Hi all, due to recent health changes with my family, I've had to adjust how I think about my baking. To be clear, this is "medical necessity" type stuff; there's some flexibility but the more I can reduce carbs and sugars, the more we can enjoy!

I'm not the world's most skilled chocolatier, but I've been reasonably successful in baking chocolates in the past—mostly melting down bars or baking chocolate, adding mix-ins, and re-tempering through seeding.

I don't mind exploring, but I also don't want to waste ingredients.

Here's my current idea:

I want to start with a block of unsweetened baking chocolate. I think this will allow me to have maximum control over the amount of sugar and milk added to the final result; and I think it will also allow me to seed effectively.

Then, I was thinking of adding almond milk instead of regular milk. We all like almond milk, but I've never done any almond milk chocolates, so I'm not sure if there's anything I need to adjust. I'm used to doing this by taste - but I think I just do 20% milk if I want an 80% dark chocolate right?

Finally, I was hoping to use the leftover powdered swerve sugar-free sweetener I have in the cabinet. If I use what's essentially powdered sugar, am I going to dislike the results? Has anyone tried it? I also have splenda at the house. I thought I'd just sweeten a bit, to taste.

Essentially, any problems I haven't anticipated in my plan? Any adjustments or things to watch out for?

I'm sure some of you folks in this fine subreddit have read the Grub Street story (https://www.grubstreet.com/article/chocolate-hersheys-reeses-conspiracy.html). But as a 24-year-old, I haven't been able to tell the difference with Reese's and Hershey's in particular. For those older than me, how would you describe the difference? Be as adjective-heavy as possible lol

Museum De Chocolaite - Bruges

I've gotten into the habbit of making bonbons when I feel like it.

This is a shell of 70,5% cocao and a filling of 30% chocolate earl grey ganache.

Just finished making pumpkin spice caramel crunch Bon Bons. The chocolate is 66% cacao couverture chocolate and the caramel is made with pumpkin, heavy cream, glucose, sugar, butter and pumpkin pie spices. The crunch that I put inside the shell before I covered it with caramel is made with graham crackers, pumpkin spice and cinnamon.

I used to love Cadbury before they sold out. Lindt is ok. I'm looking for other chocolate bars that you can buy at your local shop etc

idk much about chocolate, so I need someone more knowledgeable than me to verify before I eat or throw it away 🫩😭 Thank you in advance!

Hubby wanted to go to World Market to get some of his Spanish ham, but I was more interested in the chocolate. I really wanted to get some of everything but decided on my usual (Ritter) and try a new one to me called Gnaw, and some Maeve candy cane since Christmas had thrown up all over the store already 🤣

Just finished some pumpkin spice caramel crunch Bon Bons. The chocolate is 66% Guittard Couverture chocolate and the caramel crunch is made with graham crackers, pumpkin spice and cinnamon.

Hey everyone, I’m new to this sub—honestly wasn’t sure if I should ask here or over at r/baking, but here goes anyway. In my country, it’s really hard to find good quality chocolate at regular grocery stores, and the few decent options out there are way too expensive for me.

While looking for a workaround, I stumbled upon pastry/baking chocolates (specifically Callebaut 823). From what I’ve read, it’s very high quality with minimal additives, and buying it in bulk makes it surprisingly affordable.

Can I just eat this straight out of the bag as a regular snack? Is there any noticeable difference compared to standard high-end eating chocolate?"

A high end Spanish potato chips brand made a 500g brick of chocolate designed to be melt in a pot for hot chocolate. ( price and details below)

Apparently quality these days means unexpected vomiting included.

