We’re off on holiday in a couple of months and I want to lose a few pounds prior to our departure. I’ve gained about 10 unwanted pounds since Fudge became ill and sadly died in December – my daily exercise has dropped to virtually nil. I’m not really one for dieting, but I thought I’d give the Ketogenic plan a go for a while.
I’ve done lots of research about what foods are good and bad and have been finding it pretty easy to stick to so far. Mind you, it’s only been a week! The thing I miss the most is a sugary dessert after dinner. I’ve been allowing myself a couple of chunks of plain dark chocolate each evening, but I’ve had enough. I’ve tweaked an earlier brownie recipe and come up with my own Keto chocolate and almond brownies.
The original recipe used peanut butter, but I fancied trying something different. As such, I made a batch of almond butter – easy… and absolutely delicious! If you fancy another kind of nut butter – other ‘Keto-friendly’ ones include hazelnuts, macadamias, sunflower seeds, tahini and walnuts.
The other main changes I made were swapping the high-carb wheat flour for coconut flour and the caster sugar for pure stevia powder. Lots of people talk about how bitter stevia is – they’re probably using too much of it; it’s 150 times sweeter than cane sugar. The stevia powder I bought came with its own little spoon for adding to tea or coffee – it measures 1⁄32 of a teaspoon! I used less than ½ a teaspoon in the whole batch.
Save my Keto chocolate and almond brownies recipe to Pinterest
- 200g/7oz dark chocolate (85% cocoa solids)
- 175g/6oz of unsalted butter
- 50g/1¾oz chopped or flaked almonds, toasted
- 30g/1oz almond butter (see ingredients & method below)
- 4 eggs
- 50g/1¾oz coconut flour
- ¼tsp pure stevia powder (about ½ a gram ONLY)
- ¼tsp salt
- ½tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½tsp cream of tartar
- 300g/10½oz whole plain almonds, skins on
- pinch of salt
- tiniest pinch of pure stevia powder (optional)
- 1tbsp coconut oil
- Put the almonds, salt and stevia powder into the bowl of a food processor. Process for 10-15 minutes (yes, that long!) until the mixture turns into an oily, smooth paste
- Add the coconut oil and process for another 1-2 minutes
- Decant the almond butter into a sterilised jar with sealed lid
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6
- Grease a 30 x 20cm (12 x 8 inch) brownie tin and line it with parchment paper
- Put the butter and chocolate into a heat-proof bowl on a saucepan of simmering water over low heat and warm until just melted
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the coconut flour, stevia, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, then, using a rubber spatula, stir in the melted chocolate mixture
- Fold in the coconut flour ingredient mixture
- Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and level out
- Drizzle over the almond butter in 3-4 straight lines, then 'drag' through the almond butter with a skewer or toothpick to create a marbled effect
- Bake for 20 minutes, until the cake is just firm to the touch
- Allow to cool in the tin for a couple of minutes then lift out the block onto a board using the lining paper and cut it into 6-9 squares
- Serve warm or cold; on its own or with thick, full-fat pouring cream
