Make your own low carb and sugar free chocolate chips at home, with this simple three ingredient recipe!
Why you’ll love these sugar free chocolate chips
- Absolutely no sugar required.
- Dairy free, gluten free, and keto diet friendly.
- Use the chocolate chips for baking, or eat them by the handful!
- Rich, sweet, and perfectly melty. They taste like store bought dark chocolate chocolate chips, just without sugar, corn syrup, milk, or artificial ingredients. No soy lecithin either.
- The entire recipe takes just five minutes to make and is much less expensive than buying low calorie packaged sugar free chocolate chips.
- Did I mention that you only need three ingredients?
You may also love these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step by step recipe video
Above, watch me make the chocolate chips from scratch. It’s so easy!
Ingredients for homemade chocolate chips
Cocoa powder – Use high quality unsweetened cocoa powder for the richest chocolate taste. Or choose cacao powder to create raw chocolate chips. I love the slight bitterness of the cacao.
Coconut oil – The recipe calls for virgin coconut oil or cacao butter. You may substitute refined coconut oil if preferred. Do not substitute vegetable oil or any other oil, because the chips will not harden and you will just get chocolate sauce.
Coconut oil is sold at most regular grocery stores, Costco, Target, or Walmart. Cacao butter should be readily available at health food stores, online retailers, and Whole Foods.
Stevia (optional) – For completely sugar free chocolate chips, use your favorite vanilla stevia drops. You can experiment with other flavors of stevia as well.
A liquid sweetener like honey, agave, or pure maple syrup works for refined sugar free chocolate chips.
Leave out the stevia or other sweetener if you want 100% unsweetened chocolate chips.
Other ingredients – Feel free to add half a pinch of ground cinnamon or a drop of maple or peppermint extract to make flavored chocolate chips. I have not yet tried adding milk for semi sweet or milk chocolate chips.
Homemade sugar free white chocolate chips are next on my list to try. Ooh or maybe sugar free butterscotch chips!
Sugar free chocolate chip baking tips
- Use cacao butter for chocolate baking chips.
- When making classic chocolate chip cookies with homemade chocolate chips, start with cold chips straight from the freezer. And chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator before baking cookies in the oven.
- The coconut oil version is great in raw desserts, Chickpea Cookie Dough Dip, no bake snacks, or chocolate cakes, but it will melt in cookies or bars.
Ways to use sugar free chocolate chips
Chocolate chips are like the little black dress of the food world. I can’t think of many desserts where they wouldn’t be a welcome addition!
Chocolate chip cookies. The DIY chocolate chips work well in homemade Sugar Free Cookies. Cacao butter chips give you slightly more melty results than packaged brands, while still holding their shape in the oven.
No bake desserts. I love adding a sprinkle of these vegan chocolate chips to unbaked treats or ice cream, like my Chocolate No Bake Cookies or Chocolate Banana Ice Cream.
Banana bread. Not just for cookies! The cacao butter version is good in other baked goods, such as quick breads or muffins. You can use coconut oil chocolate chips in recipes where it’s fine if they melt into the dessert. Try them in a Keto Mug Cake or Keto Brownies.
Eat them plain. This is by far my favorite use for chocolate chips. I grab a few (okay, a lot) every time I’m in the kitchen. They also make a delicious topping for oatmeal or yogurt, perhaps along with a scoop of peanut butter. Just be sure to not eat the entire batch straight from the container if you’d planned to use them for recipes.
How to make sugar free chocolate chips
- If your coconut oil or cacao butter is not already melted, very gently heat it in the microwave or on the stove top until melted.
- I like to first sift the cocoa powder in a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps. This step is not required.
- Stir the cocoa powder, melted oil or butter, and stevia or liquid sweetener in a cereal size bowl until it forms a smooth chocolate sauce.
- Spread the melted chocolate into chocolate chip shaped candy molds or any container lined with parchment paper.
- Freeze until completely solid. Then remove from the freezer. If you are using chocolate molds, simply pop the frozen chips out of the molds. If you froze the sauce on parchment paper, use a sharp knife to carefully cut it into large or mini chocolate chip sized pieces.
- Store chocolate chips in the freezer until ready to eat. Leftovers should stay good for up to four months frozen in an airtight container. But I’m almost never am able to keep them around that long!
Health benefits
Low carb: Per serving, these paleo and keto chocolate chips contribute just one gram of carbohydrates and less than one gram of net carbs.
Fewer calories: The recipe below has about half the calories per tablespoon of packaged chocolate chips like Hershey’s or Toll House. And it’s also a lower calorie option than Lily’s sugar free chocolate chips.
Antioxidants: You get flavanols and iron thanks to the superfood cocoa powder.
Low glycemic index: Coconut oil contains zero carbohydrates and no sugar, meaning it has a glycemic index of 0. Cocoa powder is also low glycemic and will not cause a glucose spike. The chips are also very low sodium. They should be safe for diabetics in general, but it’s always a good idea to check with your own personal doctor or nutritionist.
