Updated Low Carb Chocolate Cake for Breakfast Muffin Recipe

I've been making these muffins for several months now and am constantly irritated with how I originally wrote the recipe. So disorganized and confusing. Sorry.

Here's a revamp that I hope makes more sense. Ingredients are now listed in the order they are used which should make the recipe easier to follow.

Ingredients

-1/2 stick butter OR 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil OR grapeseed oil

-1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend (I also use 1/2 cup sometimes, depending on mood, makes for a lighter crumb texture.) (You can also use 1/4 cup regular brown sugar and 1 mashed banana if you want to avoid artificial sweeteners.)

-1/3 cup water

-3 eggs

-1 tbsp vanilla

-Dash of salt

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-2 tsps baking soda

-1 1/2 cups almond flour

-1/2 cup ground flax

-1/2 cup Ghiradelli chocolate chips 60% cocoa


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Mix butter and splenda. Add in eggs, vanilla, water and salt.

3.Once all the wet ingredients are combined, add cocoa powder, baking soda, almond flour and flax.

4.Once the batter is well mixed, add chocolate chips.

5.Assess batter texture. You want a wet, soft dough, kind of mousse-y in texture. If the batter seems dry, add a little more water.

6.Bake for 20 minutes, but check at the 15 minute mark. These can overbake fast so keep an eye on them.

I store these in the fridge and reheat in the microwave for 18 seconds in the morning. They will keep for almost 2 weeks in the fridge.

Serve plain or with cool whip for a flourless cake effect. Top with raspberries if you really want to blow your mind. If you want to be really bad, serve over low carb ice cream OR top with nutella, or both. Nutella in small amounts is acceptable in terms of carb count.

These muffins are healthy (cocoa powder is full of antioxidants and almonds are good for your heart) but also really lend themselves to tasting like a really sinful dessert. Which makes them perfect for a low carb diet.

Low Carb Chocolate Cake for Breakfast Recipe

Okay, so the cold has moved on and I can taste now--the chocolate low carb muffins turned out great! I'm really happy because now I have an easy option for breakfast that's not eggs. The texture is like a high end European torte. The flavor is mildly sweet. Plus they are healthy; full of fiber, antioxidants courtesy of the cocoa powder, and protein. I am thrilled with how these turned out.

These muffins have approximately 15 g carb per serving assuming you get 12 muffins out of the recipe (around 10g if you use Splenda as a sweetener). Remember to count this in your daily nut allotment, you don't want to overeat on the nuts as that can stall weight loss! Also, due to the flax content, don't eat more than one a day unless you feel like spending some quality time on the toilet.

At some point I will add a picture.

Here's the recipe...although I plan to keep tweaking it to try and get the carb count down.

Ingredients

-1 1/2 cups almond flour (I used Honeyville which had the best price I've found--Order direct, Amazon sells at a higher price!)

-1/2 cup ground flax 'flour' (I used Bob's Red Mill --Amazon has a good price for 4 packages)

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-2 tsps baking powder

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/4 cup brown sugar or 1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar blend (See note at the bottom about why I used sugar in this recipe)

-1 stick butter (I have used slightly less with no ill effect and want to try to cut it in 1/2 in future experiments)

-1 mashed banana (for flavor and as a natural sweetener, you could also try prune puree. See my note about why I use a banana below.)

-1 tbsp vanilla

-3 eggs (I've used just 2 eggs with no noticeable change, so that's an option too)

-1/3 cup water

-1/2 cup 60% Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350F

2. Mix the following dry ingredients together and set aside--almonds, flax, salt, baking powder, cocoa powder. FYI the sugar gets creamed with the butter.

3.Cream butter with mashed banana, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs and water. (The butter might fleck instead of blend, which is fine, but consider melting in the microwave next time for better blending.)

4.Add in dry ingredients and mix.

5.Fold in the chocolate chips or allocate 8 chips per muffin once they are in the muffin tin.

6.Fill 12 muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check them as they bake as they can cook fast.

How I got the carb count...

I went through the ingredients and added up all the carbs, subtracted fiber and divided by 12.

Why the recipe uses sugar and banana...

Just a note since not everyone may have read the blog archives... I try to cook without using chemical sweeteners because we have a toddler at home and don't want to feed her 'frankenfood' not even if it's homemade (although I suppose you could argue that sugar is no better, sometimes you can't win for losing). If you want to use Splenda or Stevia in place of the sugar and banana, go right ahead. I would suggest using 1/2 cup of artificial sweetener.

Actually, as it turns out the toddler hates these muffins, so I have been making them with Splenda for myself. The toddler now gets a flour/almond flour/flax blend muffin which she likes better.