The Ultimate Dairy-Free Sugar-Free White Chocolate

Jump to recipe

This is the ultimate sugar-free white chocolate recipe! That’s a pretty big claim, so let me tell you why. First of all, this white chocolate is dairy-free, making it suitable for anyone who avoids dairy. Plus, this recipe contains well-tolerated natural sweeteners: stevia and erythritol. No sugar, no artificial sweeteners, but still plenty of great taste. And better yet, this recipe calls for only 4 ingredients and is super-easy to make. Read on to find out the secrets—and the story!—behind this Ultimate Dairy-Free Sugar-Free White Chocolate recipe!

Tips for making the Ultimate Dairy-Free Sugar-Free White Chocolate

This is a very easy recipe to make once you remember a couple of things. When melting the ingredients, use a low enough heat so that you won’t burn the precious stuff. I prefer using a saucepan, but you can also melt the ingredients in a water bath (bain Marie). It’s a slower method, but also gentler; there’s no danger that you will boil or burn the delicious chocolate.

Another thing: when you pour the liquid chocolate mixture into the mold, be sure to mix it in between pourings. Otherwise the powdered erythritol might sink to the bottom of the saucepan and all of it will end up in the last well in the mold. Yuck!

That’s it: no gimmicks needed when preparing this chocolate. So, let’s take a look at how to make it:

First, have all your ingredients ready. It’s easy: equal amounts of cocoa butter and coconut manna, and then sweeteners (powdered erythritol and vanilla stevia) to taste. For the best flavor, add some vanilla powder as well (but not too much! A pinch is enough. I found out the hard way: you can read about my failures below…).

Then, take a saucepan and add the cocoa butter…

…coconut manna…

…powdered erythritol…

…vanilla stevia…

…and vanilla powder, if using.

Place over a very low heat, constantly mixing.

Let the mixture melt, but don’t let it boil.

When the ingredients are well-combined and completely melted, remove from the heat.

Pour or spoon into your preferred chocolate mold. (Silicone molds work best.)

Let set in the fridge overnight, or, if you are in a hurry, freeze for 2 hours or until properly set. The freezer method is actually safer: it’s easier to remove the chocolate from the mold when it’s frozen.

Remove from the mold and serve. Store in the fridge. Enjoy!

My sugar-free white chocolate experiments

I actually developed a sugar-free white chocolate recipe for my Low-Sugar So Simple book because my readers had a desperate need for good-quality sugar-free white chocolate. Finding high-quality commercial sugar-free white chocolate is close to impossible. And when you do find one, they stop manufacturing it just when you find you love it and decide to use it regularly in your recipes and link to it in your blog posts (like KZ Clean Eating white chocolate, which used to be my favorite sugar-free white chocolate. Sadly, they don’t make it anymore). So annoying.

So I think we can agree that it’s best to make your own sugar-free white chocolate. That way you don’t have to depend on the whims of a third party. When you make it yourself, you get just what you want, whenever you want it. Besides, homemade chocolate is healthier: you don’t need to add any of the weird stuff (like unhealthy sweeteners or preservatives) that commercial versions might contain.

Those few commercial sugar-free white chocolates that do exist (or that have existed, like the KZ Clean Eating version) usually include milk in one form or another. There are some low-carb white chocolate recipes on the web, but they also tend to use milk products—and lots of (undesirable) additional stuff, too.

When experimenting with homemade white chocolate for the first time, I tried some versions made with cocoa butter and vanilla-flavored whey protein, but the result wasn’t satisfactory. The whey protein made the chocolate so sticky: it really stuck to my teeth! I didn’t want to use milk powder because it has some carbs, so I thought whey protein would be a nice low-carb option for adding that “milky” feeling to homemade white chocolate.

After some initial failures with my experiments, I decided I wanted to create something even better: a dairy-free and sugar-free white chocolate for those who either don’t tolerate dairy or who simply want to avoid dairy products.

For the Low-Sugar So Simple book, I made several experiments. To get a chocolaty taste and consistency, I naturally used cocoa butter. However, at first I made the same mistake that most of the sugar-free white chocolate recipes on the web did: I used coconut oil. Two words: Not. Good. I could taste the coconut oil and the consistency was too soft, even when I only used a little bit. I want my chocolate hard and nicely crunchy, not oily and soft, thank you very much!

