This keto chocolates recipe is a godsend with Valentine's day just around the corner. You see, my love and I usually subscribe to the philosophy that food is the way to the heart. That rings particularly true on V-day in our house. For us, nothing says "I love you" like special dinners, delectable treats, or perfectly crafted beverages. One year my guy surprised me with dessert sushi and another he home-brewed a fantastic batch of chocolate beer! Chocolate booze?! He knows me so well! Aww, I just love Valentine's day.
Now that we are both following a ketogenic diet, our usual Valentine's day spoils are going to be a little different. Instead of the carb-filled food and drink, we would usually indulge in; we'll have to make sure we stay away from the carbs and keep dropping the weight! I whipped up a batch of keto chocolates to give my guy an early V-day treat that won't throw either of us off track.
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Hindsight is 20/20 Recipe Disclaimer: This keto chocolates recipe is technically what people refer to as "fat bombs". Fat bombs definitely aren't a keto diet necessity or staple (you don't need to go overboard on fat in the name of keto). They can be used as a way to sneak in an occasional treat while following this diet, but because they are packed with fat, they are also packed with calories. Not an ideal food for those using keto for weight loss purposes! Some people use them to add satiating fat to their diet if they are still hungry at the end of the day without affecting their other macros. Some people like them because they taste like candy. Fat bombs are high in calories; just like traditional chocolates and sweets, fat bombs fall into the empty calorie category. Just because they are keto, doesn't mean you will lose weight if you eat these.
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I tend to stay away from keto desserts because my sweet tooth rages if I'm not careful... but Valentine's Day? That calls for dessert in my book.
I made a batch of keto choclates filled with macadamia nuts and topped with sea salt using coconut oil, cocoa powder, and granulated stevia. To give it that special holiday feel and a touch of sentiment, I used silicon heart molds. The heart shapes turned out so pretty and tasted great! Think nutty dark chocolate. A win for our keto Valentine's day!
If your partner or BFF is on a low carb diet, don't disregard their commitment to eating healthy and show up with sweets for the holiday! Please: Don't. Be. That. Guy. Instead, show that 1) you support them, 2) you are thoughtful enough to consider their low carb eating habits, and 3) you have skills in the kitchen. This sentiment will get you so many brownie points, I promise!
The Keto Chocolates with Macadamia & Sea Salt [Recipe]
To start, I melted coconut oil on the stove top. Once the oil melted to a liquid, I mixed in the cocoa powder. A 2:1 ratio of coconut oil to cocoa powder seems to work well. For this batch, I used ten tablespoons of coconut oil to 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Mix in the sweetener while the mixture is still in liquid form, before placing in the molds. I used two grams of granular Stevia to sweeten it up; if you prefer a sweeter chocolate just add more to taste. I was going for a dark chocolate taste with this recipe, so it is not overly sweet.
I found it is best to keep the silicone candy mold on a cookie sheet for ease of transferability. Since you will have to transport the mold in and out of the fridge a couple of times, you'll want to make sure you can move it around without making a huge mess. Once you have a good set-up figured out, spoon the chocolate mixture into the wells of the mold and fill until each is a little over ¾ of the way up. Be sure not to fill to the top, or you won't have room for the macadamia nuts!
Transfer the silicone mold to the fridge and let it cool down to the point it starts to set up. This process won't take very long but will depend upon how hot the liquid was when placed into the mold. Just keep an eye on it to gauge the consistency. You are looking for it to be a bit gooey or gel-like - somewhere in between a liquid and solid state. You don't want the chocolate to set completely until you put the macadamia nuts in or you won't be able to mix them in. On the other hand, if you put the nuts in while the chocolate is still liquid, they will all sink to the bottom and look a little strange. Once your coconut-cocoa mixture is partially set, sprinkle the macadamia nuts into each well and press down to ensure they get evenly distributed throughout the chocolate.
Place the silicon mold back into the fridge to harden the chocolate. Once the batch has completely set, pop them out of the silicon and place right side up. You can serve just like this, and they are good... but to really knock your sweeties socks off, top them with a bit of coarse sea salt! The salty sweet combination elevates this recipe from a simple diet food hack to gourmet treat status.
