male 177
BF:?/?/22%
Progress: 67%
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ausgirl
re fatburners comment'

Maybe you could make the chocolate for us and post it!


What, and deprive you of the experience of making your own? It is really easy and the results are well worth the effort. I think its an essential life skill, like learning to tie a bowline .
Let's work it out. 75 bucks for the bakers chocolate, and $8 for delivery About 8 for the erythritol and 4 or 5 for the intense sweetener. So perhaps $100 for 5.2 kg of the best low carb dark chocolate money can buy. That's 26 200gm blocks, or under 4 dollars a block!
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  #8   ^
Old Fri, Aug-25-06, 19:03
Faw1001 Faw1001 is offline
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Plan: Atkins
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Does anyone know where I can get unsweetened choc in NZ? And what carb gms are the usually?
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  #9   ^
Old Thu, Jan-24-08, 04:00
judeann judeann is offline
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Default sugar free chocolate

Hi there,

I've noticed that the Empower food company sell unsweetened chocolate on their website and there is also Low Carb Zones website. The latter is probably the better. I've also seen them sold in some of the larger Woolworths supermarkets.

good luck
Jude
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  #10   ^
Old Thu, Jan-24-08, 08:16
Mama Lu's Avatar
Mama Lu Mama Lu is offline
Intermittent Feaster
Posts: 464
 
Plan: DSTSS
Stats: 280/188/175 Female 67"
BF:
Progress: 88%
Location: Canada
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This product—http://wellnaturally.com.au/info/sugar-free-chocolate—was mentioned on the IF thread recently. It's a sugar-free chocolate that's made in Australia, and all four flavours are under 5 gram for a 45-gram serving. It's sweetened with erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol, but it has no unpleasant side effects, and polydextrose. I'm envious; it sounds promising.
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  #11   ^
Old Thu, Jan-24-08, 21:33
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AussieTonz AussieTonz is offline
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Plan: Generic
Stats: 176/166/145 Female 5 foot 3 inches
BF:Yeah I guess
Progress: 32%
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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I don't use no sugar / artificially sweetened as the tummy rebels but I find the Lindt dark chocolate selection singles are a good fix for me - I think they are 70%. A square has 2.1 carbs but if you let it melt in your mouth one is usually the fix I need. Yum!
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  #12   ^
Old Sun, Apr-20-08, 17:03
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jetzx jetzx is offline
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Posts: 5
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 159/152/140 Male 173 cm
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Hi guys
i think you should give Sweet William Dairy Free Unsweeten chocolate a try, they come in 50g bars at coles nad safeway. Each bar contains 2.8g carbs or 5.6g/100g. It's made by an austrlian company, click link.
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  #13   ^
Old Fri, May-16-08, 01:25
MissVon MissVon is offline
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Plan: Generic LC
Stats: 150/150/114 Female 163cm
BF:28%/28%/17%
Progress: 0%
Location: Melbourne
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Hi, The" ...well,naturally" chocolate is fab, most health food stores have it (in Melbourne anyway) the mint crisp flavour is my favourite and half a 45g bar is enough (considering the 38% fat content)
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  #14   ^
Old Thu, Mar-19-09, 19:43
lilozzi lilozzi is offline
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Plan: LC re-start
Stats: 139/139/120 Female 166cm
BF:
Progress: 0%
Location: Australia
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I am also a fan of the 'well naturally' chocolate. My local health food shop stocks all the flavours, and they also have the milk chocolate variety too! I like the almond chip bar, 3.5g Carb per bar and I never manage to finish it all in one go.

What is the go on the sugar alcohol erythritol?
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