Conference turris::cooks

    Oh, I forgot to mention:
    
    Or....does anyone have a recipe for some?  I would gladly make it for
    him!
    
    Jackie
    

RE: .0

Chocolate derives its flavor and texture to a large extent from cocoa butter, so
low-fat real chocolate is a contradiction in terms.  There ain't no such beast.
Remove the fat from chocolate and you have cocoa powder.

--PSW

It isn't perfect, but have your father try the non-fat chocolate frozen
yoghurt floating around these days.  It is really a pretty good chocolate
fix and won't hurt his diet...provided he eats ONE scoop a day.  You can
also make some very nice chocolate meringue cookies (no fat in them, lots
of cocoa powder and some sugar) - recipes are in lots of cookbooks.  These
are really quite wonderful and can be made quite pretty with a pastry tube.
They are made of stiffly beaten egg whites, a pinch of salt (optional, but
a very little pinch is all that is required), cocoa powder, and superfine
sugar (to the British, castor sugar).

    Also, Entennmen's (sp) now has fat-free, no cholesterol
    desserts. The chocolate loaf cake is especially yummy :-)
    

    Compound chocolate substitutes the cocoa butter with some form of oil.
    This will probably have less cholesterol than regular chocolate, and
    isn't *too* gross. 
    
    If your father likes chocolate "things" (cakes, brownies, etc.) you
    can help solve the problem by substituting the chocolate with the 
    following formula:
    
    	1 oz chocolate ~= 1 TBL cocoa powder + 3 TBL margerine.
    
    Mind you that this sort of substitution works with any form of oil, so
    technically you could make your own pseudo-chololate.  The only problem
    is that this concoction is pretty gross.  Where it does work well is
    when it is part of another recipe, so the substitution of the cocoa
    butter is diluted by the other ingredients and isn't noticed as much (and
    sometimes not at all).
    
    If I were in his position, I would wean myself off of pure chocolate
    and onto cakes, where I could moderate the cholesterol content.  In
    lieu of that I would just eat the highest quality choclate I could find
    in smaller quantities.
    
    			Hope this helps,
    
    			    David

    Jackie, 
    
    Try some of the high end health food stores around, they are usually
    ahead of the regular stores in finding fat free products and being smaller
    they are more likely to order things for you if they don't stock them.
    
    Good luck to you and your dad,
    
    
    Angela
    

    Thanks for all of your replies.  I only wish I could come up with a
    recipe to make milk chocolate!
    
    We have tried the Enteman's no fat chocolate cake and it was marvelous! 
    We really liked it with Vanilla "Simplese" frozen yogurt.  
    
    But, alas, nothing takes the place of milk chocolate!
    
    He is doing really well and sticking to his diet, so until we can come
    up with a recipe or something, he has one of those bite size Hershey or
    Nestle chocolate bars!
    
    Keep me in mind if you hear of anything!
    
    Thanks!
    
    Jackie
    

    What about carob-flavored imitation chocolate?  Try your local health
    food store.
    And then tell us about it!!
    
    -Dotti.

>    What about carob-flavored imitation chocolate?  Try your local health
>    food store.
>    And then tell us about it!!
    
I tried it.....it may be something, but IT AIN'T CHOCOLATE...it won't make
a chocolate lover happy.

    Although I haven't tried this (and so can't attest to how close it
    is to chocolate), here's one I heard of:
    
    Make a batch of yogurt cheese from plain, non-fat yogurt, sweeten
    with something like Equal or Sweet-N-Low (I use one packet to 8 oz
    of cheese), and mix in enough cocoa powder (the stuff you bake
    with) to get the right color/chocolate flavor.
    
    Roll into little balls and chill well.
    
    (This came from Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet))
    

    RE: Carob
    
    Carob will substitute the cocoa solid part of chocolate, but this is
    not the part with the cholesterol, so it detracts from the taste
    without doing any good.  If you were trying to avoid caffiene, this 
    would be a good solution, but not for cholesterol.
    
    See if you can find out what kind of oil they put into compound
    chocolate and if it has cholesterol in it (this may entail writing
    to the manufacterer).
    
    Carob tastes okay, but it won't satisfy any real chocolate cravings.
    
    				-d

There usually isn't much animal fat in chocolate.  However, there is quite 
frequently lots of saturated fats, like cocoa butter, palm oil, coconut oil,
etc., which are just as bad for someone trying to lower the fat and cholesterol
content of their diet.

So, asking for just cholesterol content of the chocolates can be misleading.  If
you are going to the trouble of contacting a company to find out the info, ask
about total fat content and saturated fats as well.

The sad news as PSW said is that low fat chocolate (as in chocolate bars, etc)
is a contradiction in terms.  His best bet would be to go with the low fat 
chocoloate flavored stuff for the every day eating, and save the best chocolate
he can find for an occasional treat.

    
    I just found and bought a wierd cookbook at the New England [un]Mobil
    Bookfair called "Bum Steers" which has a recipe which might help.
    I have not tested it, but it sounds interesting.
    
    ================================================================
    Mock-Milk Chocolates
    
    3 cups water
    1/2 cup honey
    2 cups raw sugar
    1 lb skinned chestnuts
    
      1. Put water in heavy saucepan and disolve sugar and honey in
    it over very low heat.  When all sugar has disolved and liguid becomes
    syrup-like, add chestnuts.
    
      2. Put an asbestos [???} pad under pan and cook steadily for 45-60
    mins over gentle heat, turning chestnuts over now and then til glazed
    and chewy. Server or save in fluted foil candy cups.
    
    =================================================================
    
    According to a table in the back of the book, dried chestnuts have
    5.9% water, 10.7% protein, 74.2% carbohydrates, 7% fat, and 2.2%
    minerals.  Doesn't say what kind of fat, but the recipe should be
    very low fat.
    
    If you try it, I'd like to hear the results...
    
    							/alan