An easy sub for chocolate chips, these homemade carob chips are rich in minerals and vitamins and delicious in baking! Or just for snacking…
A tasty substitute.
Even though half my blog is probably dedicated to my love of all the chocolate things, I actually do love carob, too. Growing up, my mom never really bought chocolate chips (or chocolate anything), so carob was our go-to treat. I have fond memories of finding all the places she’d hide the carob chips from me and my brother and enjoying my mom’s delicious banana carob chip smoothies, or hot carob in the winters (in place of hot cocoa).
If you’re not all up on what carob is, it’s a little fruit that grows in a pod, like peas and other legumes. Carob is high in many vitamins and minerals, like calcium, zinc, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin K, riboflavin, and vitamin E, and also contains antioxidants. It’s used around the world as a chocolate substitute, as it has a similarly sweet taste, but lacks the caffeine.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
The recipe for these easy homemade carob chips actually came out of necessity. I’d been wanting to try my hand at making my own carob chips for a while, and I finally got my chance when I used up the last of my chocolate chips.
At the time I was pregnant with baby #4, and as all you moms know, being pregnant in a house without chocolate is not a good thing. Though knowing me it probably wouldn’t be a good thing even if I weren’t pregnant.
I chose to make carob chips instead of chocolate because, for some weird reason, organic roasted carob was cheaper to get than cocoa powder, thus I have a ton of it. (Not literally, of course.)
Homemade carob chips.
Anyway, these carob chips were SUPER easy to make and taste wonderful. I’ve used them in brownies, cookies (recipe coming soon, hopefully), and currently I’m just eating them by the handful.
They’re made with simple ingredients, and can be as sweet as you want by adding more honey. You could also use butter to make them, if you can handle dairy. I can’t, so coconut oil it is!
More carob-y goodness.
Here are a few more delicious recipes with carob in them. You can pretty much sub carob or carob chips for any recipe using cocoa or chocolate chips, though. 🙂
In the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks!
Homemade Carob Chips
Free from grain, gluten, eggs, dairy, and refined sugar.
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup carob powder
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to make my own)
Instructions
Line an 8×8 inch baking dish with foil or use a silicone loaf pan.
In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil.
Add in remaining ingredients and quickly stir until smooth.
Pour into pan and smooth top with a spatula or spoon.
Freeze until hardened.
Remove from pan, cut into chunks and eat store covered in the fridge until ready to use.
Notes
Other than the links attached above, I also like to purchase my coconut oil, carob powder, and vanilla from Azure Standard.
That looks so easy! Do you miss the hit of chocolate though? I'm a diehard chocoholic, and I'm not sure these would satisfy. Any thoughts?
🙂 I wouldn't say that they satisfy the chocolate craving, but they taste great otherwise. 🙂 Next time I'll break down and try it with cocoa and a little more honey. I think carob is sweeter than cocoa, so it doesn't need as much sweetener. That helps me justify eating more of it! 🙂 Hope you enjoy them!
Will you please please please save some for tomorrow?
Everytime I make this lately it separates when I add the honey or maple syrup! What am I doing wrong??
Hmm… I would try letting the coconut oil cool down some before adding in the honey and carob. See if that helps. So sorry it’s not been working for you!
Oh, I wish I’d checked this before I made this recipe… 🙁 Hopefully it will still taste good? I don’t have enough carton for a second batch since I need it to make a cake. (My sweet daughter said that for her sixth birthday, she wanted a cake that I could eat ❤️)
*carob, not carton!
Hopefully they work well for you, Marnie!
If cooling the coconut oil is important to prevent separation please add it to the recipe. I didn’t worry about that because it wasn’t in the recipe.
I don’t ever cool the coconut oil, so I don’t see it as an important part of the recipe.
I”ve noticed that happen sometimes when I add the vanilla. Add your vanilla at the very last minute!
Great tip, Liz!
Thank you for posting this. I had graininess but will mix the carob in when the oil is less hot next time. Nonetheless it worked quite well. I don’t like to eat foods with palm oil given the deforestation problem so homemade works for me!
I'll try. . . . : )
I was looking for a recipe using butter and this was just perfect. I cut it down to a quarter since it was just me and I melted the butter in a pan (Takes less time to cool then melting it in my microwave) and I used a silicone mould and it worked wonderfully. Thanks so much!
I'm so glad you liked them! Thank you for taking the time to let me know – it's always encouraging to get positive feedback on my recipes! 🙂
Great healthy alternative to chocolate. I’m intrigued to try this!