To get the sea salt just right, you will need to let the batch of "chocolates" sit out at room temperature to soften the top so the salt will stick. If you skip this step, the salt will fall right off your little chocolate hearts. You can tell they are ready for the salt once the tops begin to glisten. Sprinkle each top with a pinch of coarse sea salt and pop them back into the fridge until ready to serve.
I recommend using cupcake liners for each piece of chocolate - they help keep their shape by preventing them from sticking together. Plus they look pretty and come in festive colors or prints!
Since the base of this recipe is coconut oil, the keto chocolates melt easily when left out at room temperature or if held in your hand for too long. Be sure to refrigerate your batch of chocolates when storing!
If you're looking for other keto friendly dessert ideas, check out my keto chocolate pots de creme recipe or my creamy avocado popsicles!
Ingredients
- 10 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 5 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 2 g Granulated Stevia
- 3 tbsp Macadamia Nuts coarsely chopped
- Coarse Sea Salt to taste
Instructions
- Melt coconut oil on stovetop.
- Add cocoa powder and granulated Stevia. Mix and remove from heat.
- Spoon mixture into silicone candy molds until wells are ¾ full.
- Refrigerate in silicone molds until mixture thickens to a gel-like consistency.
- Sprinkle macadamia nuts into each well. Press down to distribute the nuts throughout the mixture.
- Return silicone mold to refrigerator until completely hardened.
- Once completely set, remove chocolates from silicone mold and place right side up on a dish or cupcake liner.
- Let sit at room temperature until surface begins to glisten.
- Sprinkle a pinch of course sea salt onto each keto chocolate.
- Serve or return to refrigerator for storage.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
And an actual measurement for a sweetener would be?
Hmmn, by name and nature. Try the word “please”, and you left her 3 minutes to respond? Just wow!
One tbsp of Stevia was about 3g when I measured it out on a tared scale. I imagine it will work just as well with 3g as 2g and just be a bit sweeter, so maybe aim for a slightly underfilled tbsp if you don't have a scale.
And an actual measurement for sweetener would be? pref in standard or metric.
Each packet of Stevia is 1 gram. I'll add the measurement to the ingredients list!
Made this tonight and I LOVE IT. I loved it so much I hurried up and made a second batch. I didn't have macadamia nuts, so I used almonds from on hand. Still so good. My mom suggested adding bacon for another twist! Mmmmm. You have a winner here. Thanks for the recipe.
Yay! So glad you love it! I couldn't get enough of these. Your almond and bacon suggestions sound excellent! I'm a firm believer that bacon makes everything better, I'm totally trying it! 🙂
Hello all!! No need to melt the oil on the stove. I mix it in a bowl by hand (gloved), add the cocoa and sweetener, (I use xylitol...run it through my coffee grinder to make it powder so it blends with the oil) some Himalayan pink crystal salt, Brazil or macadamia nuts and essential oils or whatever I feel like adding at the time, spoon into silicone candy molds, pop them into the fridge and in only 10 minutes or so I have amazingly decadent, truffle-ish (like the inside of a Lindt), Van Otis-like treats that are super healthy 🙂
I've tried the stevia and don't like the taste at all but that's personal preference of course.
Next time I'm trying macadamia butter cups and hand-mixing will make it really easy to add the nut butter to the middle without having to wait for it to set halfway.
I really appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You've made my day! Thank you again
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don't know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
Has anyone tried this using erythritol?
Greetings. What are the other macros, please?
Is there anyway to just coat the macadamia nuts? Preferably without the coconut oil? Thanks in advance!
Thanks for this gorgeous recipe and taking the time to respond to so many questions.
Hey people, it would be so nice if you remembered your manners when asking a question. Please goes a long way, thanks is good too, a simple hi, and give the owner of the blog a chance to answer before posing the same question again.
You aren't paying for her time and effort, so be kind and grateful.
I can't get the sweetener to dissolve. It's all gritty.
