Red Velvet Cupcakes (Low Carb & Gluten Free)

Well look who's back... me!

Sorry I havent been posting but you know school. I also performed in a play my school was presenting and there was tons of practice time involved. It was so much fun and I helped with baking for concession so I wasn't completely slacking off... But I'm now back with a brand new recipe! I know a lot of my recipes are chocolatey so I thought I would branch out a bit, and try something new. Low carb cupcakes are pretty hard to make, sometimes they dont puff up or burn around the edges and are raw in the middle but these turned out amazing! Of course the time I try to make red velvet I dont have red food colouring, so I had to use burgandy and pink but at least they were reddish, right? Other than the colouring, they were amazing! My nana said they were the best cupcakes she had ever had in her whole life, and she worked at a bakery for 10 years! Come on, they must be good, you know you want to try one...

Makes 18 cupcakes 

Ingredients for cupcakes

2 cups almond flour

1 cup xylitol

3 tbsps cocoa powder

1 tsp guar gum

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz plain greek yogurt

1/4 cup butter, softened

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp stevia

1/3 cup whole milk

Red food colouring

Makes about 2/3 cup icing

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting

4 oz (half a brick) plain cream cheese, softened

2 tbsps butter, softened

2/3 - 1 cup powdered xylitol

1/4 heavy cream

Pinch of stevia

Directions for cupcakes

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk almond flour, xylitol, cocoa powder, guar gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt until combined. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat greek yogurt, butter and eggs together. Add vanilla, stevia and milk and mix. Now add half the almond flour and beat until combined, then add the rest. Now add your food colouring until you get a nice, dark red colour. Pour batter into muffin tins about 3/4 full and bake for 30-40 minutes and until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for at least 20 minutes and frost.

Directions for frosting

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and there are few lumps. Add in powdered xylitol, heavy cream and stevia and beat until combined. Frost cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Adapted from a All Day I Dream About Food blog recipe

Nutritional Info (Per one cupcake with 1 tbsps frosting)

Low Carb

Calories: 183 

Total Fat: 12 . 7g

Sat. Fat: 4g

Cholesterol: 46 . 8mg

Sodium: 164 . 6mg

Carbs: 4 . 3g

Fibre: 2g

Net. Carbs: 2 . 3g

Sugars: 1 . 3g

Protein: 5 . 2g

Classic

Calories: 280

Total Fat: 13g

Sat. Fat: 4 . 5g

Cholesterol: 45mg

Sodium: 140mg

Carbs: 42g

Fibre: 0 . 5g

Net. Carbs: 41 . 5g

Sugars: 34g

Protein: 3g

Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Low Carb & Gluten Free)

At last!

The perfect chocolate cookie.

Ahem, the perfect chocolate cookie that is, in fact, low carb and gluten free. Yet it doesn't even taste the least bit healthy! It's been a little over a month now that we youngsters have been in school, so I decided to make something lunch-friendly. Cookies are the perfect thing to pack in a lunch for a sweet, yummy, and in this case, healthy snack. Their crunchy outside and chewy insides make this the very best chocolatey cookie! Next recipe will be a low carb and gluten freee gingerbread recipe.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

8 oz 70-85% chocolate

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup xylitol

1/4 cup butter, cut into cubes

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup whole milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt 4oz of chocolate and set aside. Chop up the other 4oz into chunks and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and xylitol. Add in butter and beat until the butter melts a bit and thick batter forms. Add eggs, vanilla, melted chocolate and milk and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chunks. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto parchement  or silpat covered baking sheets. Bake for 13-16 minutes. Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Adapted from a Gourmande in the Kitchen recipe

Nutritional Info (Per one cookie)

Low Carb

Calories: 101
Total Fat: 6 . 9g
Sat. Fat: 2 . 8g
Cholesterol: 19 . 3mg
Sodium: 16 . 6mg
Carbs: 4 . 8g
Fibre: 1 . 6g
Net. Carbs: 3 . 2g
Sugars: 1 . 9g
Protein: 2 . 3g

Classic

Calories: 210
Total Fat: 9g
Sat. Fat: 5g
Cholesterol: 15mg
Sodium: 130mg
Carbs: 30g
Fibre: 1g
Net. Carbs: 29g
Sugars: 20g
Protein: 2g

Best Pumpkin Pie (Low Carb & Gluten Free)

Here's the pumpkin recipe I promised... and it was so good, it was gone that night so I couldnt even take a picture! This recipe uses up the exact amount of pumpkin leftover I had leftover from the cheesecake, so I usually make these two together, and I got to use my almond flour crust, again. Plus, the is seriously the simplest pie to make, just throw everything in the blender, pour into a crust and bake! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I did!

Makes one pie

Ingredients

2 cups pumpkin

2 eggs

2/3 cup whole milk

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup sucanat

1-2 tsps cinnamon

1/2 nutmeg

1/2 ground ginger

Pinch of cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 425F. In a blender, whirl all ingredients together until completely combined and smooth. Pour into prepared crust and bake for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and bake for another 50-60 minutes, or until knife comes out clean and edges start to crack. Cool for at least 30 minutes. Cut and enjoy!

Adapted from a Healthy & Yummy Desserts blog recipe

Nutritional Info (Per one 1/8 slice)

Low Carb

Calories: 225

Total Fat: 5 . 2g

Sat. Fat: 2 . 8g

Cholesterol: 60mg

Sodium: 241 . 8mg

Carbs: 33 . 5g

Fibre: 5 . 8g

Net. Carbs: 27 . 7g

Sugars: 10 . 1g

Protein: 4 . 1g

Classic

Calories: 350

Total Fat: 20g

Sat. Fat: 8g

Trans Fat: 2g

Cholesterol: 85mg

Sodium: 370mg

Carbs: 36g

Fibre: 2g

Net. Carbs: 34g

Sugars: 21g

Protein: 7g