I was pondering and pondering the situation. How to add that milk-like touch to dairy-free, sugar-free white chocolate? Coconut cream? Nope: the result would probably be too wet. How about coconut cream powder? Well, it’s difficult to find, and it usually contains some carby stuff like maltodextrin. Out of the question.

Then it suddenly occurred to me: coconut manna (aka coconut butter) is rich, creamy, tastes great and is low in sugar even though it has a naturally sweet taste. And in terms of texture, it’s kind of hard, yet spoonable. Maybe it would work?

Luckily, I had coconut manna in my pantry (I often have some coconut manna with dark chocolate for a snack). So, for my next experiment, I used 2 oz (60 g) cocoa butter, 2 oz (60 g) coconut manna, 1/4 cup (60 ml) powdered erythritol, and 25 drops vanilla stevia. (White chocolate cries out for vanilla, so I decided to get my much-needed hit from vanilla stevia.) To balance the sweetness, I also added a pinch of unrefined sea salt.

I combined the cocoa butter and the cocoa manna in a microwave-safe bowl and heated them carefully until they had melted. Then I added the sweeteners and the salt and mixed well.

I poured the liquid mixture into a chocolate bar mold and placed the mold into the fridge. The next day, I eagerly checked the result. The chocolate looked good: hard and crunchy, just the way I like it. It was fridge-cold so it was naturally crunchy. At room temperature, the chocolate got slightly softer, but not as soft and oily as the version made with coconut oil.

The taste, then. Well. To my surprise, coconut manna provided just the right amount of milky creaminess and richness. However, the chocolate was far too sweet! 1/4 cup (60 ml) powdered erythritol was clearly too much, so I had to reduce the amount drastically. I could even feel the cooling effect of the erythritol because I had used so much of it. Maybe I could experiment with the amounts of cocoa butter and coconut manna, too, to ensure that my chocolate had the very best flavor and consistency.

For my next experiment, I used 2 oz (60 g cocoa butter), 1 oz (30 g) coconut manna, 2 tablespoons powdered erythritol, and 30 drops vanilla stevia: I also wanted to add a pinch of unrefined sea salt but simply forgot it. To my disappointment, when I tasted the chocolate I could distinguish the licorice-like aftertaste of stevia. Okay, so 30 drops of stevia was clearly too much. Also, the consistency of the chocolate was too hard. Even though I prefer my chocolate crunchy, I don’t want it that hard.

I also made an experiment with 1 oz (30 g) cocoa butter and 3 oz (85 g) coconut manna, but the result was too soft to my taste. This time, I used 3 tablespoons powdered erythritol and 20 drops vanilla stevia. That resulted in quite a nice level of sweetness.
 

 
The recipe that ended up in the Low-Sugar So Simple book had 2 oz (60 g) cocoa butter, 2 oz (60 g) coconut manna, 3 tablespoons powdered erythritol, 25 drops vanilla stevia and a pinch of salt. I was happy with the recipe. It made a nicely sweet and creamy white chocolate that had just the right amount of crunch.

This fall, I wanted to modify the recipe and create a finger-lickingly delicious dairy-free Orange Creamsicle “Fat Bomb” White Chocolate Bark based on the sugar-free white chocolate recipe in the book. (You might remember that I mentioned this in last week’s post).

I had clear plans: I was going to use coconut manna, cocoa butter, powdered erythritol, vanilla stevia, and this time I would get the deliciously fruity orange flavor from 100% orange essential oil. So, I made the experiment (that is, the white chocolate recipe from the book) and I added two drops of orange essential oil. That should have been more than enough to give the chocolate the brisk orange flavor I was looking for.

But I was hugely disappointed when I tasted the finished chocolate. I could hardly taste any orange at all, and worse, the chocolate was far too sweet, even though it was basically the same recipe that was in the book! What now? My plans seemed to be completely ruined. I noticed I had used different brand for powdered erythritol now (Confectioner’s Style Swerve instead of a German brand), so it made the chocolate sweeter.

At this point, I noticed that KZ Clean Eating didn’t have their sugar-free white chocolate on the market anymore. And I have several recipes that use sugar-free white chocolate, linking to that product! Yikes. I realized I’d be better off posting a sugar-free white chocolate recipe on this blog so that people can apply it to the recipes that use sugar-free white chocolate.

