White chocolate isn’t really chocolate at all, at least not in the strictest sense of the word. But I love it anyway. I got a white chocolate bunny for Easter one year as a child and I was immediately hooked. What’s not to love about the creamy vanilla confection? Since it’s virtually all cocoa butter and sugar and contains no chocolate liquor, it has little to no redeeming nutritional value, but it certainly does taste good. If only someone would find a way to make it without sugar, I’d be all set.
I’ve come across a couple of posts for homemade white chocolate, including this one from Cupcake Project, and I thought it might be worth a try using erythritol. Food grade cocoa butter is pretty easy to get your hands on these days, either through Amazon or at specialty food stores, and it keeps very well because it remains fully solid at room temperature. In fact, it’s rather hard to measure out cocoa butter, as you have to chip away at it and then weigh the chunks to get the appropriate amount. It doesn’t resemble butter at all, so don’t be fooled by the name.
I bought a candy mold at my local craft store for shaping the white chocolate when it was finished, and I chose one that had small round shapes because I thought that might makes things more manageable. I really wasn’t sure how good the outcome would be, since commercial white chocolate goes through a long process of conching and such to make it smooth and creamy. Not having the equipment or the know-how, I was just hoping for an edible creation that resembled white chocolate in flavour. And thankfully, that’s what I got. It definitely has a bit of a gritty consistency and I want to try making it without the milk powder to see if that might help. But it was certainly a serviceable version of low carb white chocolate and my middle child in particular loved the little candies. I almost found them too sweet, if that’s possible, but they certainly satisfied the desire for a taste of white chocolate.
I then got it in my head to try making something with the bits, to see if they held up during baking. Since a homemade version has no stabilizers like soy lecithin to keep them solid under heat, I knew it was a bit of a gamble. But I was craving some baked goods for breakfast and I had macadamia nuts that needed using, so the idea of a sweet scone with macadamias and white chocolate was very alluring. And I am very glad I tried it out, because the scones were delicious. The white chocolate bits ended up melting quite a bit as I suspected they would, but the flavour of white chocolate did come through in the scone, and that’s what matters most!
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup granulated erythritol I used Swerve
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup macadamia nuts lightly toasted and chopped
- 1/4 cup low carb white chocolate pieces chopped (recipe below)
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 325F.
- Whisk together almond flour, erythritol, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir in chopped nuts and chopped white chocolate.
- Add egg, butter, cream, and vanilla, and stir until dough comes together.
- Turn out dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet and shape by hand into a rough circle, 7 or 8 inches in diameter. Using a very sharp knife, slice into 8 even wedges and separate carefully, then space evenly around the baking sheet.
- Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until scones are firm and lightly browned. Keep an eye on the bottoms to make sure they don’t burn.
- Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Notes
Nutrition
White Chocolate Buttons
Ingredients
- 2 ounces edible cocoa butter
- 1/3 cup powdered erythritol I used Swerve
- 1/2 teaspoon powdered milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Place cocoa butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for one minute. Then heat on high at 30 second increments until it is fully melted. This will take longer than with other fats and oils, because cocoa butter is fully solid at room temperature.
- Stir in powdered erythritol and powdered milk until dissolved.
- Stir in vanilla extract and salt.
- Spoon mixture into whatever candy mold floats your boat. Place molds inside refrigerator until white chocolate is solid, about an hour.
- To remove from candy molds, simply turn upside down and press on top of each mold to release.
Notes
