Making sugar-free chocolate chips is surprisingly easy and takes only simple 5 ingredients. Make these homemade chocolate chips for a great low carb and dairy-free option! Great in all your keto cookies, cakes, and sweet treats. Instructional video included.
If you think you might have seen these before, you have. I’ve done homemade sugar-free chocolate chips before, but this version is better and holds up to all of your low carb baking. They hold their shape perfectly and they have a deep rich semi-sweet chocolate flavor. And they honestly take only a few minutes to whip up.
While there are several good brands of sugar-free chocolate chips on the market, they can be prohibitively expensive. I love Lily’s chocolate chips but I find myself balking at $7.49 a bag. They also aren’t dairy-free and they contain a little soy, which many people don’t like. As a reader recently asked me about whether I had a decent homemade alternative, I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. I can honestly say that I have made vast strides in low carb cooking and baking in the past few years and very often my experiments lead me to new discoveries about how certain ingredients behave. I find myself storing up these little tidbits in my brain for future use. And when the time is right, a whole new idea takes shape in my brain and I can hardly wait to test it out.
How to Make Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
The last time I made chocolate chips, I made them with butter. They were good, to be sure, but definitely a little on the soft side and they needed to be stored in the fridge and then added to the recipe just prior to baking. And although delicious, they didn’t quite live up to that true chocolate-chip flavour I had in my mind. Still, they were a good approximation and I was satisfied. But since that time, I have been playing around with other ingredients in some recipes, including cocoa butter. Unlike butter or coconut oil, cocoa butter stays solid at room temperature and it takes a fair bit of work to make it melt. For a bar of chocolate or a chocolate chip, this is an excellent quality indeed.
I also made sure to thoroughly sift both the powdered Swerve and cocoa powder before adding it to the melted chocolate mixture. This made a significant difference to the end result and the chips were much less grainy. To really sift out all the lumps, simply set a bowl below a fine mesh sieve. Measure your sweetener or cocoa powder into the bowl and use a spoon to stir it around and scrape it through the holes in the sieve.
And now that someone has come along and invented chocolate chip molds, we can even make them chocolate chip shaped! Wooohooo! Heretofore, I had always simply poured the chocolate mixture into chocolate bar molds and then chopped them, making them into low carb chocolate chunks rather than chips. I have also use these honeycomb silicon trivets, which work well and give them a very distinct shape. You can even simply pour the whole mixture into a parchment lined pan and chop them up from there. But obviously the chip mold is fun to have and they look just like the real thing.
Any way you make them, these sugar-free chocolate chips were a huge success. They blew my original attempts out of the water. First, they firmed up perfectly and I found that they didn’t need to be refrigerated after the initial chilling to stay firm. Secondly, they tasted like REAL chocolate. And why shouldn’t they? REAL chocolate is made with cocoa butter and is part of what gives it the deep, intense chocolate flavour. I had a hard time saving any of my first batch for baking with, because I just kept eating a little handful here and a little handful there as I passed through the kitchen.
And these homemade sugar free chocolate chips bake well too, I am pleased to say. I added them to some brownies, and I also baked them up in my Keto Double Chocolate Muffins. They held their shape nicely and didn’t totally liquify and run all over the pan, as I feared they might. They certainly held up about as well as any bar of chopped dark chocolate I’ve ever used.
The low carb chocolate chips melt perfectly into sugar free desserts like my keto chocolate chip cookies and Chocolate Chip Cloud Cookies, and I bet they would be delicious in Kalyn’s flourless low sugar peanut butter chocolate cookies too.
Tips for homemade chocolate chips
- Melt the cocoa butter and unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler. If they are over direct heat, they are more likely to seize.
- Use quality unsweetened chocolate such as Ghirardelli or Scharffenberger. Cheap bakers chocolate tends to seize more and will have a grittier texture.
- Sift your powdered sweetener and your cocoa powder to get out all the lumps.
- Use chocolate chip molds, silicone trivets, or any chocolate mold to shape your chocolate. Be sure to refrigerate until completely firm. After that, they won’t need to stay in the freezer or the fridge.
Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- 3 oz cocoa butter
- 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener , sifted
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the cocoa butter and chocolate together until smooth.
- Stir in the sifted powdered erythritol, then stir in the cocoa powder, until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- Pour into chocolate molds or spread in an 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper.
- Refrigerate until set, then remove from the molds or chop into small chunks.
Video
Nutrition
Supplies Needed to Make your own Chocolate Chips
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I used gharidelli (sp) unsweetened chocolate, hershey’s cocoa powder, powdered erythritol, and Plant Guru brand 100% cocoa butter. It comes out all gummy in the pan, and this time it came out all powder like. It was gross too. My last batch was crumbly, but tasty.
Well, if you did it the same way both times, I can’t imagine why it would be tasty once and gross the next. Something has to be off. What sweetener is it? I’ve never tried Plant Guru cocoa butter either.
I know this post is old, but in the interest of helping others who may be reading this line of commentary I was wondering if your powdered erythritol was a Swerve brand or another brand? Swerve has oligosaccharides in it; so if it was another brand without the oligosaccharides, it could affect the end result. It would have been interesting to troubleshoot why your two batches ended up so different from each other back then too.
I guess I should have read through the comments before attempting this. My chocolate came out very gummy and crumbly, not smooth and melty like regular chocolate. Oh well. I know the first time isn’t always a success. As long as it tastes ok, I’ll still eat it. lol.
Hmmmm. What brands of cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and unsweetened chocolate did you use?
Where do you buy cocoa butter? Also, what can I use instead of the cocoa butter?
