No Bake Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bars

I wanted something new but simple to make for a birthday treat and decided to go with these. They carried me through the immediate aftermath of losing my dearly beloved cat on July 31, which on one hand is a painful memory to associate with anything but on the other hand, it was something tasty for me to eat when I felt too sad to do much of anything and I was glad to have them then.

Notes:

• I think I used allulose as the sweetener the first time, and erythritol the second time. Both tasted fine to me, though there is a little bit of graininess until they are fully chilled. This doesn't make them particularly sweet so if you want them to taste more like they would with regular sugar I'd also add some stevia or stevia blend sweetener. (I used some packets of Truvia because I have a LOT of them at home lol.)
• I mixed them by hand and pressed it into the pan with the bottom of a drinking glass.
• I omitted the almond butter. The recipe says you can add extra chocolate chips, coconut oil, or butter instead of the almond butter. I went with about 3 tbsp melted unsalted butter.
• For the chocolate, I used Lily's semi-sweet style chocolate chips and I really liked the flavor. The filling with the butter reminded me of a grocery store chocolate doughnut icing, in a good way.

Verdict: I like them and would make them again!

Update 8/18/25: I made a version with matcha-white chocolate filling (I had extra Lily's white chocolate chips after making matcha chocolate covered strawberries with my annual fresh strawberry picking haul) and almond extract instead of vanilla, and I enjoyed them a lot. I used the same ratio of matcha in the white chocolate here as for the strawberry coating. For a full batch of these bars that would be 1 tbsp matcha (for 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips). The unsalted butter in the filling instead of almond butter really worked great here too.

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RECIPE: No Bake Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bars (Katie Higgins, Chocolate Covered Katie) 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

These sounded tasty and I was looking for a new sweet treat to try.

Notes:

• I used regular size sugar free chocolate chips because I didn't want to go looking for mini ones.

Verdict: They were less sweet tasting than I was hoping for, but I did like them generally and would make them again. My sugar eating husband liked them too.

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RECIPE: Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars (Carolyn Ketchum, All Day I Dream About Food)

 

Lemon Bundt Cake

I was missing cake and decided to try this.

Notes: 

• I used Swerve granulated sugar substitute and I think it made the cake brown a lot more than it should have. I would recommend NOT using that in this cake (honestly it seems to ruin everything I put it in so I'm not going to buy it again).
• Because I did not have coconut butter I made a lemon glaze instead using a "powdered sugar" substitute (Swerve Powdered, which again turned out poorly probably because of the extra ingredients in it). I ended up adding cream cheese to it and making a thicker kind of frosting.
• I greased the bundt pan really well and it still stuck in one place so my cake kind of fell apart when I took it out of the pan.

Verdict: I wasn't happy with this. It turned out totally different from the picture, a lot more browned to the point of being kind of unappetizing. It was also not very sweet. It might have been my fault because I'm fairly new to low carb baking. If I make this again, I will use the suggested brand of sweetener or use more than it says to use.

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RECIPE: Keto Lemon Pound Cake (Katrin Nurnberger, Sugar Free Londoner) 

Tiramisu Cake

We visited a gluten free bakery and cafe on vacation in Florida that advertised keto friendly baked goods. When we arrived there was a long line to order, and then when it was our turn we were informed they were not actually able to make any of the hot food we wanted (disappointing). They also didn't have any keto friendly sweets in the bakery cases as far as I could tell while we waited about 15 minutes in line to be served. We asked anyway and the cashier looked confused, but then someone working there said the tiramisu cake was keto friendly so we said we'd get one. I had only seen gluten free ones specifically labeled as containing regular sugar in the case, and I'm pretty sure she just gave us one of those that I'd seen. This was all immensely frustrating but there was a big line behind me and I didn't want to make a stink so we paid $35 for our tiny fucking 4" cake and brought it back to the condo. I ended up eating it anyway and even if it had sugar in it (which I'm pretty sure it did because it felt a LOT more filling than keto baked goods), it was quite delicious and didn't really throw me off ketosis, so no harm done I suppose. But I'm not going back there.

Anyway, I was hungry for tiramisu cake after getting home and decided to try to make my own that I knew would be actually keto friendly.

Notes:

• Another NO for Swerve products. The powdered sugar substitute weighed down the frosting on the outside and made it taste grainy. I attempted it again with 100% erythritol as the sweetener with better results but still a little grainy. I would like to try it with the erythritol-monkfruit powdered sugar substitute next.
• I sprinkled cocoa powder in between the layers before putting the second one on and that was nice. 
• I tried dipping the cake layers in cooled brewed coffee before assembling and frosting for some extra coffee flavor (like you do with the ladyfingers in regular tiramisu), and it did NOT work. Didn't soak in at all and made a big mess and was risky because the cake is already a little crumbly. Not worth it.
• I made a 6-inch round cake the first time with 2 6-inch springform pans, and the second time because I wanted something less fussy to line and clean, I baked the layers in two rectangular metal loaf pans. Both turned out nice.
• I want to try putting chocolate shavings on top sometime instead of cocoa powder.

