Category Archives: Desserts

Desserts, Recipes

Simple LC Apple Pie

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If you love the taste of apples and crave apple pie, this is the answer to your low carb prayers. It’s easy to make and checks in with about 8 net carbs per serving. You can easily substitute in peaches for the apples to make a peach crumble.  My recipe makes 2 individual pies.  If you don’t have enough carbs to spare for a whole serving, then eat only half and save the rest for another day.

1/2 cup sliced apples
1 teaspoon Brown Sugar Splenda Blend
1 tablespoon Sugar-free Gingerbread Syrup or Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Quick Oatmeal
2 tablespoons Almond Flour
1 teaspoon Sugar Substitute
8 pecan halves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F.) Prepare 2 1/2 cup ramekins or soufflé dishes by coating with a little butter.

Put 1/2 of the apple slices, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar blend, 1/2 tablespoon syrup, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves in each dish and stir. Microwave both for 1 minute. The bottom should be like a caramel syrup. If you are using nuts, break into pieces and distribute half on the top of each dish.

In a small bowl, mix oatmeal, almond flour, and sugar substitute and use a fork to mix in the butter to make a crumble. Add a little water to make a paste. Use a teaspoon to drop 1/2 on the top of each apple-filled dish. Spread it around a little to make a crust, but leave the middle open.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is lightly browned. Let cool about 10 minutes or more.Serve with a little whipped cream.

Nutrition information per serving, no nuts:
Calories 123: Fat: 9.5 g Net Carbs: 7.4 g Protein: 1.9 g

Nutrition information per serving, with nuts:
Calories 153: Fat: 12.4 g Net Carbs: 8.1 g Protein: 2.4 g

Desserts, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Recipes

Light and easy, Mexican-style flan dessert

Happy 2017, everyone!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and we’re all ready to settle back into a low carb routine. I know I need to do it.  Too many holiday goodies in this girl’s life and I definitely must drop some pounds.  How about you?

I tapered off on posts a little towards the end of the year in 2016, but I’m aiming to get back on a weekly schedule this year. If you have any particular food dish that you’d like to see if I can adapt to an under 10 carb meal, please drop me a line or post a comment. I’m always looking for new recipes.

On New Year’s Eve, I went with my Mexican food tradition and put together turkey enchiladas for dinner. For dessert, I wanted something light that would compliment the main course and not be too heavy. What better than a Mexican flan?

Flan is very much like a panna cotta and is very easy to make.  This one has a light orange flavor from adding grated orange rind, but I took it a step further and put slices of orange dipped in sugar substitute on the top. Give it a try and you might count it among your favorite desserts.  I do.

The only drawback is that this makes a very small serving, but it’s rich enough to satisfy. If you have the carbs to spare, you can make it into two servings instead of four.

Orange Mexican-Style Flan

1 tablespoons Brown Sugar Splenda
1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute
1 tablespoon Butter

2 Eggs
3/4 cup Cream
1/4 cup Water
2 1/2 tablespoons Sugar Substitute
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon Orange Zest

8 segments Orange for garnish (optional)
1 tablespoon Almond slivers (optional)

Heat oven to 325 degrees (F.) Butter four 1/2 cup custard dishes or four cupcake molds. Heat water to boiling in a pot.

In a microwavable bowl, put the brown sugar, and 1/2 tablespoon butter, and cook for 20 seconds. It probably won’t melt much. Add 1/2 teaspoon of hot water and stir. Spoon into the bottom of the custard dishes. You could also use a caramel-flavored sugar-free syrup instead of the brown sugar Splenda.

In a blender, add the eggs, cream, water, sugar substitute, vanilla, cinnamon, and orange zest and blend until smooth. Pour equal amounts of the mixture into each custard dish.

Put the custard dishes In a roasting pan or other large pan and place in the middle of the oven, then pour hot water into the roasting pan to about 1 inch up the sides of the custard dishes. Be careful to not get water in the custard dishes.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. Spray cooking spray on plastic wrap and   sprayed side down, cover each of the dishes, then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Garnish with slices of oranges dipped in sugar substitute and/or toasted almonds before serving,

Makes four servings.

