Homemade - sugar free chocolate

I ate way too much chocolate over Christmas. By the time I'd eaten some tree chocolates, the box of Belgian shells my in laws always buy me and helped my Husbeast with his selection box off his parents I had a monster headache which started on Sunday and still hasn't gone away.

I haven't had a headache like this for a year or so now and I think its probably been brought at least in part by sugar. After all there wasn't just the chocolate, there was cake, mince pies, Christmas pudding...

I don't think we have a particularly sugary Christmas compared to some, but this was the first time I iced my Christmas cake which wont have helped.

The trouble is I love chocolate and I know any resolutions I make to stop eating it will never last. I easily go months without eating crisps, biscuits, cake etc but chocolate and cheese are my downfall.

So yesterday I tried to make some sugar free chocolate, the recipe does have honey in it as a natural sweetener but I know from experience my body can handle honey better than sugar.

Coconut chocolate

150g of coconut oil

150g of cocoa powder
150g of honey
2-3 drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Put the coconut oil into a glass mixing bowl and balance it over a bowl of just boiled water. Stir until it in fully dissolved. Then add the other ingredients and whisk until smooth and glossy.

Pour the mixture into moulds and put into the freezer to set. Apparently this should take 2-3 hours, I know I had a look after about 4 and they were fully set.

This chocolate needs to be kept in the freezer to keep it solid. I made it in a silicon muffin mould and it filled six moulds. I think this is too big a quantity as the mixture is quite rich.

The chocolate is still soft despite being frozen and I would imagine it would end up a sticky mess if it was left out of the freezer for too long.

It is very sweet, more like milk chocolate for sweetness levels than dark chocolate as I'd imagined it to be. Although the taste underneath that is more dark than milk. Personally I think I could reduce the amount of honey in the recipe as it asks for a lot, so for my next batch I will try cutting down and see how it works. If it does work with less honey it will also work out a lot cheaper.

I think I'm going to try and get hold of some silicone ice cube moulds, or something smaller. I think an ice cube sized piece of this whenever I get a sweet craving could work very well.

It can of course be customised to your favourite chocolate tastes. The vanilla extract could be swapped for mint or orange. You could add raisins or nuts etc. Its quite a versatile recipe. I fancy having a little bag of these in the freezer in lots of different flavours so that I get a lucky dip when I eat one. 

Update on the deodorant: I spent the day at work today in our sauna of an office (my boss likes the heat turned up really high) and I don't feel sticky or sweaty at all.

I did do a half hour workout when I got home and I felt a little sticky after that, the only smell was of mild coconut though and I just applied some more of the mixture and felt fine after.


If you liked reading my post please subscribe to it using the drop down menu at the top right, or leave me a comment

Homemade - deodorant

Today I made some deodorant. I don't like the idea of some of the chemicals in shop bought deodorants, but I haven't found any alternatives that work so far.

I've been reading a bit about coconut oil and baking powder as an alternative and decided to try this combination:

6 teaspoons of coconut oil
4 teaspoons of baking powder
4 teaspoons of cornstarch
10 drops of lime essential oil

The coconut oil was quite hard to get out of the jar as my kitchen is a little cold. I had to keep scraping it out and packing it into my teaspoon measure until I had enough.

I then mashed the mixture together. Everything I had read said to use a fork, this didn't really work for me. Instead I got my fingers in and squashed it all together until it formed a paste.

Coconut oil melts at body temperature which meant I did end up with some on my fingers so I just rubbed that into my hands as a hand cream, which it isn't too different too. I found the mixture didn't sink in as quickly as some hand creams, but it wasn't too heavy and oily which was a good start as I am concerned about marks on my clothes when using this.

I had an old black plastic cosmetics tub which I filled with the mixture and I rubbed a little under my arms. I haven't exactly had an energetic day today. I've spent most of it in front of the computer or knitting, with a little side trip to B and Q for some plaster board, drainpipes and lino floor tiles (yes this is how I take advantage of the January sales!).

So far I can tell I've used something, I certainly don't feel sticky like I would if I hadn't used anything. I will have to see how it holds up to my regular daily activities. Even if I can only use it on relatively inactive days, as someone with ME/CFS I shouldn't have too much of a problem using it up.

If you liked reading my post please subscribe to it using the drop down menu at the top right, or leave me a comment