Looks like a delicious recipe that I'll be sure to try! I would definitely not recommend using Hershey's cocoa powder- not only are they not organic (gross amount of pesticides interrupting your hormones and cells!), but they also process their cocoa with alkali. My father just passed away due to complications with heavy metal poisoning, so it's something everyone should be watching for. Go for organic + natural options! 😀
Hi Tasha,
just came across your site whilst looking for a list of low carb veggies. I will be providing links to your very useful list from my keto blog in future. I love your clean, uncluttered site, by the way. Oh and I also love this simple chocolate hearts recipe. It's definitely inspiring me to make something similar in the not so distant future (when the temperature here gets a little cooler..). I hope you won't mind. Of course I will always give credit to you for giving me an idea. Thank you for your time and effort. And keep up the good work.
I find your writing so entertaining! Recipes aren't bad either! Found you through Low Carb Yum site. Looking forward to more from you!
Hey Patti! So glad you are enjoying the site. I love Low Carb Yum too! Lisa has so many amazing recipes!
Hi, what an amazing idea!! I will be trying this tonight. By chance is there anyway you could post the gross carb content versus net carb? Some of us on living a keto lifestyle only go by gross.
Jeeze, just enter the recipe in the online calculator which you MUST be using in you're "living a keto lifestyle". Like, Chronometer.
I didn't know how long to wait and missed the gel consistency window of opportunity and skipped directly to too hard.
The first time I checked they were still liquid and the second time I checked they were solid.
If I take them out of the fridge again will they melt enough to press in the nuts?
You can definitely soften them up a bit again to get the nuts in. If your room is warm, it might be good enough to have them set out. Otherwise you could pop them in the microwave for a few seconds (as long as your molds aren't metal!).
Just served this for today's dessert. My kids really love it.Thank you for sharing this.
Awesome recipe! Used salted almonds, and tiny bit of stevia extract and these were gobbled up by even my non-Keto kids. Yum yum.
Mine came out super bitter 😣😣 I wonder what I did wrong? I used pure monk instead of stevia. Could that be the reason?
Sweeteners could play a part for sure, but it's definitely got more of the bitter dark chocolate flavor than a sweet milk chocolate the way the recipe is written. Sorry it didn't turn out the way you would have liked! 😫
This keto recipe is so simple and it tastes so good! Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone!
recipe sounds great!! I will save to Pinterest. I would not consider the calories from the fat this recipe as "empty" The coconut oil and the fat from the nuts have MANY amazing health benefits and the cocoa if it's a good quality has tons of antioxidant benefits! You should really research the benefits of these fats! I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what a healthy recipe you have here!
I will have to try this. I AM with you when you say "Try to stay away from keto desserts so you don't go into sugar rage" but every now and then, I need a piece of chocolate. Not an entire bar like I used to consume, but a piece.
These are amazing!!! They make me so happy. Thank you! (PS, the truvia site shows that 1g=3/4 tsp, therefor I used 1.5tsp for the recipe.)
Many, many thanks!
2g of stevia is 2 packets. I followed directions to a T and this was the most bitter and gross candy I’ve ever tasted. I had to toss all of it. Lots of pricey ingredients wasted. Very disappointed.
Hi Tasha,
Just found your recipe and it looks great, I will definitely make it! I was reading through the comments and someone was saying it has the consistency of a Lindt truffle interior and obviously being coconut oil it's melty. 🙂 I was wondering if maybe coating the silicone mold with a bit of Keto chocolate (Sugar Free Londoner has a great recipe that I've been making), then pouring this mixture and the nuts and then topping with hardening chocolate again would work? Have you ever tried this?
Thanks for the recipe, I'll probably make it this weekend, can't wait!
Did you use the stevia linked in the recipe (Pyure Organic All-Purpose Blend Stevia Sweetener)? This is important to know for conversion to other sweeteners. Thanks.
Hey, Tasha, just wanted you to know that I tried these keto chocolates macadamia and sea salt, and they were a great success. I will admit, however, I tweaked your recipe a bit.