Creamy keto cacao butter recipes are a great way to add a healthy source of fat to your diet. Cacao butter has a mild chocolate flavor and pale yellow color that will instantly remind you of your favorite white chocolate bar.
I’ve been thoroughly smitten by cacao butter ever since my first package arrived many years ago. It’s a high-fat ingredient by nature, making it perfect for easy keto recipes on a keto diet.
The chocolatey aroma is simply divine, but it’s more than just the key ingredient for our favorite dessert recipes. I’ve come to learn that this wonder fat is used for numerous applications, from making candies and smoothies to all kinds of skincare products!
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What is Cacao Butter?
The Theobroma cacao tree produces a beautiful yellow, orange, and purple fruit pod. Inside this pod are seeds called cacao beans. The beans are the key ingredient in making chocolate, so this is the closest you can get to having chocolate grow on trees.
A far cry from chocolate peanut butter cups dripping down like cherries, the bean is bitter and must be dried and fermented before eating. This chocolate bean can make a few different foods: cacao paste, cacao powder, cacao butter, and cacao nibs.
There’s often a bit of confusion around cacao butter, yet once you become familiar with its potential, it’s hard not to fall in love with it. Cacao butter, also called Theobroma oil, comes about as the bean is pressed to separate the oil from the fiber (aka “cacao powder”). Right from the start, the “butter” in cacao butter is a bit of a misnomer since technically, there’s no butter or dairy, nor is it buttery in flavor.
Cacao butter is a golden-hued oil when melted at low heat but firms up into a cream-colored solid when cooled to room temperature. It’s responsible for making your chocolates taste smooth and creamy, and the reason chocolate chips in your chocolate chip cookies are hard to the touch but melt in your mouth.
Where Can I Buy Cacao Butter?
There is undoubtedly a dark side to the cacao industry. Scandals over child labor, poor working conditions, and toxic contamination of both the growing area and final cacao product make it evident that choosing a trustworthy source is important.
Cacao products are best when they’re grown sustainably. We have previously enjoyed a partnership with Pacari Cacao, an Ecuador-based biodynamic and organic cacao farm best known for its high-quality organic cacao products. We no longer sell cacao ourselves but we do recommend products from Wildly Organic and stand by their sourcing, processing, and business practices.
Does Cacao Butter Taste Like Chocolate?
For all our talk about chocolate, cacao butter doesn’t exactly taste like chocolate. It has a mildly sweet flavor and a chocolatey aroma that’s greater than the flavor it provides (which is only an essence). Recipes with raw cacao butter use it as a background flavor to add richness and texture and it’s never eaten on its own.
What Can You Do with Cacao Butter?
Now this is the fun part: how to use cacao butter! This pale-yellow, edible fat is used to make all kinds of sweet treats, whether chocolate-themed or not. Here are four ways to use it:
- In desserts: Use cacao butter for homemade chocolate bars, candies, and confections such as brittle, fudge, and truffle. Melted cacao butter can also be added in small amounts to your frostings and sweet sauces. Combine with sugar-free maple syrup, vanilla, or honey to sweeten up and add a depth of flavor to your recipe.
- In baked goods: Melted cacao butter is used in place of other kinds of oil or dairy butter in recipes like cakes, cookies, and brownies. Use only as a partial substitute as cacao butter tends to harden the recipe a little after baking.
- In drinks: Add cacao butter to create an epic smoothie or blend into hot drinks like lattes and bullet-proof coffee.
- In skincare: Cacao butter shares the spotlight with beauty darlings like shea butter and kin, revered for their skincare benefits. Add cacao butter to your homemade ointments and cosmetics like lip balms, moisturizing lotions, face and hand creams, hair conditioners, and massage oils.
Do You Refrigerate Cacao Butter?
Just because you can easily melt cacao butter, doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way! Cacao butter will slowly solidify at room temperature and rapidly firm up in the fridge. Given its remarkable hardening property, it’s important to thoroughly combine cacao butter into your recipes to avoid solid chunks or veins of hard fat from forming.
Proper storage is key to maximizing the benefits of cacao butter. Be sure to store it in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight. It generally has a shelf life of two to three years if it hasn’t been exposed to heat or wet conditions. If you live in a warm climate and your cacao butter starts to soften, store it in an airtight container and refrigerate it briefly to firm it up again.
It’s a general practice of mine to write the date I opened it on the package, so I remember when it was originally opened. However, with so many good recipes to try, it won’t last long enough to expire!
The Best Cacao Butter Recipes
Ready to explore the rich, creamy world of cacao butter recipes? This versatile superfood is not just for chocolate lovers; it’s a game-changer in the kitchen, offering a healthy fat with a luxurious texture that enhances everything from baked goods to savory dishes.
Cacao butter provides texture, flavor, and a creamy visual appeal to keto recipes. Try some of these delicious, mouthwatering keto recipes that make cacao butter the star, and get ready to transform your cooking with a touch of decadence!
Final Thoughts
Now you see the wonders of this healthy fat and the many recipes with cacao butter you can enjoy with the whole family. I hope you are inspired by these recipes as much as I am!
Wow so excited to try some of these, I just bought cacao butter and then didn’t know what to do with it haha. Thanks!
Perfect! I’m so glad this post is helpful for you 🙂
Such a creative celebration of recipes!
Thanks for sharing this info and the great resources!