(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kos Diabetes Group: It's A Brownie It's A Cookie Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-30 Welcome to this week’s edition of the Kos Diabetes Group! It’s my week at the helm and as most of you know, it’s almost always food-based. For those who may not know me or why I’m passionate about low-carb food, let me give my usual introduction… In Jan 2016, after ignoring a rising “pre-diabetic” A1c (stupidly, thanks medical profession for not explaining just how dangerous it was) for four years, I was diagnosed a Type 2 diabetic with an initial A1c of 7.6. For 6 months I followed recommendations from my primary care doctor/diabetes counselor and the American Diabetes Association. My blood sugar remained high, and I realized while 15-50g carbs per meal was FAR less than the standard American diet it was going to be the literal death of me because my pancreas couldn’t read the bajillion articles saying Complex Carbs were Just Fine. With my doctor’s approval I embarked on a drastically limited carb intake aka a ketogenic diet. I absolutely understand this is not for everyone because all of our diabetic metabolisms, care strategies and outcomes are different, but this is MY way of handling my health. I maintained an A1c of under 6.1 until recently by eating keto and taking 500mg metformin every evening. However, in January my A1c was 6.5, likely a combination of stress eating (what, you’re not stressed these days?!) AND the reality that diabetes is a progressive disease. My doctor upped my metformin dose (now at 1500mg/day) and my last A1c was down to 6.0 (YAY!!!). As a nice bonus, my cholesterol and lipid panels were GORGEOUS and I shall continue to eat bacon, cream and steak. It’s coming up on July 4th and I gotta be honest: Casa Brillig is exhausted. I don’t know that we’ll be attending any parties or BBQs, given that less than a week later we’ll be in Chicago for Netroots Nation seeing people we’ve missed since 2019! I’m sure we’ll be grilling something tasty to eat though, and there are so many ways to be low-carb and diabetes-friendly during the summer it’s really a good season to be eating :) Desserts, however, can often be a problem. We all know how difficult it can be to find a tasty, sweet dessert safe for us to eat. At a birthday potluck for a friend last weekend, I was trying to find a recipe that was (1) keto; (2) gluten-free; and (3) dairy-free. I have two brownie recipes that fit that bill if I make substitutions, but I wasn’t in the mood for a brownie bar… too often they get crumbly or aren’t the right texture. What I wanted was a COOKIE. But chocolate and tasting like a brownie. What if I told you you can have a brownie cookie that met all of those criteria? This recipe is from The Ultimate Guide To Keto Baking one of the very few hardcopy keto cookbooks I own. ALL of those cookbooks are by the creative genius of my favorite keto website, All Day I Dream About Food. I don’t generally share recipes from cookbooks because I want the author to receive the proceeds from sales of the book, but these are SO GOOD I’m making an exception… but strongly suggest that if you enjoy baking but also eating low-carb, PLEASE buy this book. It’s full of tips and tricks to make baking easy (honestly, I’m forgetting what ‘regular’ baking is like because this is such an easy and regular part of my life now) and is worth every penny. OK, let’s get to the Brownie Cookies, found on page 132: Ingredients (including brands/substitutions I made): 6oz sugar-free chocolate chips (Lily’s) 6Tbs unsalted butter (subbed coconut oil to make it dairy free; we all LOVED the taste) 1 cup (100g) almond flour (Costco brand) ¼ cup cocoa powder (Hersheys) 2Tbs grassfed gelatin (It adds a ‘chewy’ factor but these were for a no-beef group so left it out. My brand of choice is Vital Proteins- tasteless, inexpensive & also what I use to make marshmallows) ½ tsp baking powder 3 large eggs, room temp ½ cup granulated erythritol sweetener (I used a store brand, they’re all similar) ½ cup allulose or Bocha Sweet (helps to make the cookies more brownie-like texturally. If you can’t get either, just use more erythritol) 2 tsp vanilla extract ¼ tsp salt ½ cup chopped pecans (omitted because I don’t like nuts in brownies) instructions (including my tips not in the published recipe) 1. Melt together the chocolate chips and butter/coconut oil and stir until smooth. Use a saucepan over low heat, or the microwave. Set aside 2. Whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, gelatin if using and baking powder 3. Beat the eggs, sweeteners, vanilla and salt on high with an electric mixer (I used a stand mixer) for about five minutes until thickened. Reduce speed to low and beat in the melted chocolate mixture until well combined. 4. Add the almond flour mixture and beat until just combined. Stir in the pecans if using. If you’re like me, at this point you’ll be looking at your brownie batter wondering how cookies are going to happen from this chocolatey goop. Keep reading! 5. Refrigerate batter for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350F and line two (I used three) cookie sheets with either parchment or silicone liners. Just greasing the pan will NOT work. 6. Scoop the now-dough into about 1.5 Tbs balls (I have a scooper this size) and place several inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. You should get about 36 scoops/balls. Using a flat-bottomed glass with parchment or waxed paper between it and the cookie ball to keep it from sticking, flatten to about 0.5” thick (mine were a little thinner. It was fine) 7. Bake 10-12 minutes until the edges are set but the center still looks wet. Like brownies. Remove from oven and cool completely on the pan. This is important… almond flour cookies fall apart if you try to move them early. Store at room temp if you’ll eat them quickly, in the fridge or frozen if you will take longer. These were absolutely delicious. Everyone who tried them like them including people who don’t eat keto or use zero glycemic index sweeteners. We all agreed that we liked the coconut oil flavor and probably will make them that way even if we don’t need them to be dairy free. We also had the suggestion these would make fantastic ice cream sandwich bases. Rebel Creamery makes a fantastic Orange Cream ice cream that I think would pair well with these. They’d also go well sandwiched with a thick buttercream frosting. Nutritional info per two cookies, using the recipe as written by the author: 148 calories, 12.3g fat, 4.3g protein, 6g total carbs, 4.1g fiber Let me know if you make these!! Happy July 4th weekend, and let us know what you’re having for healthy diabetic-friendly food! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/30/2178441/-Kos-Diabetes-Group-It-s-A-Brownie-It-s-A-Cookie-Edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/