Rustic Apple Pie - Medium Carb Count

If 10.5g net carbs per serving sounds like a lot to you, then this recipe isn't for you. Since I've started walking in the mornings after breakfast, I'm finding that I can handle slightly higher carbs. I also walk in place after lunch and dinner for 10 minutes. It helps to play some music when I do this, and before you know it I find myself dancing! My doctor changed one of my oral diabetic pills to Invokana around 5 months ago. This might also be contributing to my constant lower fasting glucose. I range from 90 to 130 in the mornings before breakfast, and I don't really test at other times of the day, unless I feel a little off. Right now I'm really happy that I've been able to be adding some more carbs, but I don't go overboard!

I have to do some more research on what fruits have lower carbs, so that I can make more pies!!

Anyway, since the crust I use bakes up quickly in the oven, I had to cook my apple filling on the stove top. I'm really happy with the taste of this one. The slices come out smaller than a standard pie, so next time I may make the crust in a pie pan, and add the cooked apples when the crust is almost done. The amount of carbs would stay the same, but the slices would be bigger!

APPLE FILLING:

• 3 small Granny Smith apples
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 tsp Swerve Granulated sweetener or granulated erythritol
• 3 drops of EZ- Sweetz Liquid Sucralose
• 3/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

Core and slice apples into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place slices in a bowl and pour lemon juice over apples and mix to coat well. Set them aside.

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Stir in sweeteners and extract. Add apple slices, turning to coat with mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cover and cook until apple slices are soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Test one of the slices at 2 minutes, if it still has a little crunch to it, cook a little longer since the time in the oven is minimal.

Remove from the heat and let it cool completely before adding to your unbaked pie crust at Step #8 below in the Directions!

PIE CRUST:

• 1 cup blanched almond flour (Honeyville)
• 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 2 Tbsp Swerve granulated sweetener or granulated erythritol
• 1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, well-chilled and cut into small chunks
• 2 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.     For the crust, combine almond flour, GF all purpose flour, Swerve, xanthan gum, and salt, in a food processor. Pulse to combine.

3.     Sprinkle butter in, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4.     With processor running on low, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough begins to clump together. 2 Tbs worked for me.

5.     Cover work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with almond flour. Turn out dough and form into a square (or disk for a pie).

6.     Sprinkle with additional almond flour and top with another piece of parchment, then carefully roll out in all directions to form a 10 to 11 inch circle.

7.     Poke some holes in the bottom of crust with a fork.

8.     Add the cooled apple filling and carefully fold up the edges as shown in the photo.

9.     Bake 20 to 25 minutes, so that the top browns, but watch the bottom doesn't burn! Cool on rack when done.

Optional: A bit of whipped cream on top is heavenly. I store my leftover pie in the refrigerator. When I'm ready to serve, I put a slice in the microwave, covered, for 15 seconds to warm it up, then top with a sprinkle of Confectioner's Swerve and some whipped cream. Oh Boy it's good!

Notes:
Total carbs for entire recipe is 84.3g net carbs. If slicing into 8ths, per serving is 10.5g net carbs.

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Coconut Lime Cream Cheese Squares - Low Carb

On May 3rd, we went to a Kentucky Derby party at our nephew's house. Besides bringing my low carb Maple Walnut Chocolate Chip Biscotti (recipe not updated yet) we also brought this low carb dessert. I could have made a pie, but since there were a lot of people I went with squares and cut 16 small pieces out of this 8 by 8 pan. I cut them in 4 one direction, then turned the pan and cut into another 4 pieces.

PIE CRUST:

• 1 cup blanched almond flour (Honeyville)
• 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 2 Tbsp Swerve granulated sweetener or granulated erythritol
• 1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, well-chilled and cut into small chunks
• 2 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.     For the crust, combine almond flour, GF all purpose flour, Swerve, xanthan gum, and salt, in a food processor. Pulse to combine.

