So mamas i need your help.
We have a chocolate allergy and just tried carob for the first time today.
it was very bitter and i was wondering if anyone knew how to mask that or make it taste more chocolatey for baking .
thanks!
Straight chocolate with no sugar or milk is bitter too. Were you tasting carob by itself? Try carob bars or carob chips. That will give you a more accurate taste of how carob products would taste in its finished form. I am used to it but it does not completely taste like chocolate or behave like it. It is more grainy or waxy, not very melty or smooth. But if you are making brownies or cake, the texture won't be as obvious.
I've had pre-packaged carob-covered raisins, and it was definitely sweet in that form.
What form of carob was it? If you bought a powder for baking, you need to add sugar just like when using baking cocoa, you need to add sugar to make it taste like chocolate. You can buy carob in a chocolate bar form and eat just like a Hershey bar. It tends to be a bit dry, maybe waxy, and sometimes grainy, and not melt like chocolate. I never found it to have any lasting chocolatey after taste, and it still made me sick as chocolate does, so I never eat it either.
I hve never found a way to make carob actually taste like chocolate. To me, the stuff is just nasty.
My son was allergic to chocolate. We just did Chocolate and white cakes for birthdays and for chocolate chip cookies, I would make half the batch raisin instead of chocolate chips, or I would use cherry chips or butterscotch. He never felt left out over the chocolate even when he was little. The other kids would have M&M's and he would get skittles.
Carob has to be used just right. Vegans use it as an alternative to chocolate which almost always contains dairy which of course they do not eat. I've been a vegan off and on and do use carob in my desserts. It can be quite the tricky thing. Sugar isn't as heavily used in vegan baking either because white sugar bone is used in processing. Anyways, I've found that Agave nectar works great in recipes with it. I mean carob just isn't chocolate which you have to accept. Using as a substitute is all fine and dandy but no matter what you do it will still not be chocolate! It's an entirely different taste when you break it down in the end.
Anyways, I'd suggest going to some vegan baking sites. There are lots of them. Vegans are huge on making everything from scratch so there are sooooooooooo many out there. My favorite thing is pumpkin cookies with carob "chocolate" chips. YUM!
But carob is great you are just going to have to let yourself realize it isn't really chocolate. Kinda how soy milk isn't milk! People sure substitute it for milk but in the end it's just not and it's an entirely new taste you'll have to embrace.... or at least get use to. You are pry going to have more trouble than your children or child who is allergic to chocolate. They have less expectations about what chocolate tastes like in the first place and they are so much more flexible with new foods contrary to what you'd think. You can't miss what you don't know.
