Keto bars and Ice Cream - plant-based and gluten-free

About Sugar

My tricky relationship with sugar is the subject this week.  It will come up again - it's a big thing for me and I am sharing it because I know that I am not alone in this.

As for many, home baked cakes and other treats say "home" to me.  They remind me of my grandmothers - Alma and her delicious Yankee cranberry bread and Lois with her repertoire of Southern classics.  Strawberry shortbread Sundays are my mind's visual representation of Heaven.   I had a third grandmother Earlene who I never knew very well but I understand she was a dab hand with a rolling pin and came from a long line of such domestic goddesses.  My mother Mary Jane's pie crust would give Marie-Antoine Carême a run for his money.  It still impresses me the way that everything my mother bakes works.  

I struggle with moderation and addiction.  As a child I ate too much sugar.  As a teenager through to my late forties, I mostly replaced sugar with alcohol.   When I finally got my butt on a well-earned seat at a 12 step programme, the sugar came back tenfold.  Oh, and I opened a bakery.  Genius...

My plant-based and gluten-free products became known at Wholefoods and other places as being full- on decadent treats, free from goodies that didn't compromise on reward factor.  Then Wholefoods asked me to create a low sugar range, seeking a clean label, GF, plant-based, sugar-free Holy Grail of a cake.  "Low sugar" in food production means less than 5%.  So no dates, no unrefined sugars, no syrups.  There is no choice but to look at sweeteners. I managed it.  The range was ok, with a few gems.  But we had not thought through the marketing requirements fully. Even with clever labelling, consumers didn't necessarily understand that low sugar didn't mean lower sugar.  We had people buying for GF, other people buying for Vegan, different consumers buying for no sugar/low net carb, many anxious about the prospect of sweeteners.  The fact that the new products sat next to the established high sugar ones on shelf caused other problems.  My loyal fans became confused and annoyed. I withdrew the new range.  I was learning rapidly but didn't have the marketing budget to position it correctly. 

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I recently tried the keto diet, and though it had good results, I am not convinced it suits me.  I worry about cutting down so much on quantity and diversity of fruit and veg.  But one thing I loved was the chance to try and create some keto-friendly desserts and use some of what I learned making my low sugar range.  No question that when you eat very little sugar, the cravings subside.  So from time to time I will share some of the new recipes I have been working on in this space. And here is the first...

Keto soft-bake bars with ice cream
(Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free) 

For the bars

These are adapted from Fit to Serve's Soft Bake Chocolate Chip Bar recipe. Most ingredients have been replaced to make these plant-based. They use a lot of cream cheese in their keto baking which I have substituted with silken tofu, something that worked well for me when I was creating a vegan stollen.

Ingredients

2 Flax eggs = 30g ground flaxseed + 80ml water
115g Silken tofu, mashed
200g Brown sugar sweetener (I used Sukrin Gold)
75ml Sugar-free maple syrup (I used Sukrin)
2 tsp Vanilla extract
60ml Coconut oil (melted)
60g Ground almonds
30g Coconut flour
3/4 tsp GF baking powder
1/4 tsp Xanthan gum
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp Sea salt
50g Keto chocolate chips

50g Mixed unsalted nuts

Preheat oven to 180℃ (fan assisted 160℃).  Brush a little coconut oil in a 10 x 10" (25cm) brownie tin and line with baking paper.

Combine the flax eggs, mashed tofu, sugar, syrup, vanilla and coconut oil in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until smooth and there are no tofu lumps.  Combine the dry ingredients  - ground almonds, coconut flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and hand whisk, then add to the smooth paste in the mixer and combine until everything is well amalgamated.  Fold through the chocolate chips and nuts.

Spread evenly in the lined tin and smooth the top.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool in the tin then slice as desired.  This will keep for a week in an airtight container.

For the ice cream

Finding a good vegan ice cream recipe that is easy to make at home is tricky.  So I have adapted "my go to" for this - Emma Christensen's coconut milk based recipe - The Kitchn Vegan Ice cream.  Simply replace the sugar with 75ml of Sukrin maple syrup.  Many recipes you find for plant-based ice creams turn into a block of ice in the freezer and need to be consumed immediately.  Emma's recipe works as a base for any flavours, but is best made in an ice cream maker and do follow her instructions to pre-chill the base before freezing.  I made a version of this the other day with yuzu juice and it was out of this world!