3.     Sprinkle butter in, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4.     With processor running on low, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough begins to clump together. 2 Tbs worked for me.

5.     Cover work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with almond flour. Turn out dough and form into a square (or disk for a pie).

6.     Sprinkle with additional almond flour and top with another piece of parchment, then carefully roll out in all directions to form a 9 by 9 inch square (or 10-inch circle for a pie).

7.     Place in 8 by 8 pan (or a pie tin).

8.     Poke some holes in the bottom of crust with a fork.

9.     Bake 13 to 15 minutes. If you can cover the crust edges with foil after they have browned, you can add more time to let the bottom of the crust get slightly brown. Cool on rack when done. 

Ingredients for Filling

• 12 oz cream cheese (full fat) room temperature 
• 1 Lime, juiced 
• 9 Tbsps Swerve or granular erythritol 
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1.     In a bowl, beat the cream cheese, lime juice, and sweetener, with a hand mixer until smooth.

2.     In a separate bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream.

3.     Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

4.     Scoop into the cooled down crust. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more.

Optional:

Top with toasted coconut before refrigerating. On a sheet pan, spread out 1/4 cup of unsweetened fine coconut. Toast for 2 to 3 minutes in a 350° oven. Be careful not to burn the coconut. Remove from oven and let it cool. After it has cooled, place in a bowl and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of cold water and mix until moist. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered erythritol and 1 drop of E-Z Sweetz liquid sucralose and mix well. Whatever amount doesn't get used, keep the remainder in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes

Total carbs is 33.6g for the entire recipe. If cutting into 16 squares, each square would be 2.1g. If making a pie and cutting into 8 slices, the carb count would be 4.2g per slice.

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Maple Walnut Biscotti

Tomorrow is my Birthday, and I needed to whip up some snacks, so I don't get tempted to indulge in the carby desserts.

Okay, so I think I've come up with my new favorite flavor for biscotti. I passed on making a glaze for this, just in case I want to dip this into my coffee!

Ingredients

2 cups Almond Flour

1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener (or granulated erythritol)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (add more if you like it nutty)

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg, lightly beaten 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp maple extract

2 Tbsp Sugar Free Maple Syrup (I use Walden Farms Pancake Syrup)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, Swerve, baking powder, and xanthan gum.

Stir in the chopped walnuts, melted butter, egg, vanilla extract, maple extract, and Sugar Free Maple syrup, until the dough blends together.

Place dough onto parchment lined baking sheet and form into a flat log 3 inches wide by 11 inches in length. Pat the ends of the length so that the slices will be consistent, sort of making it rectangular instead of rounded ends.

Bake 25 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250°F.

When cooled, cut into 14 even slices. Put slices back onto baking sheet cut-side down and bake for 15 minutes, then flip each slice and bake for another 15 minutes. Turn oven off and let biscotti sit inside until cool. I leave my oven door slightly open to cool it down quicker.

Notes

14 Servings. Total net carbs for full recipe is 20g. Figuring 14 servings, each serving would be 1.4g net carbs. These amounts are based on the ingredients that I used.

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Another Cannoli Cream Creation!

Yep, that's right, it's only 3 slices of pie! I forgot to take a pic of it before taking it to my get-together with my sister Pattie, niece Stephanie, Cassidy (great-niece), and Gavin (great-nephew). The kids split a slice, and the adults all had one. It went over big, and I am so thrilled that my husband, Frank, loved it too!

Use the same crust recipe and for the filling add an additional 1/3 recipe ingredients, or you could double it and save any extra filling. Hmm, maybe putting it inside a cupcake, oh yes!

My husband liked it so much that he asked what else I could make. So, I'm making another pie crust right now, and will fill it with the Lemon Cream Cheese filling, but I'll double it since that amount is only for 12 mini-muffin cups.

Notes

Yield - 8 slices
Per slice 4.5g net carb.  Slice it smaller and you can cut the carbs more!