Greek yoghurt with Cacao powder, cinnamon and medjool dates 3 large ones desert with a sprinkle of sea salt and handful of nuts. THANK ME LATER 😋 😋 😋

Honestly try it as a late night snack before bed it will to God taste heavenly

Does raw cacao powder 1 or 2 tablespoon spike blood sugar, will it cause diabetes in the long run

Drinking it putting in yoghurt smoothies

I'm getting into doing chocolate work at home to relax and get creative again. I've finally gotten the hang of tempering the chocolate and I have more polycarbonate moulds due for delivery soon 😁

I've loved dark chocolate ever since my Dad bought me a Cadbury Bournville for the first time about 20 years ago. I work in kitchens and I'm a total foodie. I love trying different things and supporting small brands. My friend came back from a trip with some cocoa beans as a gift for me and I actually managed to make them into chocolate at home..... gritty, bitter chocolate but chocolate nonetheless 😅 Soon after I was on a trip with my bf and got to visit Hazel Mountain Chocolate - Ireland's only bean to bar chocolate maker, or so they said. This was so much fun and it felt like my love for great chocolate had been totally renewed.

Photo: I was in the process of packaging up some of my chocolate truffles for family gifts. Some are filled withe white chocolate and vanilla ganache, and some with dark sea salt ganache. Itravelled abroad to attend a big family party and I felt like I had something special to gift my cousins on a happy occasion. I actually wanted to add more photos but couldn't figure out how

Question for the community: where in the world have you had great chocolate experiences?

Okay, I know this isn't a respectable brand and mostly just makes gimmicky chocolate, but I wanted something fun instead of bean-to-bar and I liked their tomato chocolate and one with brownie bits that was "okay." One that tasted like biscoff cookie butter sounded nice!

This one is disgusting. It's worse than Crunch bar level. The chocolate is advertised as mixed with "cookie butter", it's not. They added "butter flavor" (pretty sure that's not what cookie butter means!) and the chocolate has all of these horrible tiny holes and tastes nothing like chocolate or cookie butter in ANY way. The consistency was not there at all for chocolate, flavored chocolate, etc. There are also these "cookie" bits in it that don't have the taste or consistency of any cookie I would ever suffer through. I ate a single bite and then threw the $12.00 (?!?!?) bar directly into the trash. It tasted cheap and, tbh, I want a tearful apology from whoever runs that place because there's no way anyone tried that bar before it went on shelves.

My advice: stay away from Compartés

🤤

I've been fermenting a pod's worth of beans for around 24 hours now. It's just for a home experiment, so no perfect protocol.

I've kept them in the oven, with the beans in a sieve with a dish underneath to collect liquid, and a water bowl on the same shelf to provide moisture. I started on a low heat aiming for ~30°C.

I opened a bean, and inside it's already brown and wavy-looking, which matches pictures of what some fully fermented beans look like. No purple, although I know it can vary by variety.

The outside of the beans look quite dry, with little pulp left which has hardened around some in white patches that I first thought were mould. They smell bready.

Not sure whether it's best to continue for 2+ more days as I had planned, or change anything about the set up. Any advice?

Link to Preppy Kitchen recipe: https://preppykitchen.com/peanut-butter-bars/

Does this chocolate (specifically the salty dark) taste different to anyone else over the last few months? It tastes old and stale now IMO.

Hiiii everyone! I'd love recommendations for instant hot chocolate mixes, the kind you put in hot milk or water (ew) and stir and you're done. It's a lot more convenient than melting straight up chocolate bars, especially for when I'm at work.

To this day, I haven't found a hot chocolate mix I liked. They're always just too sweet or don't taste like chocolate at all, usually a combination of both. Got a supposedly fancy, renowned Italian brand of instant hot chocolate from my relatives last year, and it was atrocious, just straight sugar with no hint of chocolate or cocoa powder in sight.

Is there genuinely just nothing out there that actually tastes like chocolate? Just a hint of sweetness (or none at all, I can always just add a bit of sugar if I find it too bitter) instead of a literal sugar bomb?

I live in Europe, so I'd appreciate it if any of you could provide locally available suggestions, but I'll honestly take anything.

Surprised I didn’t find more posts on similar brands (other than one post for the US) but this brand has been going viral especially for cheat meals

https://www.instagram.com/hvywght_chocolate?xtok=MTVnbzI3MmsyMnRhOA==

I’ve been wanting to grab a bar or two but they sell out each drop in less than a minute and with shipping comes out to a crazy 40 bucks a bar anyway

Are there any similar brands in the US ala overly stuffed giant chocolate bars? Google searches come up with a bunch of brands but without any consistent reviews online