Cacao Nibs or Cacao Powder?

[river]

Hi, quick one. Just placing an order for some supplies.

Should I get Cacao Nibs or Cacao Powder to start of with for some of the pudding recipes. Like banana Ice-cream (well chocolate ice-cream) etc.. ?

[shakti17]

i d get pwdr...to save yourself the extra step of grinding it. nibs are good if you want a little crunch! like a choc. chip

[sport]

Powder
I put nibs in food processer for a while to try to get them broken down but I still find myself biting on things that almost break my teeth.
They do not mix and spread the flavour the way that powder does.
I use half and half chocolate and carob powders to get as much flavour with half the caffeine.

[kaybee]

sport do you have a coffee grinder? (probably not because I know they are insanely overpriced over there--40 euro as opposed to 12 dollars over here), but if you do Ive found the coffee grinder to do a pretty good job of "powderizing" the nibs. still probably not as finely ground as the powder, but not bad. try that if you happen to have one

kaybee

[Jeannine]

For what you want to do with it, I recommend powder. I ordered the powder from a raw website, but got shipped nibs instead. :eek:

It said right on the package "Cacao Powder", but the last time I checked, powders were not... nib-like.

I tried to grind them in my coffee grinder, but found that they didn't get ground enough for my liking. So I ordered the powder, and hope I get a powder this time. Thank goodness my husband has eaten most of the bag of nibs (he adores them) so they did not go to waste.

Haha I just found a picture - I'm not crazy... well, not regarding this, anyway.http://www.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Organic-16-Ounce-Pouches/dp/B000P22BBO/ref=pd_bbs_4?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1203982140&sr=8-4

[jsorensens2]

I have done this myself... the package in the picture actually says POWER not POWDER. No D. Can certainly be confusing! :-)

[Jeannine]

Hilarious!!!! I just checked the package in my fridge and sure enough... Power! :)

D'oh! User error :D

[Hygeia]

Haha I just found a picture - I'm not crazy... well, not regarding this, anyway.http://www.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Organic-16-Ounce-Pouches/dp/B000P22BBO/ref=pd_bbs_4?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1203982140&sr=8-4

Uhhhm I hate to point it out sweetie but it says cocoa POWER not POWDER. LOL And uhhhm it says nibs in the description

:D

[Hygeia]

Ooops someone just beat me to it. LOL

[Jeannine]

Hygeia - that wasn't the place that I ordered from (there wasn't a picture when I ordered). No need to "hate to point it out" - we're all kind folks here. :)

[SuzyQ]

If you have a Vita-Mix or other good blender, that will also work as far as grinding things to powder (I've used it to grind coffee beans, flax seeds,ect).

[avolove]

Ha! I did the very same powder/power thing!! :) I've had really great luck with my coffee grinder though... I have a Braun and as it grinds I give it a shake, that seems to take care of the crunchy bits.

[GlimR]

I've used both and can't stand the nibs. They seem as hard as little rocks sometimes. I've ground them in a coffee grinder and in my VM and still they are very grainy. Love the powder!!

Jeannine~
Don't feel bad....I've ordered the powder several times from Amazon...the second time I opened the box and it was the nibs. Cocao Power on the package...I thought I had just misordered it because of that. I was very unhappy but thought it was just a mistake on my part. I couldn't stand them so went to my history to reorder and I HAD ordered the Powder...they had accidently sent the wrong thing. When I called they apologized and sent me the right thing overnight, no charge and told me to keep the nibs. They really have amazing customer service.

[rawberri]

I ordered nibs a long time ago and didn't particularly care for them. But now, my tastes have changed.

I love cacao powder, for sure--it's so versatile for making cakes and sauces and stuff like that.

But the nibs are also really nice to put in a vanilla shake--I like having the bits of chocolate in there, it reminds me of of chocolate chip ice cream or a cookies 'n cream sort of thing....Yum!!

Also if you leave the nibs in a recipe for a while they absorb liquid and soften up, and aren't quite so hard as when you get them.