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
How many ounces of chocolate is this equivalent to?
Katie, I try not to use any oil, what could I sub for the oil? Thanks John
The Sugar Free Chocolate Chips For Baking recipe she lists in the post can be oil free.
Lovely recipe. You do know though, that Keto does exclude honey, maple and especially agave? all not allowed on keto.
Hi! Use the stevia option for them to be keto 😉
-Jason
THIS MAYBE A STUPID QUESTION, BUT IS RECIPE DAIRY FREE?, WANT A SUGAR FREE, DAIRY FREE & SOY FREE CHOCOLATE.
It is! All of Katie’s recipes are dairy free (as long as you use your favorite dairy free milk for “milk of choice” when it’s called for in a recipe) 🙂
Wonderful recipe!!one question though,
I tried the baking version of the chips,but ut still melted in the baking.. what did I do wrong or is there something I can do to make it not-melted next time?
Is it possible to use the raw version in baking?
Katie,
I have a question about the molds themselves — are they easy to use? I would love to see a video of you pouring the mixture into the molds. It just seems like it’s be a lot of work to not make a huge mess?
My toddlers love peanut butter and I’d really love to make them some nut butter chips to include in some of your recipes. (Great way to add some healthy calories for my picky eater.) I just want to know if using these molds is a lot of work (ie clean-up).
Thanks for your advice!
Mama C. A.
It’s not a lot of cleanup, just put them in the dishwasher. But getting the final result out of the molds can sometimes be a pain, depending on what food you put in. Sometimes, depending on what it is, the food will stick a little if you try to just invert the mold and get everything out at once, so you have to pop some out individually.
Thanks Jason!
It doesn’t make a big mess to pour the mixture into the molds? I can scoop batter into each muffin cup but how do you distribute the mixture into the little chip cups without getting it everywhere?
Thanks! C. A.
i have liquid stevia – but it’s not flavored.. any idea if it would still work if I just added some vanilla extract??? Thanks!!
I also need to use powdered stevia extract, , what amount of stevia?should I use with this recipe?
Has anyone tried making these using chicory root sweetener like Just Like Sugar? To date, this is the only sweetener option I have found that has yet to be know to be unhealthy, with the exception of REAL stevia (as in actual dried and powdered stevia leaves, not stevia extract which is not at all natural). If anyone has tried making these using REAL ground stevia leaves with any success, please let me know. I would be concerned that the stevia aftertaste would be problematic but who knows. And if anyone has used chicory root, please tell me how much you used and which exact version you used (Just Like Sugar has a few different versions for different uses). I am not even sort of a cook or baker so I wouldn’t even know where to start to figure this out. Thank you!
Why can’t the raw chips be used for baking? Just wondering.
They would melt once heated 🙂
Does the nutritional info change depending on the sweetener used?
It will change depending on if you use sugar or a sugar free sweetener, like any recipe. I think sugar free sweeteners are calorie free as well, right? Or at least fewer.
Really recommend you mention at the beginning of the recipe that these were not for baking. My cookies are bleeding chocolate as if they knicked an artery.
In any recipe you make, they say you should always read the full recipe before beginning. That way you know what you’re getting into and what you’ll need, and you don’t miss a step. Chocolate melty cookies sound good though.
I do not have a mold soooo….I’m going to pipe them on parchment paper and freeze them! LOL Thanks for the recipe!
Do you use any kind of syringe or spoon to pour the chocolate into the candy molds? Do you just pour it from the mixing bowl/container? Or what method do you use? When using candy molds in the past I’ve found it tedious to pour the liquid into each individual mold but maybe this mold will be easier.
hi! Would you used dutched cocoa or just reg/natural?
Thank you! 🙂
Regular for this one! 🙂