Introduction to Sugar-Free Chocolate Avocado Brownies
Sugar free chocolate avocado brownies are always a good choice. They are rich and fudgy with the perfect balance of sweet gooey melted chocolate chips and flakey salt. The best part is that they are a gluten free low carb recipe that requires just 5 minutes of prep time. You’ll have delicious keto avocado brownies with just 3 net carbs each in no time!
Avocado Brownies
You read right! These rich chocolate brownies are practically flourless because they have a base secret ingredient, avocado! Avocado adds fat and fiber to help these brownies stay moist and filling. Don’t let the idea of avocado scare you though. Avocado has a really subtle flavor when paired with chocolate and almond butter so you won’t even taste it. Who knew being healthy could be so simple, yet so delicious!
A One Bowl Brownie Recipe
This is a one bowl recipe, or more accurately a one food processor recipe. We chose to use a food processor to make this recipe because it creates a smooth and even batter that distributes the avocado without any unwanted chunks. If you don’t have a food processor you can always use a high speed blender, but we can’t promise it will blend as evenly.
The Best Nut-Free Keto Brownies
These keto avocado brownies are by far the best nut free brownies you will have ever tried. They are so dense and fudgy with just one single teaspoon of coconut flour. Coconut technically isn’t classified as a nut like peanuts and almonds, so if you do have a nut allergy these brownies shouldn’t cause you any problems. There IS nut butter in this recipe, however for nut free brownies simply sub the almond or peanut butter for some sunflower seed butter.
Flours for Gluten-Free Brownies
Our avocado brownies recipe is practically flourless meaning you don’t have to worry about nuts, or gluten. We feel that a true keto diet should be grain free in order to really get the full benefits of a low carb and keto diet. If you do include gluten on a keto diet you may find you have more inflammation and bloating as our bodies don’t always digest it well.
Coconut vs Almond Flour
Almond flour is one of our favorite ingredients to use when doing any kind of baking. It works well to get that bready and dense texture you’d want in normal brownies, and has a slight nutty flavor that’s rich in fiber. However, we’ve made delicious brownies with almond flour in the past and just felt it was time to make a delicious keto avocado brownie nut free.
CAN I USE ALMOND FLOUR?
Often times we are asked if it is okay to sub almond flour for the coconut flour in keto recipes, using just one flour instead of the other. Unfortunately, coconut flour is very different from almond flour. Unlike coconut and almond milk, these two flours are not interchangeable. Almond flour is less absorbent requiring more flour to make the same keto recipe. If you do want to make this recipe with almond flour you will have to use three times the amount of coconut flour (that’s one teaspoon coconut flour for 3 teaspoons of almond flour). This is because almond flour adds overall bulk to absorb moisture whereas coconut flour is already highly absorbent in small dosages.
Making Sugar-Free Keto Brownies
In order to be keto these low carb brownies needed to be sugar free. To make a low carb keto recipe that is also low in net carbs you will need a 100% sugar free sweetener. We’ve decided for this recipe there are two big contenders, but then two additional options on top of the main two. Our favorite keto sweeteners are:
- Granular Erythritol – Erythritol is the OG keto sweetener. It’s sugar free, dairy free, and low carb. Plus it makes desserts taste like the original without costing you a fortune.
- Swerve – Swerve is a keto friendly sweetener that has a one to one ratio with sugar. It’s great for beginning keto bakers who aren’t sure what they need to do for a keto recipe. It comes in everything from traditional granular sweetener to brown sugar and powdered sugar.
Extra Sweetener Options
If those first two sweeteners weren’t for you, one of these three are sure to be.
- Monk Fruit – Monk fruit is a little different from other sweeteners because it is similar to stevia as a concentrated extract. For this recipe we recommend using a blend of monk fruit and erythritol to get the right amount of sweetener volume for the recipe. If you do use liquid monk fruit make sure to add a little extra cocoa powder or flour to your avocado brownie for the right fudgy texture.