Yes, they are a wonderful chocolate alternative!
These sound delicious and easy. I would love to use these in brownies, parfaits, or even a good hiking mic!
Thanks, Jenni! Yep, they’re tasty in all those options! 🙂
I had no idea how easy these were to make! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
You’re so welcome, Jessica! I love making them from home so that I can control how much sweetener is in them. 🙂
Great recipe to have. They look yummy, and seem to be easy to make! They are a good alternative to chocolate chips.
Thanks Denise!
I’m new to the AIP, but I use a lot of coconut products. Could I substitute the sweetener for coconut sugar? If so, how much? And do you think it will affect the final product?
Hm… I’ve never tried it with a granulated sweetener. I think it would still work, if you made sure to melt the sweetener completely (otherwise it would be a little grainy). As for the amount of sweetener, coconut sugar isn’t quite as sweet as honey, so you might want to start with a little more and then adjust to your taste. 🙂
Such a smart recipe dear! Thank you for this substitute! I’ll definitely try those!
Haha! Thank you! I hope you enjoy them, Michelle. 🙂
What a great idea! What do you recommend in place of the honey?
Thank you!
Hmm… you could try maple syrup or agave. I haven’t tried either, though.
I made it, but decided to use dextrose instead of honey. I forgot dextrose doesn’t work well with liquids. It clumped up, so I added a small jar of peanut butter and blended in the blender. I will see what happens to that overnight. The rest I poured over my one ingredient frozen banana ice cream, and it made a “magic shell” type topping. Interesting! I will try it again!
Oh wow! Haha. Sounds yummy!
Is there a way to make this sans coconut? I have found I have reactions to anything coconut.
You could try it using avocado oil. 🙂
A question, would this recipe work for dipping nut/dried fruit balls?
I’ve never tried it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. 🙂
Hello, I will be using this recipe for melting “chocolate” to use on dog treats (with alcohol-free vanilla). If I melt these chips after they set, will it dry firmly? I’d like to store them in a paper bag together for my customers but am not sure if it will be messy and sticky like other recipes I have tried. Thank you!
Hmm… They seem to be fine in day-old chocolate chip cookies, if that helps answer your question!
I tried this (with some substitutions) and it came out grainy and kept wanting to separate. It’s in the freezer now, so we’ll see… Anyway, looking for suggestions on how to make it work. I didn’t have coconut oil and can’t do dairy, so I used homemade ghee. Melted in the microwave, then poured into pan. (Maybe it was too hot?) Then I added the carob, honey, and vanilla. My vanilla is homemade with tequila because I didn’t have enough vodka for the last batch. (Maybe that caused an issue?) It started out grainy and I stirred for a while hoping it would smooth out, but it just got harder, like chocolate that has seized up, so I added more ghee. It got workable again (still grainy), but when I tasted it, it didn’t seem sweet enough for the kids, so I added erythritol, stirred until it seemed like it was all mixed in (it never really changed texture) and spooned it into molds. The ghee started separating out and coming to the top almost immediately. I’m going to see how they are once they are cooled, but I’ll probably end up remelting and trying to turn them into no-bake cookies (for the kids since I can’t eat oats). From the other comments, I’m gathering that they aren’t supposed to be grainy at all. So… Tips? Should I leave out the vanilla? Melt the erythritol with the ghee? Should I get coconut oil instead of using ghee? Any other ideas?
Well, I can’t say I’ve ever tried making this with ghee, or erythritol, so I’m not sure if my suggestions will make a difference. Haha! I don’t think the ghee or the taquila should be an issue, either way…
It sounds like maybe the ghee wasn’t hot enough to fully dissolve the carob powder. That would be my first suggestion. If it isn’t fully dissolved, you can always add it back to the heat until it is.
If you want to use erythritol, you should probably add it in with the carob so that it can fully melt.
If the mixture is too hard, I would just add in a little more of the ghee/coconut oil.
I’m not really sure about the fat separation, but when that happens I would guess it’s just because the carob isn’t dissolved in fully, so it’s not really bonded to anything.
Hopefully that is a little helpful! Sorry you had such a hard time with them!
I read that carob will get grainy when overheated. This just happened to me. We need to add the carob when the oil or butter has cooled down to some degree. Heating more made mine worse, but it is in the freezer. Thankfully I made a half recipe
Thanks for the tip! I hope you were able to salvage or enjoy what you ended up with! I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you wasted precious ingredients.
