White Chocolate Alternative
Not only have I had success with using carob chips and powder to appease my husband’s allergy to chocolate, but I’ve also enjoyed substituting yogurt chips for recipes calling for white chocolate chips. By U.S. law white chocolate must contain at least twenty percent cocoa butter. So if you are allergic to chocolate, you can’t eat white chocolate, either.
Even if you aren’t allergic to chocolate why substitute yogurt chips for white chocolate? After all yogurt chips do have more calories than white chocolate chips. Yogurt chips also have less than half the saturated fat. For most people it is easier to burn sugar or calories from carbohydrates than to burn off stored fat calories.
Not to say that a cookie, which is the food most commonly containing chips, is healthy, since almost all of them have some combination of butter, sugar and flour. But you can lessen the harm this little comfort food creates by reading the ingredients in a recipe and making a few health conscious substitutions.
Yogurt chips combine very well with nut based cookie recipes. They are especially good with cashews, walnuts and macadamia nuts. And yes, you are right. Nuts have a lot of calories and a lot of fat. But they are good (monounsaturated) fats that reduce cholesterol and add a lot of flavor, especially if roasted before adding to a cookie recipe. They also add texture and contain lots of vitamins and protein.
What’s nice about adding yogurt or other chips to a cookie recipe is that it adds that extra bit of sweetness that we seem to crave in our desserts. By baking your own cookies you have the choice of using less chips than what is called for in a recipe. Fewer chips will not change the chemistry or outcome of the cookie.
Perhaps one of my favorite cookie combination’s using yogurt chips is with maple extract. Is there any flavor quite as enticing as the smell of maple? Another favorite is mixing cranberries with yogurt chips. This is a great combination for a biscotti, which takes a little more time, but is not difficult.
So next time you reach for white chocolate chips or are looking for a substitute, consider trying yogurt chips instead and use less. Or add them to a recipe that calls for a frosting and forget the frosting. You’ll get the same amount of sweetness, but with less effort and less fat.