Healthy Homemade Milk Chocolate (To Celebrate My 3rd Blogiversary!)
Healthy Homemade Milk Chocolate without the heavy cream, refined white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings and preservatives!
Chocolate addicts, BEWARE. This guilt-free DIY chocolate is sweet, creamy, rich, satisfying and as close as you can get to Hershey’s while staying au naturel!
I think this is the best recipe to celebrate my blog’s 3rd birthday. If you’ve been following Desserts With Benefits for a while, then you know allll about my dessert addiction. And chocolate addiction. And coffee addiction.
While Dark Chocolate is all fine and dandy, seriously now, it’s nothing like Milk Chocolate. Milk Chocolate doesn’t “snap” like the dark varieties, it’s soft and melts in your mouth. It’s creamy, it’s super sweet, and it’s totally addicting. Unfortunately, storebought milk chocolate isn’t good for you. Oh, but this one? This Homemade Milk Chocolate is:
Sooo I should need to tell you something. I’m not gonna lie to you or sugar-coat the truth. This recipe is weird. But in a good way, you know? You see, this chocolate is, well, seized.
Did I just hear you gasp? I bet the chocolatiers and professional cooks out there will now think of me as some amateur baker (I’m not gonna sugar-coat that either, I totally am an amateur), but trust me, even though you have to seize the chocolate in the chocolate-making process, you will still end up with a creamy and dreamy, delicious and nutritious, good-for-you and good-for-your-taste-buds chocolate.
CHOMP!
See how soft and fudgy it is? It doesn’t “snap” like dark chocolate, it melts in your mouth. Just like how ALL milk chocolate should 🙂
One bite and you’ll have a hard timing believing this Healthy Homemade Milk Chocolate is all natural, sugar free, dairy free and vegan.
No butter, milk or heavy cream, no soy lecithin, no preservatives, no artificial “vanillin” flavoring, no PGPR — just pure and natural goodness. Tastes like storebought chocolate, but this one’s actually good for you!
Indulge… sinfully sinlessly!
Healthy Homemade Milk Chocolate
Ingredients
- 4 oz Unsweetened Chocolate (broken into chunks)
- 128g (½ cup) Natural Almond Butter (or any other neutral flavored nut butter)
- ½ cup Powdered Erythritol
- tiny pinch of Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla Paste
- 1 tsp Natural Butter Flavor (this is all natural and vegan)
- ½ tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
Instructions
- In a double boiler, add the unsweetened chocolate and almond butter. Place over medium-low heat and stir occasionally until completely melted.
- While the chocolate/almond butter is melting, sift the erythritol and salt into a small bowl. Set aside.
- When the chocolate/almond butter is completely melted and smooth, stir in the vanilla paste, butter flavor and stevia extract.
- Toss in the sifted erythritol and stir together (the chocolate will seize, that's totally fine). Keep the mixture over the heat for a couple more minutes while stirring/folding. Make sure all the erythritol is dissolved and incorporated thoroughly. It should look like the picture down below.
- Remove from the heat and scoop the mixture into the chocolate molds of your choosing (I used a Hershey Kiss mold, a chocolate bar mold and a chocolate diet pill mold.
- Chill in the refrigerator until hardened (a couple hours or so), then remove from the molds and wrap in thin tin foil or cellophane wrapping. To store, keep tightly wrapped in the refrigerator.
- .
Recipe Notes
This Healthy Homemade Milk Chocolate is nutritionally balanced with a good amount of healthy fats, filling fiber and satiating protein. Unlike storebought chocolate, which has a whopping 30g of sugar (equivalent to 7.5 teaspoons of sugar), my chocolate doesn’t have any added sugar whatsoever. Supposedly chocolate companies have been making their chocolate lower in fat by using that strange “PGPR” additive. No thank you. Homemade is totally the way to go (plus it’s got more protein and fiber)!
To be quite honest, I was never really a fan of Hershey Kisses. Wanna know why? Because that darn foil was just a hindrance to shoving sugar in my face. But I’ve learned to be patient…
Just kidding. I still hate that foil. It’s evidence of our shove-chocolate-in-face sessions.
.
I just want to say that I am so blessed to have you guys in my life. Sometimes I stress myself out and focus too much on the recipes, the baking, the photographing (or at least, trying to take decent pictures), the responding to comments and emails, and so on, that I forget to tell you how much I truly appreciate you. This post, this recipe, the rest of my recipes, this ENTIRE BLOG, actually… it’s all here because of you. I am so grateful for you. Without this blog, I truly have no clue as to what I would be doing in my life. Throughout the years, a lot of people have asked me to share more about my life on the blog. I guess I’m not as open as some other bloggers out there, but I’m trying! So here’s a start:
.
10 Things That You Probably Didn’t Know About Jessica, the Blogger Behind Desserts with Benefits:
1. Every morning I wake up, I immediately think of breakfast. Like, the moment I open my eyes and lift my head off the pillow. Seriously, HOW did I ever skip breakfast back in my teenage years?!? To me, breakfast is just as important as coffee. And that’s pretty freaking important.
