I had one heck of a time coming up with something to write about this week. I thought about foot care (checks list of old diaries — already done that), eye care (ditto), news developments (couldn’t find anything exciting), cartoons (didn’t see anything new) so I decided to share a recipe that I made this week. My family loved it and it wasn’t hard. I found the original recipe on a website called Mr. Food (www.mrfood.com). It has a new recipe every week day with a short video on how to make the dish. It’s a segment on some morning show (I think) that my mom watches and she’s always asking me to print out the recipes for her. They have a section of diabetic recipes. I haven’t looked at them too closely so I don’t know how low carb they actually are. I happened to see the recipe I’m sharing with you while I was looking up something for my mom. The original recipe isn’t low carb, but as I looked at the ingredients, I realized with only a few small changes it would turn into a wonderful low carb treat. Here’s how I changed it up. I swapped the regular flour plus the baking powder and salt for three cups of Carbquik. I eliminated the sprinkles. I used no sugar chocolate chips and a sugar alternative. All the other ingredients were low carb to begin with.
Low carb Chocolate bar cookies
- 2 cups chocolate chips (I used Hersheys Zero Sugar)
- 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- 1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon almond extract, divided
- 3 cups Carbquik
- 1 1/2 cups sugar alternative
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
- In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, cream cheese, and evaporated milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat. Add the nuts, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract; blend well and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the Carbquik, sugar alternative, butter, eggs, vanilla, and the remaining almond extract. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Press half of the crumb mixture into an ungreased 9" x 13" baking pan to form a bottom crust. Spread the chocolate mixture over the crumb mixture. Top with the remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden.
- Cool, then cut into bars.
Notes
You could melt the chocolate chips, cream cheese and evaporated milk in the microwave. Make sure the cream cheese is room temperature when you start and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until everything is melted. It should only take a couple of minutes total.
The top layer should be a crumby texture. If the dough for the top layer gets soft, pinch off small pieces and place them on top of the chocolate that way.
You could swap out the walnuts for another nut you like. I think pecans or chopped almonds would work well.
You could try a different flavor of extract. You could use all vanilla, or a combination of vanilla and something else like hazelnut or salted caramel.
If you try this let me know what you think. My family has already asked when I’ll be making it again.