I can’t have coconut. I was wondering if you could use extra virgin olive oil instead?
Olive oil would probably not work, since it doesn’t solidify when it’s cold. You could for sure try it though, if you’re just wanting the carob for a frosting or sauce type thing. You might want to add a little more sweetener, though, since olive oil has a very strong flavor.
Thank you soooooo much for this recipe! MUCH appreciated. Unfortunately, Azure’s carob chip facility recently burned to the ground so the carob chips I normally get from them are not available for the foreseeable future. However, because of my needing to limit sugar I’m wondering if you could use Wholesome Yum Keto Sugar Free Honey Substitute instead of real honey for this recipe? Thanks so much!
Also…could you use Miyoko’s Vegan Butter instead of coconut oil or real butter for this recipe? Thanks again!
Hey JodEe! Such a bummer about Azure’s facility! I hope they can recover from that quickly. I have never tried to make these chips with a keto sweetener or a vegan butter sub. So I can’t really say one way or the other how they would turn out. If you feel adventurous and try those subs, please let me know if they work!
Thank you for your reply. It’s actually Jodee, not JodEe. I don’t know how the capital E got in there…lol. 🥴 “Wholesome Yum” is the substitute honey that (according to a guy I really like on YouTube that is all about the keto diet and tests various products and recipes on his page) seems to be the closest thing to real honey in taste and viscosity. I probably will be ordering a jar if my carob chip order from Azure falls through. They are showing a very limited amount right now, but I doubt I will actually get what I ordered. If I don’t get the carob chips I will definitely be trying your recipe with the substitute honey. Heck, I may just order it because I am really curious to see if it works. I’ll definitely let you know if and when I try this. Fingers crossed! 🤞🤞
And I’m going to just stick with coconut oil for now. If it turns out using the substitute honey, maybe I will then try using the vegan Miyoko’s butter just to see if that works too. Excited to try this!! 🤗
Ok! I know Wholesome Yum’s products are very high quality, so I would guess they would work. I hope you enjoy the carob chips, Jodee! 😉
Howdy!
Well, I ordered and received the Wholesome Yum Keto Substitute Honey and ordered and received my 8×8 Trudeau Silicone Baking Pan from Amazon. Now that I finally had everything I needed on hand I made your carob “chip” recipe this afternoon. I used all your listed ingredients with the substitute honey being the only change to the recipe. After reading all the comments, I let the melted coconut oil cool for 10 minutes before adding the carob powder. I then added the “honey” and vanilla, poured it into my 8×8 pan, and put in the freezer for 1 hour. It looks FANTASTIC!! 🤗 The Wholesome Yum “honey” seems to have worked just like real🍯honey. 🙏 Then I put the slab (still in the pan) in the refrigerator. I haven’t actually tasted it yet, but I have another question…how do you store this? Do you store it in the refrigerator in the whole slab form (removed from the silicone pan, of course) and cut/chop pieces as needed? Or do you cut the whole slab up and store in pieces? And what type of container do you use to store the slab/pieces in? I have always stored my Azure Carob Chips in their original bag inside a LocknLock airtight container in the cupboard without any issues. Is this best stored frozen, refrigerated, or at room temperature? Thanks so much! I’m sooooooooo happy to have found you and your recipe!!! 🥰
Yay! I’m glad it’s working for you! If your house it on the colder side you should be able to store them at room temp. I usually can do that in the winter, but have to refrigerate them in the summer. I also usually chop them all up and put them in a jar for storage. Of course, it’s rather dangerous, because if they’re chopped I’m more apt to just take a few every time I go in the fridge. Hahaha!
Thank you Raia! ☺️
I can’t thank you enough for this recipe!!! I have been looking for carb chips for ages. There used to be a carob candy years,ago under the label of Carafections. Their stuff was exceptional – great natural ingredients and not too sweet.
Anyway, I made your recipe. If made during the hot summer months, no need to melt the coconut oil because it’s already liquid. Since I’m the kind of cook and baker who doesn’t really follow recipes without changing them, I added about a cup and a half of carob powder to see what would happen. I also omitted the honey because I found it sweet enough already. The vanilla I added at the end and it helped to thicken the mixture. It’s in the freezer now. Can’t wait to break it into pieces and use it in a cookie recipe. I think it would also be possible to turn it into a healthy candy recipe by adding nuts, coconut, etc. Can’t wait to experiment!
I’m so excited that I found this recipe!!! Thanks so much!
I’m so glad you found my recipe! I hope you enjoy it!