2. I’m not shy, I’m just reserved. I won’t walk up to you to start a conversation, but if you start one with me you probably won’t be able to get me to shut up (especially with a drink or two in me)
3. I suffer from chronic bitch face syndrome.
4. I get overwhelmed easily. Usually by the sheer amount of emails I get. I get soooo many from all you lovelies! And while I absolutely love reading them (they make me smile, they brighten up my gloomy days, they make me over-the-moon happy to do what I do here at Desserts With Benefits), sometimes I just can’t find the time to sit down and respond to them all in a timely manner. The reason I may not respond right away is because I will never ever ever rush an email just to get it out of my hair. You took the time to write to me, so in turn, I will take the time to write you back.
5. Most girls like to hang out at the mall to shop for clothes. I go straight to kitchen-related stores like Williams Sonoma, Sur la Table and Crate & Barrel, and look at (totally unnecessary) baking pans of all shapes and sizes. Seriously, who the hell needs mini heart-shaped cupcake tins, seven different bundt pans and cake pans in four sizes?? Apparently I do.
6. I cringe when I make spelling errors like its/it’s and their/there/they’re. Its terrible. JUST KIDDING, it’s terrible! Almost cried for a second there, phew!
7. I’m suuuper good at cleaning, organizing and budgeting (despite said vices in #5). I’m frugal and proud of it.
8. I started a new tradition in 2014 to donate 10-12″ of my hair every year. I’ve done it twice so far and I can’t wait until the next time I get to chop it off. My hair grows pretty fast, and since I don’t heat or process my hair at all, I never get split ends and everyone always says my hair is super soft and smooth.
9. Even though I’m so close to graduating, I still have no idea what I want to do after college (help!). Write a cookbook? Get a food truck? Keep blogging in my super comfy pajamas? Or, dare I say it, get a job? In all seriousness, though, I’m lost. Even though I’m studying Nutrition, I really don’t want to become a Registered Dietician anymore. And this is stressing me out. EDIT: I have graduated, I’m still blogging, and I got a job at a local gluten free/vegan/organic/local bakery. I have specific business plans now, but I just need to get my bearings before I take those big steps (and risks).
10. I’m really impressed by you reading all the way to #10! But really now, I appreciate you guys SO MUCH. I don’t really express my (virtual) love for you guys, but I need to. You make me so happy I want to cry! Tears of joy, of course. For now, here’s a (virtual) high five — DON’T HIT YOUR COMPUTER, bad things will happen — and a (virtual) hug. Just be glad this is virtual, because then you can skip witnessing my resting bitch face (see #3).
.
With love and good eats,
.
– Jess
.
Indulge − no strings attached!
One of your delicious Frozen Yogurts! 🙂
A smoothie! It would be soooo nice to have a blender that actually blended the kale instead of the chunks my current blender leaves me with! Or, I’ll make hamburger meat! Being a butcher, having a blender powerful enough to make chopped meats is very exciting!
First thing i’d make a juicy mouth-watering matcha ice-cream with banana and mango with this blender to enjoy it during hot summer days here. Then i’d make a perfect peanut mousse of tofu, i dream about it since you posted the recipe:)
The first thing I’d make would be an awesomely scrumptious roasted red pepper and goat cheese pasta sauce. I’ve got serious cravings, but my old blender broke down!
Jess, i laughed while reading this point “I suffer from chronic bitch face syndrome” :))) Me too! Everyone that i know told me at least once that he/she had thought i was all that bitchy before we had started to communicate)) But i’m not! ^_^
The first thing I would make is a healthy green smoothie – I know boring 🙂
Vegan ice cream!
awww yay locks of love! I know what you mean by long hair being a pain 😉
I loved reading your list of ten things, and I feel I can relate to many of them; for example, thinking about breakfast (alldayerryday), easily feeling overwhelmed, wanting to shop for baking things instead of clothes, donating hair, feeling lost about the future, but above all, feeling thankful. <3
And I feel so thankful for your incredible blog and amazing recipes, which I have relied on to brighten my days or satisfy my typically insatiable stomach. Truly, this space is so fantastic, I can't even imagine how you come up with the stuff you have and organize it so beautifully here. Love.it.to.death.please.never.stop.<3
all the chocolate fans, all the nut butter love (hinthintwhatiwouldmake)…the holy healthy dessert devotees
I’m so glad I’m not alone!! I’m trying not to stress about the future because I know whatever is meant to happen will happen 🙂
I don’t think I’ll ever stop posting recipes. I’m so blessed to be part of such a friendly (online) community!
-Jess
diy nutella!
I would make so many juices and smoothies. I am excited (:
I would definitely make ice cream!!
The first thing I would make would probably be a smoothie of some sort, because I know what I’m doing there, but then I’d go on to ice cream and soup and hummus and and and…so many options!
Almond milk for sure!
