Chocolate Crème - A Versatile Low-Carber’s Delight (LC, SF, GF, DF)

Do you remember the insides of a Lindor Truffle? How about Ferrero Rocher truffles? Or, if you are familiar with German candy, Eisschokolade? How about Nutella?

Of course you do! After all, us low-carbers try our very best NOT to remember those things quite as much! Well this could change now!

You’ll find many applications of more or less the same recipe and method in this post. Try them all or pick your favorite!

But first, let’s get the basic method down. It’s not actually that complicated as long as you have a good blender. Even those little personal blenders will do.

Basic Chocolate Crème Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup neutral coconut oil (Tropical Tradition's expeller pressed Coconut Oil has barely any coconut flavor!)

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup of erythritol, powdered (or 1/3 cup of raw honey - no stevia, for paleo/GAPS/SCD)

1/4 tsp stevia extract

2 eggs

1 tbsp. rum (optional) or 1/2 tsp of any flavor extract you’d like

1/4 tsp instant coffee granules (or more if you’re aiming for a mocha flavor)

2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream (can be replaced with Coconut Cream to make it dairy-free)

Preparation:

Warm the coconut oil in the microwave. You want the oil to be all liquid and hot, but not boiling.

Now blend the eggs, the erythritol, the cream, the stevia and any flavorings of choice and process for about a minute. We want to give the erythritol time to dissolve a little. Add the cocoa powder and process again. Scrape down the sides if necessary. Now, with the blender running add the hot oil. If your using a personal blender, just add the lot and process very quickly. Basically we want to cook the egg with the oil but not scramble it!

You’ll know it’s happening when the mass turns into a fairly thick crème. About the consistency of nutella, but a the peaks hold better.

The whole recipe makes about 2 cups of Crème  @ 38g of carbs, 12g Fiber = 26g of net carbs for the entire recipe. That makes it 0.8g net carbs per tablespoon.

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And that’s your basic recipe! Now the fun begins!

You can now use this crème as is as a cake frosting, filling or brownie topping. It will firm up some in the fridge, but it won’t be really hard. At room temperature it’s a surprisingly fluffy topping icing that holds it’s shape nicely!

Or you could fill the crème into a Ziploc bag, snip a corner off and pipe it into an ice cube tray. Place it in the freezer to harden.

Once set, release them by dipping the underside of the ice cube tray into some hot water and pop them out. Enjoy them as Chocolate Candy (straight out of the refrigerator no less) or coat them in some melted chocolate (much like a lindor truffle!)

Or you can place the crème in a bowl and refrigerate to harden some.

Later use the smallest Ice Cream scoop to scoop out some truffles and roll them in unsweetened cocoa powder for some decadent truffles.

My favorite way is to push a roasted Hazelnut in the middle and roll them in oven toasted and chopped hazelnuts. It reminds me of Ferrero Rocher!

Or you could use it as Chocolate crème on your low-carb toast, or muffin, or as a chocolate/mocha filling in your crepes! Whatever tickles your fancy.

Or you could make ...

Nutella

Ingredients:

1 cup of choco crème

2 drops of Creamy Hazelnut flavoring (or to taste)

2 drops of Vanilla flavoring oil

1/4 cup Hazelnuts, toasted in the oven until fragrant and cooled

Preparation:

Combine the crème with the flavorings and stir well.

Place the toasted hazelnuts into a kitchen towel and rub off the skins.

In a coffee grinder, grind the hazelnuts as fine as you possibly can without turning them into butter. It helps to pause between pulsing, so the grinder can cool down. I found that it works the best to have the nuts frozen before grinding, so if you’re having trouble getting them fine, you may want to try that next time.

Sift the hazelnuts so you get only the fine parts. Then stir into the chocolate crème. Voila! Nutella!

If you don’t mind the nutty bits in your Nutella, you can also process this in your food processor!

Personally I like this to be as smooth as possible!

Unlike the regular Nutella, this does need to be refrigerated. If it gets too hard, set it out at room temperature for a bit before you use it or briefly (like 15 seconds) nuke it on the defrost setting of your microwave!
1 tbsp. of the above is around 1.8g of net carbs per tablespoon.

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And last but not least, it makes a fabulous addition to any ice cream!

Use any vanilla, nut or caramel low-carb ice cream. Once you processed it to soft serve stage in your ice cream maker, squirt in little bits of chocolate crème from a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off. Give it a quick stir and put it in the freezer for the final freezing. I also like to add some roasted nuts for a delicious ice cream variety!

So there you have it! One basic recipe/method - many applications! I hope you enjoy them!

Note to German readers:
You can also use this as the low-carb chocolate crème for the Kalter Hund/Kalte Schnauze cake. Layer it with any neutral tasting low-carb cookie in the usual fashion!

{Photo courtesy of Oetker}