I made this wonderful sugar-free chocolate yesterday afternoon and it turned out PERFECT! The whole family loved it and I’ve now shared with several co-workers who have asked for the recipe! Thank you so much! I also made a batch with cayenne and cinnamon (about a 1/2 tsp each) which is amazing!
Easy peasy!!!! All the ingredients behaved so nicely and did exactly what they were supposed to do. Much less intimidating that I had anticipated. Thanks, Carolyn! Next up, peanut butter chocolate chip blondies:)
I’ve just made this yummy yum yum but my sugar is still gritty my fault but this batch is going to make chocolate muffins so no real harm. I will make it with splenda next time
James and thank you
You’re welcome, James!
Thank you so so much Carolyn
I have printed the recipe out It not for me but my wife.
my wife is going to Atkins diet AGAIN so I thought I would fine her some juice muffin and cookies to eat muffins I have and made 10/10 but I feel I can improve on the current cookie recipe we are using. I found out today my supplier for sugar free chocolate chip aren’t available any more and my internet search lead me here. what a blessing
again big big thank you XX
Do you have the recipe for the fantastic looking cookies on the page as they look amazing
I have ordered my Ingredients for the chocolate chips but I would love to find a good recipe for cookies flour free
James
Hi James,
those cookies are actually in a cookbook, but I’d be happy to send you that one recipe. However, I’d actually suggest this Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Everyone loves it! https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2013/06/coconut-chocolate-chip-cookies-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html
could I also get the recipe for those cookies. The look UNREAL!
Email me through my contact form. Thanks!
Awesome recipe, Caroyn!
hi carolyn………for the unsweetened chocolate……i have a bag of organic traditions 100%
cocao paste chunksit says it is made from chocolate concentrate makes healthy dark chocolate bars and i also have a bag of organic traditions cocao butter as on the chocolate bag it said i need this butter to melt with the chocolate………..my question i see nothing that says food grade on the cocao butter bag so can i use these products in your recipe…………wow i am so excited to be able to have chocolate chip cookies again as i have not been able to since i became a diabetic……….make them for my husband and it takes all my willpower not to have one……….looking forward to your reply………love love love your website………….you are a diabetics angel
I think you can use these, although I am unsure on how to use the cocoa paste. I just looked up that brand of cocoa butter and it’s fine for food.
thanks for your reply……since you are unsure of the cocoa paste i do have some bittersweet chocolate i can use but happy to hear that the cocoa butter is fine for food as i was worried about that term when i read it…….using ingredients i have never heard of in my 50 years of baking so need your help probably more than most………but as i stated thanks to you and your website i can cook and eat not only more healthy but definately to ensure to keep my diabetitis in check
Carolyn: do you think allulose, or a mixture of allulose and xylitol might work here in order to prevent any sort of crystallization? I have both and I’m ready to make your chocolate chips. I also have swerve powdered but I have had problems with crystallization with that in the past.
Also, I am assuming that these are regular size chocolate chips. So, can you tell me how many it makes? You may have mentioned it in your comments but I didn’t see it anywhere. I may have just missed it.
I am ready at this very moment to rock and roll on these.
So I can’t really use much allulose, as I have found it makes me very sick. But I think you should try… at the very least, you will get some sort of chocolate ganache out of it! And yes, regular sized chocolate chips.
Ooooooo, now I MUST try to make these – will just have to find a place I can order cocoa butter from with delivery to Canada!
Hi Carolyn – thanks for posting this. I have tried making these before and liked them….but, I store mine in the freezer and found the erythritol was gritty in the finished product. I always powder my erythritol, so, not sure what else I can do to make this a smooth finished chocolate? Should I just use liquid stevia glycerite??? Or a combo of the glycerite and something else? Wasn’t sure if you’ve had the same problem after storing it and played with the original recipe or not.
Honestly, I think it’s the fact that you are trying to powder your own erythritol from granulated. No matter how good a machine, there is no way you can get it as fine as they can commercially. Confectioner’s swerve is so fine, it’s almost like dust and it poofs into the air when I try to mix it with things! 🙂
I did have the confectioner’s Swerve until the holiday baking was over. I think I just saw a BOGO email come thru today. I’ll have to grab some before the special ends and try this again with the confectioner’s Swerve. Thanks!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I found that soaperschoice.com has food grade cocoa butter for $4.00 a pound for “food grade” cocoa butter. Much cheaper than the $15.00 a pound! : )
Have you tried Lily’s Chocolate Dark Chocolate Chips? They are sweetened with stevia and erythritol. All of their chocolate products are wonderful — and they recently came out with milk chocolate).
I have some in my cupboard right now but at 6.99 a bag, they aren’t very cost effective! 😉
Ha! Can’t argue with you there. It’s that trade off for time vs money. It does make it self-regulating on making the cookies too often.
As a type 1 diabetic, I’m extremely careful with my carbs. I made this recipe exactly as written. I didn’t have powdered Erythritol so I put my granulated in the food processor and ran it until it was quite powdered.
Poured it into an 8×8 pan lined with parchment. It was delicious (even though I’d prefer milk chocolate) and has had zero impact on my blood sugar, which is thrilling. Thank you!
Yay, Valerie, that makes me so happy. I wish I could figure out a way to make milk chocolate. I am a huge dark chocolate fan but I know not everyone else is!
Did you use a silicone mold? If so, do you have a link to buy it, I want one of those 🙂
I can’t wait to try and make this! 🙂
No, I just used a plastic chocolate bar mold from Michael’s. I think it cost $1.99?