I know these rustic chocolate chunks don’t look very pretty, but. . . they are soooooo delicious! I ran out of my homemade chocolate stash this past week so I had to make more. I didn’t have the patience to hunt down my cute Easter molds that I got from amazon years ago like the ones here and make Eastery-looking chocolates. That will have to happen this coming week, in time for Easter. The best thing about these chocolates, regardless of how they look,  is that on top of being super yummy, they are not fattening, as long as you don’t eat them with carbs and exercise portion control ;-). Like, don’t eat the whole batch in one sitting! Which is hard to do by the way, because of the wholesome natural fat in them that is so satisfying and filling. Just stop eating when you are pleasantly satisfied, or barely satisfied, if you want to lose weight.

These are low carb chocolates. That means they are low on the glycemic index.  I used the recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook. You can see variations of the THM recipe here.  I like to use cocoa butter instead of coconut oil. I get it from iHerb.com for only $6, NOW brand. This is a super deal, as I used to pay $10 for the same size container at my local health food store, and on amazon the same stuff is over $9. I sometimes get different brands of cocoa butter other than NOW on amazon as well. The cocoa butter makes these chocolates taste like “real” chocolate when I do that. They are super easy to make and totally worth it to have on hand. A batch usually lasts me a week or so.

I melt the cocoa butter by gently heating the container it came in in a pot of water on low heat. While the cocoa butter is melting I get out a loaf pan and line it with wax paper or parchment paper. Then I mix the ingredients together and pour the mixture into the pan and set in the freezer for a few hours to harden. Then I lift out the wax paper, with the chocolate on top of the paper, peel the paper on the sides back,  and cut or break into chunks. Oh my! eating a chunk of this chocolate, or two, or three, after a THM S meal is the perfect crowning touch to a lovely, nourishing, dining experience. I love, love the slight salty taste from mineral salt (I use RealSalt) mixed in with the chocolate-y taste and the smooth, fatty, velvety cocoa butter taste. It all combines to make heaven in my mouth!

I’ve also made chocolates using the wellnessmama.com recipe here. Those aren’t low carb though because they are made out of honey. If all you have is honey and coconut oil, not any of the special THM sweeteners or cocoa butter, then by all means make some chocolate that way. I am a firm believer that God made chocolate for women to be happy! If you are at your goal weight, then eating honey is OK now and then, according to the THM authors, Serene and Pearl. But if you want to lose weight, they recommend avoiding honey and using sugar alcohol sweeteners and stevia. Some people do claim to have lost weight using more whole foodsy ingredients of honey or maple syrup, and some of them are in a Facebook group called “THM Whole Foods Style.” I know that Wardee, over at traditionalcookingschool.com, says that she is OK with using stevia, the Sweet Leaf brand, and that she lost 30 lbs on the diet.  So if you are a true food purist at heart, you might want to try the Sweet Leaf stevia, as the sweetener in your skinny chocolate. Forget the “doonks,” using a dollhouse-sized spoon for measuring the stevia! I have found that I need about 1 tsp of stevia per 1 tsp of cocoa because cocoa is so bitter. You will have to experiment with that, taste testing and adjusting before you put the chocolate to set in the pan.

Here’s a video of Pearl, one of the THM authors, explaining how to do another version of homemade chocolate. It’s a little bit different from the recipe I linked above in that it uses cream and peanut butter. Skip to the 5:17 mark if you want to get right down to the business of making chocolate with the recipe. The part before that is Pearl talking to her mom with some of the back story of the THM Plan, which is interesting but may be annoying if you have a chocolate craving that has to be dealt with right away! (Note, in the video Pearl recommends using NuNatural stevia, but it seems the general consensus around the THM community is that the company changed the way they make it and it no longer tastes as good as it used to. THM makes it own brand of stevia now, which you can find here, or you can find Sweet Leaf brand at your local Kroger chain, iHerb, or amazon.) Enjoy this recipe, and don’t forget to save some chocolate every week to chop up finely and use to make THM chocolate chip cookies!

If you want to branch out from making chocolate and want to try other healthful candy options, I love this post here by Wardee of “53 no junk candy” recipes you can use for Easter, or all year round.

Here are some variations of the THM Skinny Chocolate recipe here: coconut almond, peppermint protein, and peanut butter. Yum, yum, yum! I can’t wait to try those versions. Happy chocolate eating everybody as you get ready for Easter and then celebrate Easter! Remember, you can have your chocolate and still be healthy.