Description

Organic carob flour (300g)

Carob powder is similar to cocoa in taste and uses, but with a distinctly different taste and sweeter than pure cocoa powder. It is popular at Christmas time, but brings joy, brightness and flavour to sweet dishes all year round. When tasting carob, you may notice a slightly fruity and caramel-like taste and smell. Carob is a great decaffeinated and fat-free substitute in dishes and drinks that would otherwise use cocoa powder. It is also gluten-free.

Where does carob come from?

Carob powder, or carob flour, is made from the carob pods from the carob tree. It originated on the Mediterranean coast, and most of it is nowadays grown in Spain. Carob pods are known to have been used as a food for nearly 5000 years. Carob powder has also been used in folk medicine for various digestive problems such as diarrhea, heartburn and malabsorption of nutrients. In addition, carob contains components that suppress excessive appetite, which means that it can help to lose weight. Carob is rich in vitamins and minerals such as calcium, zinc, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins K and E and riboflavin.

Carob powder vs cocoa powder

While the two are similar in many ways, it is worth knowing that the carob is much safer for your health. Here are some differences:

• Carob is naturally sweet, while cocoa is bitter.
• Cocoa contains theobromine (toxic to cats and dogs), tyramine (an amino acid that can trigger migraines) and caffeine (toxic and stressful to the adrenal glands, triggering a fight-or-flight state in the body, or high levels of adrenaline). Carob contains none of these.
• Cocoa powder has a high fat content, while the carob has a fat content of 0%.

Degrees of carob roasting

Carob is available in a variety of roasts. There are raw, lightly roasted and heavily roasted carob powders.

• Raw carob powder – is either uncooked or processed below 47.7°C. It has a beige to light brown colour and a slightly sweet caramel taste and intense aroma.
• Lightly roasted carob powder – heated up to 93°C. It is darker than raw carob powder, but still not very dark brown. This type of carob has the sweetest flavour.
• Dark roasted carob powder – has undergone a high temperature heat treatment (up to 204°C). It is quite dark in colour and is most reminiscent of cocoa powder, being also the bitterest in taste.

How to use carob?

• It can be used wherever cocoa powder would otherwise be used (requires less sweetener than cocoa).
• Add carob to pancakes, brownies, biscuits, cakes and candies, for example.
• Add it to smoothies, porridge or breakfast bowls.
• Prepare an alternative to a cocoa drink by adding the carob powder to the warmed milk.
• Mix the carob with avocado or coconut cream to make a nice pudding.
• Prepare carob “chocolate” by heating together the coconut oil, carob powder and maple syrup or honey.

Did you know?

In the old days, carob seeds were used as a reliable way of weighing gold and precious stones. Regardless of size, each carob seed always weighed 0.18g, so it quickly became the universally accepted weight standard for gold. This is also the origin of the unit of weight ‘carat’, which comes from the Latin word ‘ceratonia’, meaning ‘carob’.

Additional information