Nutrition Information per serving: (No topping)
Calories: 188.5 Fat: 17.2 g Net Carbs:4.5 g Protein: 4.0 g

With orange slices:
Calories: 222 Fat: 20.1 g Net Carbs: 6.1 g Protein: 4.0 g

 

Desserts, Recipes

A Special Treat of Black Forest Flavors

Aside

Recently, my roommate canned a couple of dozen jars of sugar-free cherries and we opened one to see how they tasted before giving them to anyone. She also did a cherry jam that was delicious and also sugar-free. We tried that on low carb ice cream with chocolate. It tasted great, but it got me thinking about a Black Forest chocolate cake.

So, I decided to use my flaugnarde recipe as a base and turn it into a Black Forest tart with a kind of pudding filling. The result was really tasty and I think you might enjoy trying it. Because it used cherries, it’s not the lowest carb dish you could make and it would probably work equally as well with raspberries, but then it wouldn’t be Black Forest, would it?

This could make a simple, but delicious special dessert during the holidays.  And check out some of the other holiday dessert recipes I’ve listed below.  Happy Holidays to all!

Black Forest Flaugnarde

This is a variation on the traditional flaugnarde recipe that uses chocolate, cream, and eggs in it to produce a pudding-like center in the dish. I make it in individual soufflé cups for easy serving. The recipe is simple and almost fool proof.

1 Egg
3 tablespoons Heavy Cream plus 2 tablespoons Water
OR 5 tablespoons Unsweetened Almond or Coconut Milk
2 tablespoons Sugar Substitute
1 tablespoon Butter, softened or Baking Spray
1 tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Pinch of Salt
2 tablespoons Low Carb Flour (baking mix or almond flour)
6 whole cherries, cut in half or Sugar-Free Cherry Jam*
2 tablespoon Sugar-free Chocolate Chips or 1 serving of sugar free chocolate candy broken into pieces and divided.

*If you’re using cherry jam, use only 1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute.

Preheat oven to 385 degrees (F.) Butter or spray two 1/2 cup soufflé cups from bottom to top. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the eggs, cream and water or milk, and sugar substitute using a small spatula. Add the cocoa powder and flour and mix together.

In the bottom of the souffle cups, put 1/2 the cherries and 1/2 the chocolate chips in each. Spoon 1/2 the egg and flour mixture into each cup. They will be almost full, but leave a little room at the top. They will rise in the oven and if there is too much, they will overflow.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the top looks dry and looks done. With chocolate, it can be hard to tell but it will not look glossy. Remove from the oven and let cool about 10 minutes, then serve with a dollop or whipped cream or whipped topping.

Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition Information per serving:
Calories: 294 Fat: 25.1 g Net Carbs: 6.8 g Protein: 6.4 g

Try these delicious and low carb recipes to sweeten up your holidays. (Click on image to go to recipe page.)  Many more are on these pages. Check out the cookies!

Cranberry Coffeecake
Cranberry Almond Coffeecake
Pistachio Cheesecake
Maple Pecan Pumpkin PIe
Desserts, Recipes

A Lovely Fall Flavor: Persimmon

For a short time each Fall, persimmons are available in some markets throughout the country. Many people ignore this seasonal fruit, but you should embrace it. It has a unique flavor and can be used in many ways. You can peel it, cut it into slices, and add it to a salad with cranberries and a light sweet dressing to top it off wonderfully. You need to use a fully ripened persimmon to make jams and breads so that you have the fruit’s natural sweetness. If you eat them too soon, they are tart. I latched onto a twenty-five pound box of these and spent almost a full day scooping the interior of each out with a spoon. Instructions on doing this are on the internet here.

