Is there such a thing as organic unsweetened chocolate?  Or organic chocolate sweetened with something that's at least a Neutral for me?

All of the organic chocolate that I know of is sweetened with "sugar" (an Avoid) or "cane juice" (which I take to be like Sucanat, another Avoid).  I would love to find some organic chocolate bars (or organic chocolate chips) sweetened with barley malt or maple or rice syrup, or even honey or fructose.  (Dunno about molasses!)

Failing any of the above, I could make my own candy with unsweetened organic chocolate -- if I could find any!  I thought it would be easy.  Rapunzel makes "baking chocolate" and Green & Black's makes "cooks' chocolate," which I assumed would be unsweetened -- but they're both sweetened with cane juice.

Any suggestions?

You can buy organic cocoa powder.

Rapunzel Pure Organics Kokoa Cocoa Powder
http://www.rapunzel.com/products/rapunzel/rapunzel_baking_kokoa.html

You can order it from this source:
http://www.azurestandard.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=shp.ProductDetails&ProductCode=BP147

try ground cocoa plain and add Veg Glycerin,,,,,,mix well.......it becomes like a paste......you can add nuts to that....a teaspoon of that or two will give you the choc 'fix' you need!! )

Hi Carol,

I make my own chocolate sometimes - you can find my recipe here.

Thanks, Don & Lola.  I've already tried something like that, and it's good, but somehow it's just not the same as actual chocolate.  I guess it's mostly the mouth-feel.

Kate, what sort of texture does your recipe have?  It sounds more like fudge than like a chocolate bar, but I like fudge too.  Can I substitute ghee for the butter?

Ghee is great with the chocolate.  My heart pounds if I eat sugar, so the ready made chocolate bars are off limits for me.  Dagoba Organic "Prima Materia" 100% Unsweetened Chocolate is one source of organic unsweetened chocolate chunks but check your local health food grocery store first.  Ask an employee because they often keep these chocolate chunks in odd places like near the cheese.  You melt this and add your compliant sweetener.  Lecithin or ghee helps.  Then add nuts, seeds, dried fruit, herbs, spices or flavors to customize it!

Carob powder is much sweeter than cocoa powder.  It took some time but I weaned myself off of chocolate and on to carob.

Vicki -- I checked out Prima Materia on the internet, and it's apparently just the chocolate solids, with no cocoa butter in it, which is why you've found that it help to add ghee or lecithin.  My main objection to carob chips is that they lack the mouth-feel of chocolate chips, so I imagine that I might have the same problem with PM -- and it looks like I'd have to order several pounds of the stuff at once.  (I figure if anybody made carob chips with cocoa butter, I'd really like them.)

I like carob in some things -- I use one part carob powder with two parts instant grain-coffee powder.  The bitterness of the grain coffee makes the blend taste a lot more like cocoa than the carob does by itself.

oooo yum-yum and please this part in form of white choc.... I ow the reply to Chanur since her last easter lamb.... and I couldn't find the right address here in Switzerland
Don.... what do you think.... is this the right address? should I get my right thumb in hmmmmmmmmm hope it fits and thanks
hey man of US... you become more and more vivide in your area.... whats here the matter ? häääää I am curieuse..you knowed this

oooo....aaaaa. I've got it dearle.... you  made a big deal with yourself and now hopppààà
this is the result... hey just great btw.

Hi Carol,

The chocolate is a bit more like fudge - you need to refrigerate it to keep it from getting really gooey.  I have never used ghee to make this, but you could try with 1/2 to 3/4 the amount of butter called for.  I imagine it might make it more wet, so you might need to add more nut or flax meal to balance that out.  I think I will try it with ghee - I'll let you know how it goes!  

I finally decided what the heck, I'll get some non-organic unsweetened chocolate from the grocery store, and try sweetening it with maple syrup or something to make my own chocolate chips/chunks for cookies.  Fortunately, I read the ingredients before I actually bought it.  It contains milk solids!  This is good ol' reliable Baker's brand unsweetened chocolate.  Doesn't anybody make plain unsweetened chocolate -- organic or otherwise?

fished this out for you, hope you find what you need! )
-dagoba has a bit of sugar....
http://www.dagobachocolate.com/store/product.php?productid=12&cat=3&page=1
http://www.chocosphere.com/Html/Products/dagoba.html
.

-Prima Materia on the internet, and
it's apparently just the chocolate solids.

-http://www.enjoylifefoods.com
have allergy free chocolate chips......need to check ingredients...
-Dove dark chocolate promises
-Sunspire does produce a dairy & corn free
chocolate chip:

Ingredients: Organic chocolate (organic sugar,
organic unsweetened chocolate, organic cocoa
butter, organic vanilla beans, soy lecithin)

Available from: http://www.veganessentials.com/catalog/sunspire-organic-semi-sweet-chocolate-chips.htm
-Rapunzel Foods http://www.rapunzel.com
organic Swiss chocolate, organic
cocoa
-Endangered Spieces Chocolate Company
http://www.chocolatebar.com?

Rainforest Bar:

http://www.chocolatebar.com/tek9.asp?pg=products&cid=&grp=6

My goodness, Lola, thanks for all that info!

As you mention, several of them definitely contain a sweetener that's not approved for A-nonnies.  I had checked out the Prima Materia before, and as you say, it's just the chocolate solids, which I think means no cocoa butter, so the mouth feel would not be the same.

I will check out the rest.  Thanks again.

hope you find something you like....
organic cocoa powder is your best bet, I think.......
this one seems compliant
http://www.goraw.com/products/home.php?cat=2

Dagoba has an organic cocoa powder that has pieces of unsweetened chocolate in it, according to their customer service specialist who emailed me in response to my request.  (Like you, I have been searching for an organic, unsweetened chocolate).

