Decadent Dark Chocolate Mocha Brownies (Low Carb – Low Sugar)

It’s Friday and it’s a good time to make something that is scrumptious! This is my take on a flour-less cake that I originally saw Clinton Kelly make on “The Chew.” This recipe makes 12 brownies that you will absolutely love!

Image Source: Sandra Hall Rosser

Ingredients:

6 ounces premium dark chocolate made with 70% cocoa (I used Moser-Roth brand from Aldi)

8 Tablespoons coconut oil

2 1/2 to 3 cups stevia in the raw (you can do this to taste)

1/2 cup Da Vinci’s sugar-free Kahlua flavoring (this is non-alcoholic)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs, room temperature

8 Tablespoons liquid egg whites, room temperature

Baker’s Joy non-stick spray

Directions:

1. Melt the dark chocolate and the coconut oil in double boiler or in microwave.

2. Whisk in stevia, Kahlua flavoring, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Whisk until mixture is smooth. Allow this to cool to room temperature!

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. When chocolate mixture is cool, use a hand mixer on medium speed to whip room temperature eggs and egg whites until frothy.

5. Reduce speed on mixer to low and incorporate room temperature chocolate mixture with egg mixture. (You can whisk it by hand just as effectively!) Do not over-mix because this will make your brownie dense and thick instead of creamy and light.

6. Spray an 8″ X 8″ glass pan with Baker’s Joy non-stick baking spray. (Or grease and flour the pan to keep brownies from sticking.)

7. Pour brownie mixture into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until edges of brownies are dry and start to pull away from the edge of the pan.

8. Cool completely on baking rack. Cut into 12 equal portions.

Serve with sugar-free whipped topping or my favorite, a 1/2 cup portion of Breyer’s Vanilla Carb Smart ice cream.

Nutritional Information: 291 calories, 24 g fat, 31 mg cholesterol, 37 mg sodium, 14.7 g carbohydrates, 4.2 g dietary fiber, 8.6 g sugar, and 6 g protein.

Compare to a Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Decadent* packaged brownie mix (an 8″ X 8″ pan of brownies cut into 16 portions):

*Nutritional Information: 130 calories, 3.5 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 115 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 18 g sugar, and 1 g protein.

Important Tips:

Please let chocolate mixture cool to room temperature. Egg mixture needs to be at room temperature as well. If not, then the chocolate mixture will “cook” the egg mixture. You won’t be able to recover the recipe after this!

Substitutions can be made: butter for the coconut oil, and Splenda for the stevia. You can even semi-sweet chocolate chips for the premium dark chocolate (although this will increase the sugar grams and thereby the carbohydrate grams of the recipe). The point of the recipe, however, is to be low-carb and low-sugar.

Over-mixing this recipe will produce a brownie that you could use to pave your outside walkway. When you mix, it’s okay that the egg mixture is slightly “ribboned” (where you can still see the distinctive yellow of the egg) with the chocolate. If your mixture looks like a regular boxed brownie mix, then you may have over-mixed. Take this from me — the first time I made these, the taste was good but they could have been declared a lethal weapon if I’d chosen to throw them at someone!

If you use a metal pan, you will have to decrease cooking time. Start checking brownies at 25 minutes if you’re using a metal pan.

Da Vinci (and other companies) offers other sugar-free flavorings: French Vanilla, Caramel, Hazelnut, Coconut. You could substitute the Kahlua flavoring with any of those. However, substituting pure vanilla extract or almond extract is NOT the same thing because Da Vinci’s flavorings are SWEET. I’m not saying those couldn’t be used, just adjust your sweetener accordingly.

Add walnuts or pecans to this recipe if you’d like. It will only slightly increase the calories and will boost the dietary fiber and protein.

Finally, if your batter isn’t as sweet as you want it, your brownies will not be as sweet as you want them. TASTE TEST the chocolate mixture before mixing it and the eggs together.

Have a fabulous weekend. If you make these, please go to here and rate my recipe!

Remember to visit God’s house this weekend and give Him all your praise and glory!

shr