Friday 20 April 2012

Chocolate Icing

Dairy-free, sugar-free/low, low carb, paleo, vegetarian, vegan too.

I have been reading Mike Sisson's(with Jennifer Meier) "The Primal Blueprint Cookbook".  This is a beautiful book and full of wonderful recipes and ideas.  Technically it is a Paleo diet cookbook and so free from grain, uses natural sugars, meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, coconut and good oils like coconut, olive. 
I happened upon a recipe for chocolate truffles which I altered to being a sugar-free recipe and then thought that with a little more adapting it would make a wonderful chocolate butter-cream style icing or frosting which is dairy-free and would be perfect for cakes.
As with all my recipes feel free to substitute maple syrup or agave nectar for Joseph's sugar free syrup if you are OK with sugars.
I use Joseph's maltitol syrup because it tastes good to me, has a low impact on blood sugar and I can buy it in the UK,

You will need:

Food Processor
Saucepan
Bowl


Ingredients:

200g of 90% or for totally sugar-free 100% dark chocolate - I use 2 x 100g bars of Lindt 90% dark chocolate

2 x 160ml cans coconut cream - I use Waitrose Cooks' Ingredients Organic coconut cream because it is very smooth and creamy

one heaped teaspoon coconut oil - I use Biona organic coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt - ground pink himalayan rock salt is just wonderful

2-3 tablespoons (or a little more to taste if using 100% chocolate) Joseph's sugar free syrup - either the plain version or the maple syrup flavour as both work well.



Method:

Roughly break up the chocolate bars into their squares and put in the food processor. Blitz until the chocolate looks like crumbs.

Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan.
Add the coconut oil.











Bring to a simmer.  Stir.
Remove from the heat.
Add the salt and vanilla extract.
Start the food processor running and then pour the hot coconut mixture over the crumbled chocolate.  Run for about 10-15 seconds.
Leave the mixture for 30 seconds to allow the chocolate to melt then run the food processor again for another 10-15 seconds.  The mixture should be completely smooth.
Run the food processor again adding the Joseph's maltitol syrup.  Taste the mixture to see if it is sweet enough for you!
If it is then either pour the chocolate mixture over cupcakes - Ok to do as they have the cupcake case to catch the liquid icing - or into a bowl with a lid or non-pvc clingfilm over the top and place that in the fridge to allow the mixture to thicken.  It takes about 1 1/2 -2 hours.





The mixture is then ready for use just like butter-icing or frosting.
Bon apetite!

5 comments:

  1. Yummo! BTW I think the 85% Lindt bar has less net carbs per serving than th 90%, though I may be wrong since I don't have a bar handy. I absolutely love the Himalayan pink salt! It has such a great taste!

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    1. I have looked at a Lindt 90% bar which has 14g of carb per 100g of which 7g are sugars. I have run out of the Lindt 85% but do have a small bar of another brand of 85% cocoa chocolate in which the carbs are 17.1g per 100g of chocolate bar of which 13.7g are sugars. It looks like the 90% has a lower carb loading which would make sense as it has less added sugar.

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  2. Does the syrup texture itself lend something to the recipes that some other sweetener would not, ie., moistness or tenderness? Or do you think it would not matter, since I have access to liquid Splenda?

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    Replies
    1. To me Joseph's sugar free syrups taste good! I have adapted recipes and am creating new recipes using Joseph's sugar free syrups because I like them, they are 90% as sweet as sugar and naturally derived and current research suggests few side effects and if any occur they are short-lived.
      The powdered form of Splenda is many times sweeter than sugar and I have seen that the liquid version is too. As that is the case then you would need to calculate how much liquid Splenda to use roughly equating it to replacing sugar as directed on the packet- as Joseph's is 90% as sweet as sugar it is almost like for like. I think it is likely that you will use a lot less liquid Splenda than Joseph's sugar free syrup. If so you would need to add some other liquid if you are to achieve the same consistency as in my recipe. In this recipe you could measure the amount of liquid Splenda and make it up to the amount of Joseph's syrup with perhaps coconut cream. Do taste the mix to see if it is sweet enough for you though! Does this make sense, I hope so and if not do please let me know!

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  3. Makes sense. Probably won't be trying this any time soon, though; my life is really busy right now but, thanks for the feedback! I love Joseph's maple flavored syrup, but I have to buy it online and money is kind of tight. I have some granular erythritol that is also 90 percent as sweet as sugar that might work. Happy cooking!

    ReplyDelete