Chocolate and Berry Dessert – A Low-Carb Delight
Hi again!
Today I’m going to share with you a recipe for a dessert I made for Thanksgiving, which was an absolute hit!
This dessert is not only low-carb but it’s also delicious! I have, however, included notes if you want to make the regular recipe.
One of the reasons I love the low-carb diet is that you can eat chocolate! I have one or two squares of 85% cocoa every day after lunch, and we have low-carb chocolate cake for our date nights.
So, this dessert is actually a low-carb version of a dessert I used to make before and it has three basic elements: chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie and raspberries or mixed berries.
The first element I’m going to talk about is the chocolate mousse. Basically, I made a classic version of a chocolate mousse but used erythritol (you can read about the benefits here) instead of sugar.
Now if you’re not concerned about making this low carb, you can just add a couple of spoons of sugar to the recipe instead of erythritol.
If you’d like to make it low-carb and you don’t have erythritol, you have several options. You can either not add any sweetener, and keep to the 85% cocoa solids chocolate.
Or you could use sweeter dark chocolate, for instance, chocolate with 75% cocoa solids, which means the mousse will still be quite low-sugar.
The other thing that might work is adding another type of granulated low-carb sugar (Stevia, Xylitol or Monkfruit sweetner) to substitute the erythritol.
I can’t vouch for this though, as I’ve never used these in chocolate mousse. But cooking is all about experimenting, so you could try with a smaller serving of mousse to see if it works. 🙂
Anyway, here goes the recipe I can vouch for:
Chocolate mousse
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 200 grams chocolate (85% cocoa)
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of cream
- 2 tablespoons of erythritol (or sugar if not low-carb)
Method
First chop up the chocolate and place in a glass bowl on top of a pan with simmering water. Mix it now and then to help it melt evenly.
Then separate the six eggs and place the whites in a freestanding mixer. If you don’t have one, use a bowl with a handheld whisk.
Add a pinch of salt and start whisking on high speed. After it’s been whisking for a minute, add the erythritol and whisk until the whites form soft peaks.
When the chocolate has melted completely, remove the bowl from the heat and let it cool down. Then add the egg yolks to the chocolate and whisk by hand. Then add the cream and whisk until smooth.
Finally, add the egg whites to the chocolate mixture in stages. I do this in four different stages. I fold in a fourth of the egg white mixture, and then add another fourth, and so on.
Make sure you fold the egg whites in carefully so you don’t lose any air.
When the mixture is smooth, transfer it to a clean serving bowl and then refrigerate it for around 4 to 5 hours, until set.
Mug Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour (you can substitute with one extra tablespoon of almond flour)
- 1 tablespoon almond flour
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil (sub for olive-oil if you like the taste)
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon erythritol or sweetener of choice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water (add more if the mixture seems too thick)
Method:
First add the cocoa powder to a microwave-safe mug, and then add the tablespoon of hot water (I usually boil a kettle for this).
Then add the melted coconut oil and beat well with a fork. Add the egg, and whisk well until the mixture is smooth.
Finally add the sieved almond flour and coconut flour, sweetener, and baking powder. Whisk the mixture very well to get rid of any lumps!
Microwave for around 2 minutes and voilà ! The quickest mug cake in the world!
You can find the full recipe info here!
Assemble
When the mousse is ready, crumble the mug cake on top and then throw some fresh raspberries or mixed berries on top of that. If you like you can also add some whipped cream for decoration!
That’s it! Delicious and nutritious! 😀