Loved reading more about you! I definitely prefer kitchenware shopping to clothes shopping 😉
I would love love love to win. First thing I’d make? Definitely a super duper giant smoothie with some tough greens and dates in there to challenge my new machine.
What an exciting giveaway! I am quite new to your blog but have pinned some of your recipes and look forward to reading more of them. I have been contemplating a new food processor for a while now because mine just isn’t good enough for what I want it to do! The first thing I would make would be my very own nut butter! Mmmmm
The very first thing that I would make with this awesome blender would be an apple pie chia smoothie!
I’d make a smoothie! 🙂
I love natural products (I even sell some) and recipes that don’t have chemicals!
The cake batter smoothie recipe sounds yummy!
I’d love to win this! The first thing I’d make is a super smooth green smoothie without lumps of kale 😉
I would love to win a BlenTec! The first thing I would make would be a paleo margarita!
Awesome! I would make one of those monkey shakes I’ve been seeing around – you know, bananas, nuts, drizzly chocolate sauce? Mmmmm! I’ve also been learning about soups made in blenders – truly epic and makes one feel all professional and stuff 😉
I’ve been craving a really good berry smoothie, but my blender doesn’t touch the seeds and they end up stuck in my teeth. With a more powerful blender, I’d be all about the berry smoothie!
Kale Green Smoothies! My blender can’t handle the kale. BUMMER!!!
I am a HUGE nut butter addict. The first thing I would make if I won this blender is the healthy nutella recipe on this blog. I’ve made nut butters out of virtually every nut possible (coconut butter is my favorite! – though technically not a nut butter) but I have never tried to make NUTELLA! It was my favorite thing on toasted whole wheat bread growing up, as a child of a super italian family. However, as I got older and started to understand the health benefits of what you consume, Nutella was cut out of my diet completely. I would totally LOVE to recreate a healthy version 🙂
Congrats on 3 years! I am happy to say that I’ve been reading from the beginning 🙂 I think the first post I read of yours was the banana bread experiment?
With this Blendtec I’d love trying my hand at homemade soup purees!
Or nut butter 🙂
Madison @ Eating 4 Balance-
Oh my goodness! I want to hug you!! 😀 I can’t believe you’ve been reading for THREE years… yes, my first post was my Banana Bread no.7 (now that you mentioned it, I should really post another Banana Bread recipe that ISN’T meant for a high altitude).
I haven’t tried making soup in a blender but that’s a good idea. And you can never go wrong with nut butter 😉
-Jess
totally with you there with the chronic bitch face! literally the worst. i didn’t know about it till a couple years ago and now i’m always SO aware of my face when i’m with people! it’s fairly exhausting.
i would make coconut butter!! i’ve been super into it lately cuz i did a whole30, but my food processor just can’t get it completely smooth. i’d probably make some fancy almond butter too – or your healthy nutella, i’ve been craving nutella lately which is really unusual but hey, if there’s a way to make it healthy i’m all in!
Definitely healthy nutella and various nut butters… YUM!!
I would make some yummy ice cream!! Love making healthy ice cream with frozen fruits and the Blendtec is perfect for that!
– Rachel
Congrats on your blog anniversary! It is defiantly a tough road to start up a blog but once you get it going it is non-stop busy fun!
The first thing I would make in my blender is a super antioxidant kale, spinach, pineapple smoothie!
found your site looking for a nutella recipe and have since made about 10 things.
First thing I’d make in the blender is walnut butter and quinoa flour… utilitarian, but the entry point to all things DWB
Awesome giveaway! Would love to make delicious Ice Cream! How fun would that be?!
I would make peanut butter-banana ice cream! Yum! : )
I would make salsa
A smoothie!
It is so hard to choose but if I had to it would be ice-cream! Wanting one of these since I was about 5! It would literally be a dream come true!!
I probably would make an ice-cream. Perhaps with bananas and strawberries!
I’m in my 50’s and still stress about where I’m going in life. People seem to think only the young stress about their future. My advice is to try to relax and enjoy the ride because that’s what makes up the grand adventure called life. Oh yeah, it never hurts to incorporate plenty of chocolate while you’re at it. I think I would break in my new blender with something, ANYTHING chocolate! Thanks for the healthy recipes.
I want to make a smooth green smoothie.
I want to grind up some marbles 😉
haha just kidding…I’d make some otherwise difficult to make creamy items like nut spreads and cheezes
I would make smoothies.
The first thing I’ll make will probably be to grind up my own flour…and then maybe a smoothie 🙂
I would make ice cream!
YUM!!! Love milk chocolate 🙂
For me, it would be a smoothie, hands down! I loveeee smoothies!
Smoothies !!
The first thing I’d make is a delicious smoothie!
I would want to make ice cream first, in my hopefully new blender!
Definitely a green smoothie, but then I’d make baby food for our daughter for the first time!
The first thing I would make with the Blendtec blender would have a vegetable soup. I’ve tried making soup in my Ninja but it just doesn’t compare to what can be done with the Blendtec. 🙂
I would totally be making frozen fruit smoothies first thing with the blender!