I froze several bags of the pulp to use for other times of the year when they aren’t available. Then I made this lovely Persimmon Panna Cotta, or pudding. It is light and delicious while being somewhat low carb. It is a little higher than I usually like, but I eat it on a day when I have plenty of carbs left to spend after dinner. You can divide the mixed panna cotta batter into 1/2 cup glasses, parfait glasses, or souffle dishes. Or you can do what I did and put it into a three cup bowl, then scoop it into serving dishes after it is fully set.

Try the Persimmon Bread recipe. Or you can try Persimmon Cookies  

Persimmon Panna Cotta

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup sugar substitute
2 cups unsweetened Almond Milk
1/2 cup Persimmon Puree
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves

Optional toppings:
2 tablespoons Persimmon Jam or 6 Persimmon Slices (optional)
whipped cream (optional)

Put whipping cream in a 3 to 4 cup bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top to soften. Meanwhile, bring the almond milk to a simmer and remove from the heat.

Whisk in the cream and gelatin mixture carefully. Then add the persimmon puree, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves and stir in until well-mixed. Let cool about ten minutes, then use a measuring cup to full the serving dishes or leave in the bowl. Put plastic wrap over the top of each dish and put in the refrigerator until the pudding is firm, 4 to 5 hours.

Serve with optional persimmon jam or a persimmon slice or top with a tablespoon of whipped cream. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Information per servings (without toppings)
Calories: 172 Fat: 15.6 g Net Carbs: 5.5 g Protein: 2.7 g

Questions, comments?  Let me know what you think!

Desserts, Recipes

Chocolate plus Avocado equals dessert?

Recently, I watched a Food Network Show in which one of the chefs on the show made a Chocolate Avocado Mousse and I was intrigued. For one thing, they talked about the creamy, rich flavor of the dessert. I decided to try to make a low carb version. I found three slightly different recipes, including one from Food Network’s site, and I combined them with my low carb ingredients to make four servings.

To be honest, I’m undecided about this as a flavorful chocolate dessert. It’s not bad, but it isn’t your grandma’s chocolate mousse. The avocado makes it taste richer in fats, but doesn’t really add any flavor to it. What I did notice was the texture, which is creamy, but also has a little grit even though I thoroughly processed it in the food processor until it was smooth. The roomie wasn’t thrilled, agreeing that it didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t the tastiest mousse either.

Where this might be beneficial to people would be if you are lactose intolerant, since you can use almond or coconut milk to make this version, or if you want to get the benefits of avocado, but you don’t actually care for the taste. The chocolate masks it well. Ultimately, it’s up to each person to decide if they think this is a delicious dessert or not.

I have eaten it two or three times and find that a little makes a pretty good topping on a scoop of low carb ice cream. If you layer it in a glass with orange or cherry flavored whipped cream, it might be a better balanced flavor that cuts the extreme chocolate richness. If you give it a try, post a comment before to let me know what you thought and how you served it.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

1/2 cup Sugar-free Chocolate Chips
1 tablespoon Butter
2 very ripe (8 ounce) Hass Avocados, peeled and pitted
6 tablespoons granulated Sugar Substitute
1/3 cup Almond Milk or Coconut Milk
2 tablespoons Heavy Cream (optional)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/8 teaspoon fine Salt
Melt the chocolate chips with a little butter in a double boiler or put in a microwave safe bowl in a microwavable container with water in it for about 1 minute, then stir. Stir until the chocolater is completely melted. You may have to microwave a couple of time in 30 seconds increments

Here comes the hard part. Put all the ingredient in a food processor or blender and process until it is creamy and smooth. I actually added the cream to it because it was so thick and too chocolaty for my tastes. You can add additional almond milk instead if you want it thinner.

Spoon into four 1/2 cup serving bowls or glasses. Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving. It keeps a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Would be great layered with cherry-flavored whipped cream (or orange flavored) and a fresh cherry on top.

Nutrition Information per serving:
Calories: 341 Fat: 23.7 g Net Carbs: 4.4 g Protein: 2.5 g