Cranberry Nut Bread - Sugar Free, Low Carb

• Prep Time
  20 min
• Cook Time
  50 min
• Total Time
  70 min

Great holiday bread, or for any time! Powdered egg whites are the key for giving it structure, but it's OK without it. (Tip: If you end up using a lot of egg whites, a less expensive source is to use egg white marketed as protein powder.) Do try the variation with cheese - it's really delicious, though unusual.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 2 1/2 cups almond meal/flour
• 1/3 cup powdered egg white
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar equivalent with artificial sweetener (liquid forms of Splenda work well)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup water
• Optional: 1/2-1 C chopped pecans

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1) Butter the bottom of a large loaf pan. You can butter around a little way up the side, but don't go too far. To make sure all goes well when taking the bread out of the pan, I like to put a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and then butter that as well.

2) Roughly chop the cranberries or pulse in a food processor. As a rough guide, each cranberry is in 2-4 pieces. Don't go finer or they get "lost" - they shrink during cooking

3) Mix the dry ingredients together (almond meal, egg white, baking powder, salt, sweetener if it's powdered).

4) Add the wet ingredients (liquid sweetener, melted butter, eggs, water). Mix well. (You don't have to worry about overmixing, as you would with regular flour.)

5) Pour batter into pan and bake about 40-50 minutes, until top is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Variation: Cranberry Cheese Bread Add 1 and 1/2 cups of shredded white sharp cheddar cheese. Yum!

Makes 16 servings, each with 2.5 grams effective carbohydrate, 2.5 grams fiber, 6 grams protein, and 164 calories.

 

 

Cranberry Bliss Bars (Low Carb and Gluten Free)

Cranberry Bliss Bars (Low Carb and Gluten Free)

Bars:
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated erythritol
1 tsp vanilla extract
20 drops stevia extract
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp ground ginger
4 eggs
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

Icing:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp powdered erythritol
10 drops stevia extract
1 tsp grated orange zest

1/4 cup unsweetened dried cranberries (I made my own from this recipe, but you may be able to find them at a local health food store)


Preheat oven to 325F and grease an 8×8 inch baking pan. Line pan bottom and sides with parchment paper and grease parchment.

In a large bowl, mix melted butter with erythritol, vanilla and stevia extract. Add almond flour and ground ginger, stirring to incorporate. Add in eggs and stir until all ingredients are well combined. Stir in chopped cranberries, and walnuts and ginger if using.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread the top. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool completely in pan.
For the icing, beat cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add cream and beat thoroughly, scraping down beaters and sides of bowl as needed. Beat in erythritol, stevia and orange zest until smooth.

Spread icing over cooled bars and sprinkle with dried cranberries. Chill in refrigerator until icing is firm, about 1 hour. Cut into bars or triangles.

Makes 16 large bars or 25 smaller ones. Total carbs for larger bars is 9.8g, and for smaller bars is 6.3g. If you subtract erythritol, large bars have 5.3g of carbs and smaller bars have 3.4g