- Liquid Stevia – Liquid stevia is personally one of our favorite sweeteners. It’s gentle on the gut and super sweet so you don’t need much to make a recipe.
- Coconut Sugar – Coconut sugar is NOT keto. However, coconut sugar can be used as a good paleo sweetener since we already made these brownies with avocado instead of flour.
Gelatin in Brownies
We know this sounds a little weird, but trust us. Adding any kind of gelatin (beef or pork) makes for a fantastically fudgy and chewy brownie. Making avocado brownies keto is nice because they don’t have flour, but can still sometimes lack that glutenous texture. Gelatin is an animal sourced way to add back in that chewiness without any extra carbs. Since gelatin is an animal product it has 0 net carbs. If that doesn’t make these the best low carb brownies we don’t know what will!
How to Make Low Carb Brownies Dairy Free
If you love brownies, but don’t love all the butter that goes into them, these tips are for you! For starters these keto brownies have a base of butter so you will want to sub it out for melted coconut oil. It’s essential you do sub it for a fat instead of pumpkin because avocado on it’s own isn’t enough fat to make good keto avocado brownies. Coconut oil won’t have a strong flavor so don’t worry about it masking the chocolate. If you don’t like or don’t have coconut oil you can use vegan butter. Vegan butter is a little more expensive per ounce and is always made with lower quality oils, but it is an option.
Getting Choco-Loco
These sugar free brownies are made with delicious sugar free cocoa powder. It’s rich, decadent, and lacks any added carbs. Still, most people know about unsweetened cocoa powder because it’s pretty easy to find at the grocery store. What’s a little more difficult though is finding sugar free chocolate chips that are actually made with good ingredients. You can go two routes to make these avocado brownies keto and still contain extra chocolate toppings.
- Use a keto friendly chopped bar of chocolate
- Use sugar free dark chocolate chips
The Best Store Bought Keto Chocolates
Thankfully for you we made a list of all our favorite bars and chips and added them below. Our favorite low carb chocolate brands are:
- Lily’s Bars -Lily’s keto chocolate bars work great for keto recipes because they have a variety of flavors to go with whatever type of dessert you’re making. If you’re feeling extra lazy and don’t want to chop the chocolate you can even pulse in a blender or food processor a few times before topping the brownies with it.
- Lily’s Chips – Chocolate chips are a super simple route to go when you want the most chocolate possible for the least amount of work. Just cut open the bag and dump some into your brownie batter.
- 100% Unsweetened Baking Chocolate -Unsweetened baking chocolate is just that, unsweetened. The first time you try it you may not love it because it’s so bitter. But, for those who like a more chocolate focused flavor this one’s for you. (The best part is that there are only 1 gram of net carbs per serving!)
- Kiss My Keto Chocolate Bars – These are a newer product on the market. They’re sweetened with sugar alcohols and stevia, but come topped with a variety of nuts. Personally we prefer Lily’s because it’s smoother, but find this works in a pinch to achieve that fudgy texture to a brownie.
How to Make Keto Avocado Brownies
Now that you know everything that goes into making the best keto brownies out there, it’s time to start baking.
Ingredients
To make these avocado brownies you will need avocado, baking soda (baking soda is different from baking powder so be sure to check), cocoa powder unsweetened, coconut flour, erythritol, salt, and unflavored gelatin. For the wet ingredients you will need melted butter or coconut oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond butter. We used almond butter because it has less flavor than peanut butter, however you can use whichever nut butter you have on hand.
Making Keto Avocado Brownies
To begin making the brownies preheat the oven to 350 F. Then line a 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. In a food processor combine all the ingredients except your chopped chocolate and flakey salt.
Blend the ingredients for 20-30 seconds, or until the batter is smooth and uniform. Don’t over mix the batter or your brownies might end up a bit cakey. You can fold in any unmixed ingredients using a spatula.
Now move the brownie batter into your lined baking dish and spread it evenly with a spatula or spoon back. Add your chocolate and sea salt/ flakey salt.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges have gone firm but the center still has a slight wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool (or
