4 x keto recipes

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

Chocolate Brownies

170g butter, softened

3 eggs

100g sweetener

45g cocoa powder

170g dark chocolate

75g almond flour / ground almonds

2tbsp warmed peanut butter

Garlic Bread

180g mozzarella

90g almond flour / ground almonds

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 egg

2tbsp cream cheese

Handful fresh parsley, chopped fine

Salt & Pepper

Additional ground garlic clove, fresh parsley and melted butter to serve

Pizza

1 x portion of garlic bread dough as per above

Pizza toppings of your choice

Mushroom Melts

Large mushrooms, such as portobello, washed

Few tablespoons pizza sauce for each mushroom

100g mozzarella

Handful of pepperoni

Basil to top (optional)

Well perhaps this is more like 2 and a bit recipes but for my first experiment with keto recipes I wanted to get the family involved so we would make one each. Adapting one or two enabled a few bonus ones to be made. Although we are not doing the keto diet, this was a really surprisingly tasty set of recipes that I’d eat again for sure.

Chocolate Brownies

To make the chocolate brownies, this is ridiculously easy. Pre-heat an oven to 160fan /180c or equivalent. Melt the chocolate in a microwave proof bowl in 20 second bursts until melted stirring each time until smooth.

Whilst it cools slightly get another bowl and beat together the butter, eggs, cocoa powder and sweetener until combined, add in the almond flour and the melted chocolate and keep stirring until consistent mixture is achieved. If you want you can sprinkle in some more peanuts or stir in some peanut butter and stir through.

Tip the mixture into a small lined square tin and spread evenly, again if you wish swirling warmed peanut butter into the top. Bake for 25-30 mins and remove from the oven to cool on a wire rack fully before serving.

Garlic Bread

This is such a simple recipe but worked an absolute charm. Add all of the ingredients, apart from the egg into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, remove, stir and repeat for another 30 seconds. Add in the egg and stir through, you will sort of have a cheesy, slightly wet but fairly easy to shape dough.

Line a baking tray and add the dough into the centre, use your hands or a spatula to spread the dough out into your shape of choice. You can go pretty thin, just make sure there are no gaps.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200fan / 220c for 15-20 minutes or until just browned. Allow to cool slightly. If you wish whilst cooling down, melt a few tbsp of butter and mix it with a finely chopped garlic clove and some herbs, use a pastry brush to add this to the garlic bread for an added flavour boost.

Pizza

The pizza is nice and simple. Use the recipe for the garlic bread, omitting the garlic if you wish (although a garlic crust would be nice! Shape the dough onto a lined baking tray again, perhaps a circle pizza shape if you wish, bake the dough but only until just starting to brown. Remove from the oven, top the pizza with pizza sauce, cheese and any other toppings you like, then return to the oven and bake until the cheese is lightly browned.

Mushroom Melts

For the mushroom melts, I’m using pizza sauce but filling them with a few different cheeses to melt would be amazing too.

Bake the mushrooms in a small baking tray, in an oven pre-heated to 160fan / 180c for around 15-20 minutes, this will help the mushrooms remove moisture. Carefully drain off the moisture from the tin and allow them mushrooms to cool for a few minutes. Fill the mushroom centres (you may want to slice off the stalk) with tomato sauce, then add the toppings such as pepperoni, cheese and herbs like basil. Really mix these up to your liking, bake for another 15-20 minutes until the cheese is gooey, melted and lightly browned. Allow to stand for a few minutes before serving.