At this point, Victoria, I'd settle for a non-organic unsweetened chocolate, as long as it doesn't contain any of my Avoids.

I had been thinking all along that if I couldn't find a compliant organic chocolate, I could always relax my standards for the sake of an occasional treat -- so it was quite a shock to find out that my fall-back plan was flawed.  I can't figure out why good ol' Baker's unsweetened chocolate has milk solids in it!  I had assumed that it was just dark chocolate without any sweetening.

Now I'm trying to think how I could make chocolate-chip cookies with cocoa instead of chocolate.  Maybe if I make fudge (such as Whimsical Kate's Omega-3 Chocolate), scoop out little morsels with a small measuring spoon onto waxed paper and freeze them, then mix them into the cookie dough at the very last minute, so they maintain their integrity -- well, that might be sort of like chocolate-chip cookies....

just melt cocoa powder and compliant sweetener on a double burner, add lecithin
and some ghee until you get the right consistency.
drop the hot choc liquid onto a parchment paper or aluminum coated tray, let cool so it solidifies, put in the freezer and cut into chips.
(don t have quantities, sorry..)

Hey, I hear you, Carol!
If you come across something that works, please share it with us!  We have had this discussion before in the Forum, by those of us who love chocolate, and want to hold to our blood type food choices.  There are few options.  I can't believe how wide-spread the use of sugar is!!  Even Organic companies put sugar in everything.  It's not just the non-organic nature of sugar that is a problem.  For those of us whose relationship with sugar is AVOID, it is really disruptive to our bodies!!  Really!
On a recent cross country plane trip, I took some homeopathic remedies that were to prevent jet lag.  They were much larger tabs than the usual tiny pellets, and I was aware while I was eating them that there was quite a bit of sugar that I was consuming.  I got very sick the day after I arrived, and was sick the whole time I was with relatives. . . aching body, chills, runny nose, fatigue.  I would have preferred the jet lag.  I won't eat sugar.  It's not worth it to me anymore.

Lola,
That recipe idea of yours sounds like it has possibilities.  Have you ever tried to make something like that, to see what the end texture is?  It seems at least, that we are able to get unsweetened cocoa powder!
http://www.dagobachocolate.com/store/product.php?productid=20&cat=6&page=1

And Organic cocoa nibs:
http://www.dagobachocolate.com/store/product.php?productid=22&cat=6&page=1
They suggest grinding these cocoa nibs and adding sugar.  My health food store sells maple sugar, which is finely powdered just like sugar.  I wonder.......This might be good, using a little coffee mill , adding maple sugar, and then as Lola suggested, adding lecithin and ghee.

here!! found that choc recipe.....)
think it was GCG who posted it once, don t remember:

chocoloate
make it into a bar, just melt an unsweetened
dark chocolate bar over a double
boiler, or in the microwave for 20 seconds
at a time, and stire in the
vegetable glycerine, gently but quickly.  The large bars take at least two
Tablespoons of glycerine, adjusted to taste.  Then add any nuts, fruit, etc.
you'd like. Put it on a paper plate, or wax paper, and keep in the fridge.  
It will set up great, but stays set best if kept refrigerated.
...

Thanks, Lola.  Now all we need to do is find an unsweetened dark chocolate bar.  I'm following up on a tip, and will let you all know in a few days if it pans out....

Yes I posted that recipie a while back. Roughly one 8 ounce bar of unsweetened chocolate, 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract, between 3 and 5 tablespoons of vegetable glycerine, chopped appropriate nuts and dried fruit. Melt chocolate, add vanilla and glycerine and stir, add nuts and fruit, spread out on wax paper and refrigerate till it hardens. Becarefull  of the amount of dried fruit if you are a nonnie, especially dates, also check and see if the dried fruit is sweetened with corn syrup or sugar.

thanks GCG! )

OK, Victoria, et al., there's good news and there's bad news.  First the bad news: I still have not found any organic unsweetened plain chocolate.

But the good news is that a tip from Vicki has panned out -- the Ghirardelli Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar has precisely one ingredient: unsweetened chocolate.  No little bitta sugar.  No milk solids.  Just chocolate.

I think I'm going to melt little pieces in individual cups and try sweetening them with different things to see what gives the best taste and texture.  Then I can go a little bit crazy.  Chocolate with crispy rice!  Coconut haystacks!  And the ultimate: chocolate-chip cookies!!!

Well, thanks to the stand-by, Ghirardelli!  It may not be organic, but at least it's something!

Are you able to eat maple syrup?  I don't have my book handy to check it?  If so, maple sugar is great in chocolate.

Tonight I bought some Organic Dagoba cocoa powder, which contains organic cocoa and unsweetened chocolate.  It just looks like regular cocoa, but maybe the chocolate in it gives it a bit more flavor.  I thought I'd play with it a bit.

Yes, maple syrup is a Neutral for me (and I love the flavor).  I'll definitely try that, and probably honey and stevia, and maybe even molasses.

Speaking of molasses -- I've been having trouble finding regular (not blackstrap) molasses.  Even the non-organic kind seems to be scarce these days, but I have not been able to find any organic regular molasses (or Barbados molasses, as some companies call it).  Wholesome Sweeteners (the Sucanat people) used to produce organic Barbados molasses, but it's no longer mentioned on their web site.  All that seems to be on the store shelves now is blackstrap.  Can anyone tell me what's going on?

That's interesting Carol, because it used to be the other way around.  When I first discovered Blackstrap in the 70's, it was hard to find, and mostly the available ones were Barbados and other regular molasses.
Those are avoids for me, anyway, so I'm happy to stick with the Blackstrap.  The sugar content is much higher in the regular molasses.