I wasn't sure whether to post this on the recipes or the low carb products forums, so I'll post it here and figure that it will get redirected to where it belongs.

I'm curious about Chatfield's Dairy Free Carob Morsels. They say that they're malt sweetened. The ingredients are malted barley and corn sweeteners, fractionated palm kernel oil, carob powder, and soy lecithin. In a 15 gram (23 chips) serving they have: (zero nutrients omitted)
70 cal
4 g fat (all saturated)
5 mg Na
9 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 3 g sugars
1 g protein

Are these a fair substitute for sugar free chocolate chips to use during OWL and pre-maintenance? Or should they be avoided?

I've substituted these for sugar free chocolate chips in Atkins mini chocolate chip muffins recipe. I calculate that there are about 4 chips per muffin, so there would be about 1.5 g carbs per muffin from these chips.

TIA

Joan

I think I'd pick sugar free over dairy free, given a choice. the corn sweeteners sound a lot like corn syrup to me (and I admit, I'm a novice in this area).

maybe your health food store sells something like this:
http://www.netrition.com/low_carb_s...chips_page.html

Mmmmm, those look yummy. I suppose I could use those, but I'd have to be careful about the gastric response. Not something I'd want to have with my lunch at work.

I'm also concerned with the sweeteners in the carob chips. They're definitely not artificial. I'll just have to have one of this batch every once in a while. I vacuum pack and freeze the muffins so I can have something quick and easy to put in my lunchbox every morning. Meanwhile I'll get some of the real chocolate chips from netrition for making lo carb holliday cookies.

Thanks, S&P.

Joan

you can check out your local health food stores too, plus there are a lot of websites where you can buy things.

I saw some at my local store, but I only registered it as 'when I need these, I come here', and not any specific info, like even the brand. sorry

You can make your own chocolate chips by melting unsweetened chocolate and adding a liquid sweetener - like stevia - and a little cocoa butter if you can find it. Pour into a pan, refrigerate and chop it up when hardened.

Another alternative is cocoa nibs, made from cracked cocoa beans. They're unsweetened, chocolately and have a nice crunch.

I've also found unsweetened carob chips in a natural foods store that unfortunately contained hydrogenated vegetable oil.

As an FYI, carob is much higher in carbohydrates than cocoa, ECC on carob is 49g for 100 grams of powder and 21 on cocoa.

Karen