Low Carb Pie Crusts - Two to Choose From!

 

Low Carb Pie Crusts: 

Here's a couple you can choose from:

Healthy High Fiber Pie Crust

2 C. Fiber One cereal ground/crushed
3 T. melted butter
2 T. granular Splenda

Mix ingredients well, press into a lightly greased pie plate.

Bake 10 minutes @ 350 degrees F

Cool. Add filling of choice. I like to add a sugar free vanilla pudding filling with some fat free cream cheese stirred into it to make it taste like cheesecake. Then I top with strawberries if they are in season.


Almond Meal Pie Crust

This works best for a 9" pie pan. If you have an 8" one, the crust will be a little thicker, or you can cut back on the ingredients a bit. Very easy to make, tastes a lot like shortbread and its gluten free too!

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups almond meal or almond flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Artificial sweetener equal to 3 tablespoons sugar

Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 F. Melt the butter (if the pie pan is microwave safe, melt the butter in it) and mix the ingredients up in the pan and pat into place with your fingertips.

Bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown. After 8 minutes, check every minute or so, because once it starts to brown it goes quickly.

Nutritional Information: The whole pie shell has 11 grams effective carbohydrate2 plus 17 grams fiber and 30 grams protein.

You can find lots of ideas for pie crusts and even recipes without crust, that are lower in carbs. Just Google it! 

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins   Here's my recipe for Bran Muffins, for diabetics or those on a low carb diet.  These muffins are not as large as regular muffins, but this means that they also don't have as many carbs per muffin as regular muffins either!    1 1/3 cups prune juice 1 1/2 cups Fibre One cereal , OR unprocessed bran 2 cups Buttermilk OR 2 cups milk + 4 tsp white vinegar 1/2 cup Vegetable oil 2 whole eggs (or egg whites to make same quantity) 1 tsp Vanilla extract 1 Tbsp Ground cinnamon 2 cups Whole wheat flour 1 cup Oat Bran (the type you have to cook) 1/2 cup Splenda (granular Splenda for baking, no sugar added) 1 Tbsp Baking soda Optional flavours to add 2 Tbsp Unsweetened cocoa (substitute for 2 Tbsp of the flour) OR 1/2 tsp Powdered ginger 1/2 OR cup Unsweetened coconut flakes OR 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (must be thawed  first) To make the batter: Heat prune juice in microwave until hot but not boiling, in a large Pyrex measuring cup. Add bran and let sit 10 minutes. Stir in buttermilk or milk with vinegar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract. In separate large bowl stir together cinnamon, flours, oat bran, sugar, Splenda, and baking soda. Mix together gently and pour into greased silicone muffin pans suitable for your microwave. To use: Medium muffins: Spray microwavable silicone muffin pan with Pam, and measure 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes or until done. Each muffin will have approximately 15 EEC (carbs minus fibre) or less. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from pan. For mini-muffin pan: measure 1/8th cup of batter into mini-muffin cups, and cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Each mini-muffin will have about 8 carbs each, (EEC – carbs minus the fibre). You can freeze after cooled, in  a ziplock bag. Just thaw in the microwave when you want a treat. Or you can bake in a regular oven, set at 375 F for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is. Spray the muffin pan first with a non-stick spray such as Pam and fill each muffin cup about 2/3's full. Enjoy!

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

 (Also known as Chocolate Cake!)

This is a yummy treat for diabetics, or anyone on a low carb diet. I adapted this recipe from one I found on the web years ago. Sorry, I don’t recall where. Its not only rich and delicious, its also gluten free!

You can make this in just one bowl if you prefer, or even your food processor.I like to use two bowls, one for wet and one for dry ingredients. Either way, it doesn’t take long to mix and it tastes great. It has a slightly different texture from cake mixes and scratch cakes, but is still delish!

This torte (cake), is made from almond meal, which can be bought at health food stores and sometimes can be found in the bulk food section of your grocery store. If you can’t find ground almonds, you can use ground pecans. I store my almond meal in my freezer to keep it fresh. Since my diagnosis of diabetes, this is my favourite birthday cake.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

2 cups ground almonds or pecans
1/3 cup cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup granular Splenda for baking 

WET INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs 
1/2 cup (I stick) butter, melted 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1/2 cup water

PREPARATION:

Heat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan or spring-form pan with PAM. If you don’t have Pam, use margarine or butter to grease the pan well.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, using with a spoon.

Mix all the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, and mix until well-blended.

Pour mixture into greased pan and bake. The exact time will vary with the size of your pan, and the material (metal, pyrex, etc). Start checking at about 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cut when cool.

If desired, serve with home-made whipped cream sweetened with Splenda.

NOTE: I like to use a Pyrex cake pan that has a snap on plastic lid, so I can leave it in the pan and just cut and serve as needed. It’s a bit crumblier than regular cake, so serving it in the baking dish is easier than trying to turn it out onto a plate to serve. Do not store it in a metal cake pan, they can go rusty.   Once its baked and cooled, cover and keep it in the fridge. It freezes well, as long as you wrap it well to prevent drying out.   If you plan to freeze it, cut into serving size pieces and freeze 2 per package so you can thaw out only what you need.   The following is only an approximation - nutritional Information: Serves 8, each piece has approximately 2 grams of NET (effective)  carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, 334 calories.


Low Carb Chocolate Icing

Mix one tub of Philly 95% fat free cream cheese, with 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 3 to 4 packets regular Splenda (to taste). Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and stir in well

This spreads better when at room temperature, but it must be kept cold after spreading. You can soften it slighlty in the microwave on the lowest setting, till it becomes more spreadable.

This icing must be kept refrigerated, so once you have iced your cake, cover and put in fridge right away. This is great on the low carb Chocolate Torte. Spread it thin, its rich tasting. If you need to make it go further you can mix in a couple of tablespoons of soft margarine, which also makes it easier to spread.  If you don’t care about the fat content, you can use regular Philly cream cheese, instead of the low fat version.

Please remember to store the torte, (especially the iced version),  in your fridge, so it won’t go bad. Cream cheese must be kept cold, and almond meal tortes do not stay fresh as long as flour based cakes because of all the eggs, and the nuts. This is not a flour based cake, so keep it cold!

I like to freeze about half of the torte (cake) it for another occasion. This torte is low carb, but still pretty rich, so I don't eat too much of it at one time. Its also a bit pricey to make, but well worth it and you can make it last quite a while if you freeze most of it and just thaw out a piece or two for a special treat now and then.

 Enjoy!