Since the recipe in the book felt now too sweet to my taste, I wanted to improve it. In fact, I was going to drop the powdered erythritol and use only vanilla stevia. To get a more authentic vanilla flavor, I’d add some vanilla powder—i.e., ground vanilla bean. This way the recipe would be super-healthy and natural, I thought.

I was so convinced that the recipe would be a real winner. I grabbed all the ingredients, started making the chocolate, and took photos and videos so that I could post them here.

After my photos and videos were all ready, I tasted the chocolate, which had now set for two hours in the freezer. One word was enough to describe the taste: horrible! The licorice-like aftertaste of stevia was overpowering and swamped the delicate flavors of cocoa butter and coconut manna. Even worse, the vanilla powder had sunk to the bottom of the chocolate mold, which meant that the surface of the chocolate was black when I removed the chocolate bars from the mold. I had used only 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder but it was enough to make the chocolate almost completely black. Not the desired effect when it comes to white chocolate (except for Halloween, maybe?).

I was devastated! I wanted to post the best-ever sugar-free white chocolate recipe but had failed miserably. Was there any solution? Would I still be able to create a great—or even just a satisfactory—recipe?

Hold on: How about if I did use some powdered erythritol, but not that much? —and also some vanilla stevia and maybe a tiny pinch of vanilla powder? Vanilla has a natural sweetness which reduces the need for added sweeteners. In general, I was really happy with the consistency and the texture of the chocolate I had just made, but the taste needed lots of improving.

For my next experiment I used, again, equal amounts of cocoa butter and coconut manna, 2 oz (60 g) each. I added 2 tablespoons Confectioner’s Style Swerve (a powdered erythritol product) and approximately 15 drops vanilla stevia. I also added a pinch — maybe 1/8 teaspoon, or even less — of vanilla powder.

This time, the color was just perfect. There were tiny black spots in the chocolate, which hinted at its vanilla flavor, but the overall color was still beautifully creamy with a warm, off-white hue. And now the taste was perfect, too! Using both powdered erythritol and vanilla stevia seemed to be the best combination. And when I didn’t use too much, neither of the sweeteners were overpowering or showed off their weird aftertastes.

I also made a version without vanilla powder just to see how it would work, and it also tasted heavenly. Phew! I was so relieved. I finally managed to get what I wanted: healthy and super-delicious dairy-free, sugar-free white chocolate that’s criminally easy to make as well!

Here is the recipe! I hope you like it as much as I do:
 

 

 


 

Nutrition information:	Protein	Fat	Net carbs	kcal
In total:	4.4 g	97.1 g	4.3 g	922 kcal
Per serving if 4 servings (approx. 1 oz = 30 g per serving) in total:	1.1 g	24.3 g	1.1 g	230 kcal

 

Tips for variation

This is a wonderful basic recipe for a sugar-free white chocolate that you can vary to your heart’s content. Use this white chocolate in any of your recipes or enjoy it on its own when you need a healthy snack.

If you prefer more sweetness, add 1 tablespoon Confectioner’s Style Swerve or other powdered erythritol to the melted chocolate mixture and mix well. Taste-test and add more sweeteners (either powdered erythritol or stevia) if needed, but be careful that they don’t give the mixture too much of an aftertaste. Combining different sweeteners is the perfect way to add extra sweetness with no weird aftertaste. Erythritol has its “cooling” effect and stevia its licorice-like note, so you’ll get the best result when you combine different natural sweeteners, especially in this delicate white chocolate.

For more variation, add spices or flavorings of your choice, or make a sugar-free white chocolate bark with seeds, chopped nuts or almonds, shredded coconut, and freeze-dried berries.

For a special fall treat, I recommend adding 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice. To prevent the spice from sinking to the bottom of the chocolate mold, it’s best to let the liquid mixture cool down slightly – mixing once in a while – so that the consistency is like paste (or slightly runnier) before pouring it into the chocolate mold.

For a more luxurious autumnal treat, you can use this sugar-free white chocolate recipe to make these Pumpkin White Chocolate Truffles.

Other great flavorings you can use with this chocolate are orange, almond, raspberry, and cherry. I’m going to make yet another version with 100% lime essential oil (just two drops, no more!) to see if I can create a Lime White Chocolate Bark.

You can also use different flavored stevias. How about cherry vanilla stevia, cinnamon stevia, orange stevia, English Toffee stevia, or Lemon Twist stevia? All of these are wonderful matches for rich, creamy, low-carb white chocolate!