No erythritol: These chocolate chips are stevia sweetened and are free of erythritol, xylitol, monk fruit, allulose, and artificial sweeteners like sucralose or aspartame.
The recipe was adapted from these Homemade Chocolate Bars.
Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- 7 tbsp coconut oil or melted cacao butter (80g)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder or cacao powder (30g)
- 50 drops vanilla stevia (or use 1/4 cup honey or pure maple syrup and decrease coconut oil to just 4 tbsp)
Instructions
- *Use cacao butter for sugar free chocolate baking chips. The coconut oil version works well for no bake desserts, as a topping for ice cream or yogurt, or eating by the handful.
- 1. If not already in liquid form, gently heat the coconut oil or cacao butter in the microwave or on the stove top until melted.
- 2. For the smoothest results, I like to sift the cocoa powder in a fine mesh sieve. This step is optional.
- 3. Whisk the cocoa, melted oil or cacao butter, and stevia or sweetener in a cereal size bowl. Continue stirring until it forms a smooth chocolate sauce.
- 4. Spread the melted chocolate into a parchment-lined container or into candy molds. If you want that classic chocolate chip shape, I recommend these Chocolate Chip Candy Molds.
- 5. Freeze until completely hardened. If using chocolate molds, simply pop the chips out. If using a container, use a knife to cut into small chocolate chip sized pieces.
- 6. Store in the freezer until ready to use. The homemade sugar free chocolate chips should stay good for up to four months when frozen in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
More sugar free chocolate recipes
Chocolate chip moulds exist?!?!?!?!?! My whole world has just improved!
I love this recipe, although I use xylitol as sweetener (granted, it doesn’t really melt, but it does come out almost like a Nestle Crunch Bar, yum!). Question: about how many chocolate chips is 8 grams? If you were using the mould, would that be, like, 4? Or a small handful? Just curious!
Also, you can add different extracts to your chocolate to make different flavors (I tried caramel flavor once, yum!). Or, if you add a little cashew milk, it comes out like just fudge (you can use it in place of your almond butter/coconut butter fudge)!
Thank you, Katie!
It’s about a tablespoon of the molded ones. For normal chips, 14g is a tbsp, but these are lighter. Caramel chocolate chips sound amazing!
Wonderful! Thank you for replying!
Do you grind up the xylitol before making the chocolate? I do that with erythritol. The chocolate will still have the slightest bit of crunch, but it is much smoother. I wondered if it works with xylitol as well. I use a bullet type blender; some people use a coffee grinder.
How Many erythritol did You use ..?
If you powder the xylitol in a blender, you will get a smoother texture FYI 🙂
What a great idea. The molds sound like a wonderful idea for holiday “stocking stuffers”.
They would melt into a puddle at room temperature. 🙁
i don’t know how you do it, girl – you always manage to turn just a few ingredients in to pure magic!! can’t wait to try these!
She delivers it good every time! Imagine being her neighbor for Christmas…
I actually just recently tried making homemade chocolate using coconut oil, cocoa powder, and stevia/maple syrup…SO good! Can’t wait to buy a chocolate chip candy mold…such a fun idea 🙂
Also, question: what would happen if you tried using the coconut oil version in a baked good like chocolate chip cookies? Would they just melt everywhere?
Ha yeah they melt!
These look so good! I’ll have to try them soon!
Paige
As always, such an amazing recipe. I will make these and add them to our favorite chocolate chip cookies. Thanks!
Hey! I love your blog! I have never used stevia before. About how much did u use in this recipe? Thx
It depends on if you are going for dark chocolate or more of a semi sweet chocolate taste. I’d start with ten and taste as you go.
I hate to be dumb, but ten what? Isn’t stevia a powder or liquid?
I think she means 10 drops….🤷
THANK YOU! for this! I was recently considering trying to adapt your 3 ingredient chocolate bars into chips since I had no luck finding Lily’s. I was also worried I wouldn’t be able to eat those due to my nut allergy, so this is super clutch and super wonderful. Can’t wait to make these!
Eeek you are a genius! I didn’t know chocolate chip moulds existed!
I never knew chocolate chip moulds exist even though for holidays I make my own chocolate from cocoa butter and cocoa powder. This recipe looks good, I have to tey it with coconut oil as well.
Thank you 🙂
Honey isn’t Keto.
I eat chocolate chips for snack more often than I’d like to admit so this recipe is just what I needed! Looks delicious 🙂
Ohoho, this is far too perfect! I am not ashamed to say that I’d eat these by the handful!
Can I use olive oil instead of coconut oil?
You can in the version for baking, but not in the raw version because it won’t solidify.
What chocolate bar do you recommend for the non-raw version?
If you want it to be keto, I’d go with Lily’s, which is stevia-sweetened and vegan. Or an unsweetened bar, such as Trader Joes 100% or Pacari. Otherwise you can really use any brand or flavor!
If I want to sweeten this with a powder stevia (I don’t have any liquid on hand) could I adjust the amount of coconut oil for the liquid part? How much powder stevia do you think it would need? I would be using this for raw consumption more than likely.