The Ultimate Low-Carb Brownies Recipe

Carylton Cooper provided this Ultimate Brownies recipe from her book

One of the nice things about being a low-carb blogger is I that I get to meet all these fantastically fascinating people who have a passionate desire to help people make low-carb living a normal part of their everyday lives. My favorite ones are those people who come up with all these incredible low-carb recipes to help keep livin' la vida low-carb from EVER getting boring!

A few months ago I introduced you to one such lady named Carylton Cooper in my review of her cookbook, "Carb-less in Seattle." For fans of that cookbook, Carylton has another excellent low-carb recipe book to help you with any holiday or special occasion called “Carb-less for ALL Seasons” available at her web site at Carb-Less.com.

She was kind enough to offer the following recipe from that book to give you just a snippet of what you can expect. I just LOVE the personal touch Carylton offers in each of her recipes and I'm sure you'll enjoy her rather unique style as well.

THANK YOU CARYLTON! This "Ultimate Brownies" recipe believe it or not does not use any kind of flour at all and looks fantabulous with less than 4g carbs a piece. ENJOY!

ULTIMATE BROWNIES

Of all the things I have achieved over the last three years on the low-carb front, I am most pleased (and minor-league proud) of the things I have created in the baking department.

Making good pastry, bread, dumplings, waffles, biscotti, cookies, etc., without flour is quite an art.

One of the most challenging favorites to recreate is a brownie. I wanted a brownie which was INTENSELY chocolate flavored, moist and chewy; well you know what a great brownie should be like. I didn’t need BIG! To my mind, a small amount of any item satisfies the craving as long as it’s GOOD!

I’ve seen many variations, and none satisfied me. I couldn’t get the right result with cocoa and some were too “cakey”. Here is the best that I have come up with and they were inspired by -- strangely -- peanut butter cookies. The cookies, using peanut butter had a great chewiness to them; so I decided to see if I could bring that same quality to brownies using almond butter. BINGO!

Ingredients:
2 oz butter
3/4 cup almond butter
3 oz sugar-free chocolate
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1/4 cup chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup sugar-free chocolate syrup
1/2 cup crystal sugar substitute

I bake these at 350 degree in an 8” square silicon pan. Protein batters are very sticky and silicon pans solve that problem perfectly!

I buy almond butter at one of several local stores by grinding whole almonds; this way I know that nothing is added. (Not to mention that it is a lot more frugal than buying it in a jar Keep nut butters in the fridge though.) In checking the count for almond butter it can be a lot higher than my count here because of all the things which are added to it.

Start by melting both chocolates in a microwave (or over hot water) in a bowl. If you use the microwave use defrost or lower and check it often. Note that the sugar-free chocolate does not mean unsweetened; I use chocolate from a division of Nestle which has negligible side-effects, and sell it on my web site.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs into the almond butter until it is smooth, then add the syrup, the sugar substitute, the cocoa and chocolate protein. (I haven’t tried this with vanilla protein yet, having a big supply of chocolate, but I am sure it will be ok. I try always to enhance chocolate things by layering in the chocolate flavor as much as possible.)

When the chocolate is almost melted, add in the butter and let that melt too. Stir it up until smooth and add the chocolate batter to the almond butter mixture and blend until it is all well mixed. Test for sweetness and adjust. Pour, scrape and clean the bowl into your baking pan, licking everything as you go. (My sweety stands by to get this privilege if I make these when he is home.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes until they rise and resist your touch. They will sink back but that’s ok! TRY to let them get cold before trying them.

NOTE: I have made several cream cheese variations on this recipe. I just beat an egg yolk into about three oz of sweetened cream cheese, add orange zest or almond extract and swirl it onto the top before baking. Absolutely divine!

Total Carbs - 37.0
Number of Servings - 12
Carbs per Serving - 3-4

Enjoy!

Carylton Cooper

Oh, believe me, Carylton, we will DEFINITELY enjoy this recipe. THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your talents with us today and proving once again that livin' la vida low-carb is an exciting way to eat healthy, delicious desserts!