Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
Since becoming vegan, you tiptoe around chocolate since so much of it contains dairy. Yet lately you have a hankering for the chocolatey goodness that only comes from the inclusion of cocoa butter. Is cocoa butter dairy and vegan-safe or do you have to avoid this ingredient too?
Cocoa butter is a plant-based fat that’s sourced from cocoa beans, so it’s safe for vegans to enjoy on its own. Food manufacturers that make candy bars and other sweet treats with cocoa butter may add dairy, so check the label when shopping.
If you’re curious about what cocoa butter is, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll discuss where cocoa butter comes from, if it contains dairy, and whether vegans can eat it. We’ll also recommend some chocolate recipes with cocoa butter but no dairy.
What Is Cocoa Butter?
As you may recall from our post on raw sugar, it starts off looking very different than what you’re used to. The same is also true of cocoa butter. First of all, cocoa butter has a lard-like texture, so it’s not solid like a block of chocolate. It’s also not brown, but whitish.
Cocoa butter is known as Theobroma oil. It comes from a much more familiar source, cocoa beans. When food manufacturers harvest cocoa beans to make chocolate, the beans undergo a fermentation process. Then they’re dried out, roasted, and broken down into cocoa nibs.
The nibs are more than 50 percent of what will become cocoa butter, sometimes as much as 58 percent. The manufacturer takes the cocoa nibs, grinds them together, and makes a mass out of them. This mass is chocolate liquor or cocoa liquor.
The chocolate liquor undergoes further processing, being pressed to divide the cocoa solids and cocoa butter. If the cocoa butter doesn’t look as delectable as food manufacturers prefer, they will deodorize it. They also do that to lessen odors.
What can manufacturers do with cocoa butter? All sorts of things! It goes into lots of types of chocolate, including dark, milk, and white chocolates. In the world of pharmaceuticals, cocoa butter is a primary ingredient in suppository treatments. It also appears in ointments since it melts at slightly less than 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which happens to be the average body temperature of humans.
A tablespoon of cocoa butter, which is 13.6 grams, contains the following:
- 120 calories
- 14 grams of total fat (21 percent of your recommended daily limit)
- 8 grams of total fat (40 percent of your recommended daily limit)
- 4 grams of polyunsaturated fat
- 5 grams of monounsaturated fat
- 0 milligrams of cholesterol
- 0 milligrams of sodium
- 0 grams of carbohydrates
- 0 grams of dietary fiber
- 0 grams of sugar
- 0 grams of protein
Here is a full list of the fatty acids in cocoa butter:
- Palmitoleic acid – 0.3 percent
- Other acids – 0.5 percent
- Arachidic acid – 1 percent
- Linoleic acid – 3.2 percent
- Palmitic acid – 26 percent
- Stearic acid – 34.5 percent
- Oleic acid – 34.5 percent
Is Cocoa Butter Vegan? Does It Contain Dairy?
Cocoa butter is a derivative of cocoa beans or cacao beans. These beans come from the Theobroma cacao, a tree species from Mesoamerica that belongs to the Malvaceae family. This evergreen tree reaches heights of up to 26 feet tall in maturity.
The Theobroma cacao produces cacao pods. The pods measure between 3.1 and 3.9 inches wide and are 5.9 to 11.8 inches tall. The pod itself is not the cocoa bean, although that would be nice. Instead, each cacao pod has dozens of cocoa seeds, anywhere from 20 to 60.
Whether manufacturing cocoa butter, cocoa solids, or chocolate liquor, cocoa beans are dairy-free. Yes, cocoa butter has no dairy in it despite that it’s called butter. We think cocoa butter is referred to this way since it has a texture and color like butter. Still, it’s completely dairy-free.
It’s when cocoa butter is added to chocolate that its dairy-free and vegan status is up in the air.
For example, let’s look at the ingredients in white chocolate. Fun fact: white chocolate isn’t true chocolate since it lacks chocolate solids. What these white candy bars do contain is lecithin, vanilla, milk products, cocoa butter, and sugar.
The milk products, by the way, are everything from buttermilk powder to lactose, whey powder, and full cream milk powder. White chocolate may contain as much as 6.7 percent cream powder and 17.8 percent milk powder, which are by no means insignificant quantities.
White chocolate is decidedly non-vegan, but what about everyone’s favorite, milk chocolate? Well, it’s in the name that milk chocolate contains dairy. Milk chocolate M&Ms include ingredients like milk solids, cocoa solids, dextrin as a thickener, glazing agent 903, artificial colors (133, 102, 129, 110, and 171), vegetable gum, glucose syrup, starch, sugar, salt, soy lecithin, vegetable fat, cocoa butter, and milk chocolate.
