NOTE: Low carb eating seems to be healthier because you don't
experience the blood sugar spikes and troughs. This is a topic in
itself. Let me just say that if you are tired or hungry all the time, or
can't seem to lose weight, you may want to consider lowering your carb
intake to see if it helps. A good place to start is The Metabolism Miracle by Diane Kress.
After months of experimenting I've found the Holy Grail of Low-Carb Frosted Brownies. My 16 year old son, a picky taster, says these are indistinguishable from my award-winning regular brownies I make for him sometimes for an after-school snack You will be amazed. These are dense, moist, deep chocolate brownies that are incredible.
I use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa -- for best results use this or other Dutch-processed cocoa. The regular cocoa has no taste.
You can get the exotic ingredients (protein powder, almond flour, xylitol or maltilol, sugar-free chocolate chips) at a health food store or online at a company like Netrition.com.
Frosted Brownies
1 cup melted butter or extra-light olive oil
1 cup Splenda
1 cup Xylitol or Maltilol
2 tsp vanilla
4 whole eggs
12 T (3/4 cup) cocoa
3/4 cup protein powder
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar-free chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or put parchment paper in 13x9x2 pan.
Blend butter/oil, Splenda, Xylitol, vanilla, and eggs until smooth. Stir in cocoa and protein powder. Stir in almond flour, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into pan, and bake 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (Don't overbake). Cool and frost with either #1 or #2 frostings.
Frosting #1
This is a quick and easy frosting.
2/3 cup Splenda
2/3 cup protein powder
4 T (1/4 cup) cocoa
1/3 cup butter or olive oil
dash of salt
milk
Mix Splenda, protein powder, cocoa, olive oil, and salt until crumbly. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until smooth. If icing becomes too thin mix in more protein powder. Spread over brownies.
Frosting #2
This makes a creamy frosting that swirls beautifully.
1 cup sugar-free chocolate chips
2 T milk
Melt chocolate over low heat or double boiler. Add milk and stir until blended. Remove from heat. Blend with handblender until smooth and fluffy, then spread over brownies.
Is Splenda the artificial sugar? I'm just curious of the health impact of this despite having whey protein powder on it. And not mentioning the how do it taste?
ReplyDeleteHi Manaka,
DeleteAbout no-sugar sweeteners, my thoughts in a nutshell:
Aspartame is the problem sweetener. This is on the FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list, but there are lots of anecdotal reports that it may cause health problems. I NEVER consume aspartame.
Sucralose (Splenda) is mostly not absorbed from the GI tract, so passes through the body untouched. The small percentage (about 15-25%) of the sucralose that IS absorbed is eliminated by the kidneys. Only an extremely small proportion is actually metabolized (broken down) by the body. Sucralose has been in common use since about 1991. I don't overdo sucralose but am quite comfortable using it.
The amazing sweeteners are the sugar alcohols xylitol and manitol. These are naturally-occurring substances that look, act, and taste just like sugar. They have no known health problems even at ridiculously high levels. In fact, consuming xylitol has been found to be beneficial: studies suggest it inhibits bacterial growth (chewing gum reduces dental caries, diminishes ear infections), helps with remineralization (tooth enamel, osteoporosis) and may reduce general infections (sepsis).
The downside of xylitol and manitol is that higher doses may lead to a temporary, harmless, yet annoying "laxative effect" about 4-6 hours after consumption. The xylitol and manitol is not digested completely, so draws water into the gut that physically stretches the GI system as foods pass through. I've not had trouble with this myself, although I also "started low, and went slow." Now I use almost 100% xylitol or manitol for a sweetener because it's so great. If you're comfortable dealing with the risk, by all means use only xylitol/manitol in these brownies or anything else. Just don't eat too many at once and don't plan activities until you know how you'll react. By the way members of my family eat one or two brownies without ANYTHING happening to them. (I always warn them beforehand that this is *my* food so they know about the risk).
One other warning: don't give xylitol or manitol to dogs. Enough can induce a severe hypoglycemic reaction that is quite dangerous.
*
As far as how the brownies taste, these truly are amazing. I've been experimenting with pans of brownies for a long time. Almost all were edible, some good, but THESE are virtually indistinguishable from regular brownies. They are best when moist, so don't cook too long. The frostings are a bit different from regular frostings, but also good. Frosting #2 is my favorite, but since it adds an extra dose of manitol in the chocolate one has to be careful.
I'd love to hear what you think!
Oh, one more thing with protein powder. Most types are either soy or whey. Soy has phytoestrogens that may have biologic effects, so I prefer whey. If you have lactose-intolerance I don't believe you'll have trouble with the whey, because the whey is the protein, lactose is the milk sugar. I use Naturade because it has no artificial sweeteners and they add vanillin which sweetens it a bit and makes it smell wonderful, but there are many good brands.
Delete