Cannoli Cups - Low Carb

Yay, my first post on my new blog! 
I'm on a quest to find, or come up with, recipes that are very low carb. For some reason I keep heading to the sweeter side of recipes. Maybe because it's harder to come up with great tasting low carb sweet things!
I accidentally got a lucky break Thursday when shopping for Swerve Sweetener. Looking at their website on Wednesday, I noticed they were out of stock for the Swerve Confectioner's Sweetener, so I decided to wait a day to see if it would be back in stock. When I checked again on Thursday, I noticed the Retailer tab and was happy to find that my local health food store carried Swerve. Instead of just driving over there, I gave them a call to see if they indeed carried it. Well, as it turned out, they had all of their supply on the 50% off rack!! They decided to discontinue carrying it due to lack of sales. Needless to say I hopped in my car and went right on over. I bought 4 one pound bags of the granular, and 1 one pound bag of the confectioner's. Total cost was $28, what a bargain! The big plus is that I've never used Swerve before, and I really like it. I might go back and buy some more of the granular since they had a lot on the discount rack.
A lot of cannoli's that I've had in the past, were always too sweet for my taste, so I stayed away from them. Back in the 1980's, there was a small Italian restaurant (it was actually a house) called Enza's in Hawthorne, New Jersey, and they had the best cannoli's I ever had in my life. They were light and not really that sweet. It was almost as if they used a lot more ricotta than mascarpone for the filling. They have been out of business for a very long time, so there is nobody to verify their recipe.
Without further ado, let's get into the recipe.

Ingredients

CANNOLI FILLING for mini cups or as a pie filling:

• 1 cup of whole milk Ricotta cheese (1 1/3 cup for pie filling)
• 1/3 cup of Mascarpone (BelGioiso® or other zero carb brand) (1/2 cup for pie filling)
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp of Swerve Confectioner's Sweetener (1/3 cup for pie filling)
• 1/4 cup of sugar-free mini choc chips (1/3 cup for pie filling)

CRUST:

• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 2 Tbsp Swerve granulated sweetener or granulated erythritol
• 1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, well-chilled and cut into small chunks
• 2 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a mini muffin pan (24 count) with parchment liners.* (Update: I made these again and sprayed the pan instead of using the liners, it worked just fine)
2. For the crust, combine almond flour, GF all purpose flour, Swerve, xanthan gum, and salt, in a food processor. Pulse to combine.
3. Sprinkle butter in, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. With processor running on low, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough begins to clump together.
5. Cover work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with almond flour. Turn out dough and form into a disk.
6. Sprinkle with additional almond flour and top with another piece of parchment, then carefully roll out in all directions to form a 10-inch circle.
7. Remove top parchment and use a circle cookie cutter (or a small drinking glass works too) that measures 2 inches across. This size works perfect for the mini muffin pan. Cut as many circles as you can, then gently lift circles with an offset spatula, and press down into the liners.
8. With the remaining scraps, you could just cut pieces and press them into the liners if there are only a few cups left to fill. Or re-roll the scraps and cut more circles.
9. Poke some holes in the bottom of crust with a fork.
10. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until pastry is light golden brown. Let cool completely in pan before adding the cannoli cream filling.
11. For the filling, in a small bowl add the ricotta, Mascarpone, and Swerve. Add the sugar free chocolate chips. With a hand mixer, beat all together until it is nice and creamy smooth.
12. Put the mixture into a pastry bag, or improvise and make your own, and pipe the filling into the cooled mini cups. Keep refrigerated!

* The parchment paper and muffin liners that I use and highly recommend are unbleached and chlorine free, from a company called If You Care®.

Notes
Yield - 24 mini Cannoli Cups
Based on the ingredients I used: For the full crust = 27g net carbs and full amount of filling = 8.8g net carbs.
Each Cannoli Cup is 1.5g net carb, and that's low enough to have 2 Servings, yay!!

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