Verdict: I have tried it twice now and like it, but will need to keep working at it to make it exactly what I want it to be. I also think a matcha variation would be delicious, with prepared matcha instead of coffee and matcha powder instead of cocoa powder.

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RECIPE: Keto Tiramisu Cake (The Hungry Elephant)

Skillet Cheese Bread

I saw this mentioned in an article about comfort foods to eat when you're sick but on a keto diet, and sick or no, cheese bread sounded absolutely lovely so I gave it a shot. 

Notes:

• I baked mine in a 9-inch round pan but I would probably bake it in a bigger pan next time to ensure it gets fully cooked in the middle.
• Definitely bake it for longer than it says to. Even with extra time mine did not get fully cooked in the middle and it started growing mold after a couple of days at room temperature.

Verdict: I liked it before it started rotting. I also think I messed it up by unintentionally underbaking it. If I try it again I will definitely bake it for longer, and maybe bake it in a pan that allows it to be thinner (again, so it bakes better/more thoroughly).

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RECIPE:

Skillet Cheese Bread 

1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup flax seed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
3/4 cup almond milk, unsweetened 

Preheat oven to 425 F. Grease pan with 1 tbsp butter, or if using a metal or glass pan or skillet, set the butter in the pan and place inside the oven to melt. Mix almond flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup of the shredded cheese in a large bowl until combined. Add eggs, butter, and almond milk. Mix until thoroughly combined. If you used the oven to heat your pan, remove pan from oven and swirl it to coat the inside surface with the butter. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese evenly over the top. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until browned around the edges and set through the center. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.

Tea Parties vol. 5: Keto Easter

After a thoroughly disappointing experience with tea service at a fashion event I went to at the end of March, I decided the only way I am going to have a nice tea is if I make it myself. I was telling a friend about tea service and he told me he wished he'd gone to tea when he visited London. He was going to be cat sitting for us soon so I wanted to do something to thank him, and he wanted to get together for the Easter holiday right before our vacation so I invited him to tea at my house. I think he had a really nice time, and I got to replace a sub-par memory with a really nice one.

I made all of the food, and it was a mix of keto friendly items and regular ones since I was the only person following a keto diet. There were only three of us so things were very manageable. The cream cheese stuffed strawberries were an unexpected big hit! I will definitely make more of them for future tea parties with people who can't eat sugar.

THE MENU

Drinks 

• Yorkshire Tea
• Sparkling wine

Savory course 

• Crustless quiche using my regular recipe but omitting the crust and instead greasing the baking dish very very well with butter. It had cheese, scallions, and grape tomatoes in it.
• Charcuterie plate (sausage, cheeses, olives) with optional crackers
• Cucumber sandwiches, with and without bread. I mixed a dried herb blend from Penzey's (Justice) into some cream cheese with salt and pepper and spread it on bread and topped with cucumber slices for the regular version, and sandwiched the cream cheese between cucumber slices for the keto friendly version.

Scone course 

• English style scones with homemade strawberry jam and store bought fig jam 
• Almond flour scones (keto friendly) with sugar free raspberry jam made with home grown raspberries

Dessert course

• Sugar free Jello eggs (made as directed on the package and poured into egg shaped molds)
• Keto fudgy brownies (keto friendly) decorated with Russell Stover sugar free candy drops in cute bright colors
• Peanut butter cookies with peanut butter candies
• Strawberries stuffed with sugar free vanilla flavored cream cheese (no recipe, just mixed powdered sugar substitute and some vanilla extract into cream cheese until thoroughly combined, then smushed as much as I could into strawberries that were hulled and had a cross shaped cut in the top)
• Minneola slices 

Almond Flour Scones

After a thoroughly disappointing experience with tea service at a fashion event I went to at the end of March, I decided the only way I am going to have a nice tea is if I make it myself. I was telling a friend about tea service and he told me he wished he'd gone to tea when he visited London. He was going to be cat sitting for us soon so I wanted to do something to thank him, and he wanted to get together for the Easter holiday right before our vacation so I invited him to tea at my house. I think he had a really nice time, and I got to replace a sub-par memory with a really nice one.

For an English style tea service it is of course necessary to serve scones and clotted cream and jam, so this was the first thing I tried to find a keto friendly recipe for.

Notes:

• I used Swerve granulated sugar substitute and they got very brown, almost burnt on the bottom the first time I made them. I plan to experiment with the sweetener to hopefully get them to not brown so much in the future.
• I left out the lemon zest one time because I didn't have it and it worked fine. The vanilla is really nice. If you don't want them to have a default sweet kind of taste though you could probably leave it out. 
• I ate these with clotted cream and sugar free homemade raspberry jam.
• I've also used these as a base for strawberry shortcake and liked it! (pictured) 

Verdict: I loved these and have made them one additional time since the keto friendly tea service because I missed them when they were gone. I have a feeling this will be a go-to recipe.

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RECIPE: Grain Free English Scones (Katrin Nürnberger, Sugar Free Londoner)