Cooking For Engineers

[joy christensen]

This is truly one for you engineers. I would like to make chocolate sweetend with stevia. Stevia comes powdered (mixed with lactose) or liquid (in waterbase) water cannot be mixed with chocolate. Could I use the powered stevia? The extra problem is that chocolate comes manufactured already with sugar or a man made diabetic sweetener already incorporated. How can I get unsweetened chocolate and sweeten it myself with the stevia? Would I need to add cocoa butter? I THINK the unsweetned chocolate doesn't have cocoa butter? I realize I'm really asking a chocolate MANUFACTURING type question as opposed to a recipe - but I SURE would be grateful to figure out how! Thanks a bundle!!! Joy

[Michael Chu]

I don't know about mxing the Stevia in, but you can get 99% chocolate from Scharffen Berger. Cocoa or cacao powder doesn't have any cocoa butter, but 99% cocoa/cacao chocolate does. Lindt makes a 99% chocolate bar but it contains a little sugar (the Scharffen Berger contains only trace amounts, mostly because it's made a the same plant as the normal bars) which they sell in much smaller packages.

Of course, my favorite chocolate manufacturer, Dagoba Chocolate, sells a 100% pure bar whose only ingredient is organic cacao beans called Prima Materia.

There are probably other companies that make 99% chocolate, but I'm not sure.

[joy christensen]

Oh! Thank you, thank you! I will look into this asap. I'm hoping there will be enough coco butter to resemble what we look for in eating chocolate. Now, I'm still wondering about adding the stevia, so if anybody beats me to it successfully, please LMK!