With up to 22 percent milk solids and 29 percent cocoa solids, M&Ms are anything but vegan-safe. At least milk chocolate is real chocolate since it contains cocoa solids.
That brings us to dark chocolate. While it certainly depends on the manufacturer, dark chocolate often includes ingredients like vanilla beans, soy lecithin, cocoa butter, cane sugar, and cacao beans. The lack of dairy in dark chocolate gives it that pure, rich flavor that it’s so beloved for and makes it a vegan treat. It’s no wonder that a few squares of dark chocolate can be good for your health every now and again!
Cocoa Butter Benefits
Speaking of what’s good for your health, now that you’re aware you can safely consume or use cocoa butter as a vegan, what are the benefits of doing so? Let’s talk more about that now.
May Help Your Heart
Cocoa butter contains polyphenols or plant compounds that are known for boosting brain power, promoting good digestion, preventing some types of cancer, and reducing heart disease risk. This 2014 study from Current Atherosclerosis Reports states that polyphenols can lessen chronic inflammation so you’re less likely to develop heart disease.
Bolsters Your Immune System
Those polyphenols don’t only reduce heart inflammation, but inflammation elsewhere in the body. Further aiding your immune system is how polyphenols can prevent cellular mutation and DNA damage.
Altogether, you’re at a lower risk of autoimmune diseases and diabetes. Your immune system will also be primed and ready to go!
Betters Your Mood
No, it’s not that eating sweets makes you happier, although that is true. The healthy fats in cocoa butter encourage mood stability too.
Keeps Your Skin Looking Great
Besides eating it, another popular use of cocoa butter is as a skin remedy. The polyphenols in cocoa butter could increase skin hydration, maintain collagen production, and keep your skin supple and bouncy. By reducing inflammation, your skin will look healthier and younger longer.
Cocoa butter is also a fantastic source of antioxidants that erase the wreckage of free radicals. Few things age your skin faster than free radicals, so avoiding these as best you can is key to good health.
Cocoa Butter Recipes to Try Today
Okay, you definitely need more cocoa butter in your life, stat. The next time you feel like treating yourself, whip up any of these vegan recipes with cocoa butter. You’ll love the taste and your body will love the benefits!
Vegan White Chocolate
Real white chocolate might not have cocoa butter, but this vegan white chocolate recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring does. The recipe calls for these ingredients:
- Pure vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
- Kosher salt (1/4th teaspoon)
- Confectioner’s sugar (1 cup)
- Natural cashew butter (1 tablespoon)
- Non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (4 tablespoons)
- Chopped raw cacao butter (4 ounces)
Chocolate Truffle Cake
The Healthy Foodie’s chocolate truffle cake recipe is admittedly not vegan, but you can sub out a few ingredients and still stick to your diet. Here’s what the recipe uses for the filling:
- Chopped cacao paste (half a pound)
- Full-fat coconut milk (1 can)
- Himalayan salt (1/4th teaspoon)
- Ancho chile powder (1/4th teaspoon)
- Pure vanilla extract (1 tablespoon)
- Vegan ghee (1/4th cup)
- Coconut oil (1/4th a cup)
- Raw cacao powder (half a cup)
- Vegan honey (1/4th a cup)
- Date paste (half a cup)
For the pie crust, ready these ingredients:
- Himalayan salt (1/4th teaspoon)
- Ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
- Vegan ghee (2 tablespoons)
- Date paste (1/4th cup)
- Coconut flour (1/4th cup)
- Unsweetened shredded coconut (half a cup)
- Raw pecans (half a cup)
- Walnuts (half a cup)
Vegan Chocolate
Hershey’s who? You’ll never eat store-bought chocolate again when you can make your own vegan version with cocoa butter. Minimalist Baker says you need these recipe quantities:
- Cacao nibs
- Sea salt (just a pinch)
- Vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
- Unsweetened cocoa powder (half a cup)
- Agave nectar or vegan maple syrup (3 to 5 tablespoons)
- Chopped cocoa butter (1 cup)
Conclusion
Cocoa butter is the primary ingredient in all chocolate, from white to dark. It comes from cocoa beans, thus making this “butter” non-dairy and vegan on its own. Just watch how food manufacturers use cocoa butter, as those products aren’t always vegan. You can always make your own chocolate at home using cocoa butter for an authentic chocolatey taste!