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!
- 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
- 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.
Serves 8. Each serving has a total of 8.2g of carbs and 3.6 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 4.6 g.
- 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
- 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.
These have virtually no effective carbs.
Medeja says
But still white chocolate is so delicious.. and with macadamia..yummy!
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc. says
you had me at “white chocolate” Super creative girl!
RavieNomNoms says
YESS! Those look amazing! I love Macadamia nuts, so buttery and delicious!
Jennifer Eloff says
Sounds wonderful. I need to try one of your scone recipes soon. 🙂 I thought you were in New Orleans – you and Maria?
Karen LowCarbOneDay says
Love this! I was just looking at another recipe using cocoa butter. I’ll definitely have to pick some up now. So many possibilities with white chocolate..yay!
[email protected] says
These scones sound amazing! I am going to have to try making my own white chocolate now!
Jeanette says
Carolyn, these scones sound fantastic. Love the little white chocolate buttons you came up with for these scones.
jo says
wow! nice work – this used to be and old favourite at Starbucks – I’m positively giddy at the prospect of making my own, low carb.
foodfashionandflow says
These look so good. I know white chocolate isn’t real chocolate, but I still love it!
Robin says
Carolyn, these look delicious. Wish I had some right now with my morning coffee.
Robin
Jen @ Savory Simple says
I’m mostly not a huge fan of white chocolate but every now and then I have it in a dish that totally changes my mind. These scones really look wonderful!
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious says
White choc macadamia is one of my favorite combo’s! These scones sound like they should be in my kitchen tomorrow…
Susan says
Be still my heart! I am making these this evening…I’ll report back tomorrow.
Susan says
We had these with our espresso this morning. The white chocolate was super easy to make…I used a Silikomart chocolate mould. Had some macadamia’s I’d been hoarding from another of your wonderful recipes, Coconut Macadamia Nut Tarts …just the amount I needed. The scones were generous in size, crunchy bits of the nut and the white chocolate made the perfect foil even melted as it was. Another outstanding creation,
Carolyn and into my morning breakfast rotation. Thank you
Carolyn says
Glad you liked them!
Parsley Sage says
Another amazing creation! I can’t believe you made your own chocolate, even if its not really chocolate 😉 And the scones are to.die.for! Well done!
Lynn says
I can’t believe you made your own chocolates! They look really impressive. I’m sure with a few tweaks you’ll be able to get the texture right.
The scones sound awesome. I love white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, so I’m sure the combination is great in scone form.
Sharon says
My project for this week! I have a question. Since traditional scones are made w/ butter or shortening (or both) “cut” in, why do you melt it here? I suspect it’s about the almond flour. Just curious.
Carolyn says
Yes, it just combines better with the almond flour. Wheat flour has a whole different consistency and if I want to mix the butter in properly, I find I need to melt it.
Katrina @ In Katrina's Kitchen says
You are impressive!! IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Charlie says
Homemade white chocolate! I really need to try making some! Love it!
And I LOVE white chocolate macadamia nut cookies but never thought of making anything else with the combo. Scones is a great idea!
Rene says
Can these be made with a different gf flour? I’m also allergic to almonds. And, what other sweetener would work? Regular sugar?
Carolyn says
Sugar would be fine. As for different gf flour, it depends. What might you want to use? They all work a little differently so let me know and I will try to come up with some suggestions as to how to work the recipe over for it.
mellissa @ ibreatheimhungry says
This. Broke. My. Brain. Seriously! The idea that I can eat scones at all, let alone with white chocolate chips inside of them just does not compute! You are a mad genius, cannot wait to try these!!!!
Croixrunner says
It’s a home run Lady Carolyn!
Amy Shalosky says
Hmm, I wonder if you’d get an even smoother texture if you ran the sweetener and powdered milk through a coffee grinder to powder it? Sounds delicious!!
Jeanette says
Are these flavorful ans scone like. I know it sounds like wierd ques but ive tried george stella and although good flavor, it was more like muffin. Tried another scone recipe and i had to throw them out. It was like flavorless..umm blah. All those ingredients wasted.
Carolyn says
Well, obviously I am biased, but yes, they are both flavourful and have a similar texture to real scones.
Jeanette says
THEN Im excited to try them tonight.. they look fabulous!
Jess F says
I made a batch of these this weekend and they turned out lovely! I didn’t have the cocoa butter on hand to make the white chocolate so I used dark chocolate in place of the white. I think if I make them with the dark chocolate again I would increase the sweetness of the scone just a little. I’m guessing the white chocolate adds a more sweet flavor than the dark chocolate. But otherwise I made the recipe as written and had no problems, they are a fabulous breakfast. Thanks for such a great recipe!
nicole says
I am going to try and make the white chocolate buttons for my 6yr old who’s a T1 diabetic. Can I somehow change the recipe to make them chocolate? I’m going to try and make a chocolate bunny!
Carolyn says
If I were you, I would melt some cocoa butter with unsweetened chocolate, and then add some sweetener in. It won’t be quite the same, you will have to figure out how much sweetener to use. Add a little vanilla in too, for better flavour.
Carol says
I made the white chocolate this weekend and for half a second I was mad at you – after I added the swerve and the powdered milk it was obviously too much in relation to the melted cocoa butter and was a solid mess. Lol – I should probably wear my glasses next time I’m trying a new recipe I thought it said 1/2 c. powdered milk not 1/2 tsp! I actually saved it by adding some heavy cream – more like a white chocolate ganache but the flavor was really good! Looking forward to making it again with the right measurements 🙂
Vivian says
These look delicious!! Can’t wait to try them! Thank you!
Erica says
Is there any substitute for the powdered milk? Whey protein? Sunflower lecithin? Etc
Sheila M Bassett says
So I tried making these twice today. I have heavy cream powder instead of powdered milk. It all looked great…smooth, creamy… until I added the vanilla extract and then it all just separated and became oily and gritty. Threw it out and started over, but the same thing happened. I’m not going to give up, but thought I’d come here for advice since I hate to waste my cacao butter!
Carolyn says
Hey Sheila…this can be an issue with chocolate things but I have an idea I’ve tried recently…I put the dry ingredients in my blender or food processor and pour the melted cocoa butter into that and blend. It helps!
Sheila M Bassett says
Thanks, I’ll try that!