Where can I buy "unsweetened chocolate"?

[Wiifitmama]

I have found a wonderful recipe for brownies using no flour or sugar. But it uses 200g of 100% dark chocolate. In America, they call this unsweetened chcolate or bitter chocolate and bars of it are readily available in supermarkets. Here, I could only find Willies 100g block in waitrose which cost £5. I did buy it and made half the recipe and it was fabulous, but there is no way I can justify the cost again. Sooooo.....any ideas where I can get similar cheaper?

[Wiifitmama]

Someone tell me I don't need to remortgage my house to make these brownies!!

[Catsmamma]

wouldn't any high cocoa solids chocolate do?

Tesco have lindt on offer...85%, 2 bars (100g I think) for £3.

be near enough I'd say.

[Elliptic5]

Tescos have their own brand dark chocolate, they are a reasonable price and I use them in cooking.

[Wiifitmama]

Hi. It needs to be 100%. I don't eat added sugar of any kind, not even very dark chocolate. It's really odd because in the US, cooking chocolate is the unsweetened kind!

[MinnesotaNice]

www.americansweets.co.uk/bakers-unsweetened-baking-chocolate-squares-226g-8oz-box-1602-p.asp

This company has it for £1 less and it's a bigger box. Not sure if you live nearby, otherwise the shipping probably offsets the savings.

[Sleepwhenidie]

I was going to say Willies! I'm not aware of any others. Maybe try experimenting with cacao nibs from a health food shop, that may be cheaper.

[intheround]

Lindt do a 90% cocoa chocolate. I would use that. Tesco sell it.

[intheround]

Sorry OP, just seen your post about sugar.

[MoreBeta]

I buy Menier Chocolate. It is Patissiere Dark Cooking chocolate and 70% it makes superb chocolate sauces, cakes, icing, ice cream. You can eat it too but it is intense and I can't do more than half a bar.

Its £1.20 oer 100g and 70%. Really bitter and works well in any recipe.

My standard chocolate sauce is melt a bar of this, pour in a tablespoon of honey and 200 - 300 ml of single cream depending how strong you like your chocolate sauce. Keep in jar in fridge for emergencies - it may need warming a bit in microwave if it has gone solid.

[intheround]

I'm curious- what are the other ingredients?

[intheround]

Cross post- that was for OP and her brownies!

[Wiifitmama]

I think I will stick with Willies. Just realised it is 180g and not 100g as I thought. So better value. Can't use 70% as it has sugar in it.

Here is the recipe:

Purely Fruit Sweetened Brownies

200 grams baking chocolate (unsweetened chocolate)
½ teaspoon baking soda
200 grams pitted dates (about 10 dates)
3 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
In a food processor, pulse chocolate and baking soda until texture of coarse sand
Pulse in dates, then eggs, coconut oil and vanilla
Transfer batter into a 20 x 20 centimeter baking dish
Bake at 180°C/350°F for 26-30 minutes
Cool for 1 hour
Serve

[BigChocFrenzy]

Lindt do a 99% cocoa choc. I don't know which supermarkets - I live out in the sticks, so I buy most stuff online Lindt or Amazon

[GeeinItLaldy]

Hotel Chocolat sells 100% dark chocolate. It's an abomination that really should not be allowed to call itself chocolate.

[Wiifitmama]

There are lots of places that sell really good 100% chocolate bars but they are specialist and for eating not cooking so are very expensive. I buy an amazing one from Rabott Estate (which is part of Hotel Chocolate but much better). It is their Peru bar and is divine. It is what I eat when I want a square of chocolate. But at £3.25 for a 35g bar, I won't be cooking with it :)

My husband just found a wholesalers website with 1 kg of Grenada 100% bars for only £15.65. A great brand at an amazing price. Unfortunately delivery is £10!!

I did wonder about the Lindt 99% bar as Ocado stock it. But it is a 50g bar so the per kilo price is actually much more expensive than the Willies block. And it has sugar in it, though only a tiny amount.

[Snowdown]

OP What's the difference between the sugar from dates and the sugar from cane/beet?

[HaymitchAbarnathy]

I was going to ask that, you know fructose is a kind of sugar?

[Wiifitmama]

Because your body reacts to it differently. Mine certainly does. But this is not a diet thread :)

[MoreBeta]

Sugar from beet and cane is refined sucrose mostly. I guess date sugar is fructose.

Why do you need 100% chocolate. Does it actually makes any difference to your chocolate brownies if you are going to add sugar to the recipe anyway?

[Snowdown]

Fructose worries me more than sucrose - does the body process fructose in dates differently to the way it processes something like High fructose glucose syrup - does it cause the liver to get fatty too?

[MoreBeta]

Some people have fructose malabsorption. That causes the sugar to pas into the lower bowel and ferment.

The fructose itself if absorbed is metabolised slightly differently to say glucose but that metabolic pathway is not usually an issue unless in very rare cases of a genetic defect in one of the enzymes required to process fructose.

Typically though most people who have a problem with fructose it is to do with malabsorption.

[Snowdown]

Thanks beta that's really interesting!

[JamNan]

I can vouch for this chocolate from Grenada it is superb and you can buy it online in the UK.
Grenada Chocolate Company

I just looked on my tin of Tesco Cocoa powder and it is pure cocoa with no added sugar so perhaps you could use that.

[LittleBabyPigsus]

Just use unsweetened cocoa powder - I find it makes nicer brownies anyway.

[BigChocFrenzy]

Yes, any cocoa powder is normally unsweetened.
I use organic cocoa powder with minimal processing for my (very occasional attempt at) baking, simpler for my stick mixer than solid chocolate.