Low Carb Hazelnut Brownies

Ingredients

One 14 oz bag of Red Mills Hazelnut flour (some people use Almond flour, it’s low carb + nutritious, but I like Hazelnut better)

1 cup of cocoa (different variants of this, I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa on this batch, and actually 1.25 cups, I want a dark chocolate taste. To me the cocoa is kind of to taste)

Cinnamon Hazelnut

Cinnamon Hazelnut, is amazing, omit the 1 cup cocoa, and add 1/4th cup ground Cinnamon. Shave 3-4 minutes off the cook time. The top layer will get kind of black, but when I do it, tastes fine. It should smell perfect when it’s finished.

2 Extra Large Eggs. I believe the eggs are a binding agent, if you want more egg goodness in it, you can do 3 eggs.

1.5 sticks of melted salted or unsalted butter. This is 6 ounces. People hate on butter. I’ve never used anything else. I assume peanut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, canola oil, LARD, all those things would work. Vermont Creamery Cultured is my favorite brand/type of butter, but good luck finding it.

A dash of Vanilla Extract, I don’t measure this. I use more than most say to use. It’s expensive. It likely just needs a few drops. Honestly the time I forgot it I didn’t notice much difference.

1 Cup Swerve (or Erythritol) this is another to taste thing. I use about 1.25 cups. I want it sweeter. I might like it with more. I recommend 1 cup, but a lot of low carb people don’t want it super sweet.

No baking soda, no sodium, no sodium bicarbonate.

Normally I don’t add water. It’s very dense. It’s very hard to stir. If you need to add water do it. I assume when it cooks it will evaporate. I have only needed water if I’m using peanut flour.

Nutrition facts

I don’t have a clue. I could load everything in a spreadsheet and calculate it, but in the end it’s almost pure fat, very low carbs, and honestly low protein.

This is a snack designed to increase your fat on your macros.

Melt Butter

Start the butter melting. I use medium heat. I watch it so it doesn’t burn

Dry Ingredients

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl (Hazelnut, Swerve, Cocoa), stir and break up chunks, you don’t want chunks of stuff, the cocoa and Swerve seem to chunk up, some use a sifter I don’t own one. I find it easy to break up the dry ingredients and mix well, before adding liquids.

I make a hole like in this picture.

Mixing Everything

Once the butter is melted, I take it off the heat, let it cool a bit, add the Vanilla. I don’t outta paranoia want the hot butter to actually cook the eggs, so I let it cool a few minutes, up to you.

Once the butter is okay temp, I crack two eggs open and dump the insides into the hole I made, no shells.

I add the butter/Vanilla to the eggs in the hole, and start stirring. I make sure it’s all consistent. The fully mixed part will be darker color than sections that are not properly mixed.

Muffin Loaves or Cupcakes

I use two aluminum disposable loaf pans, my choice. I hear stories aluminum is bad for a person, it’s a heavy metal you will be doomed, but I use it, use whatever pans you want. I have cupcake pans and cupcake papers, and that was very effective.

This dough is not going to change in the oven. It’s not going to level out. It’s not going to rise. You can likely write your name on the top of this dough, and that’s how it will come outta the oven, I try to flatten mine, but I don’t shoot for perfect.

Baking

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I’m using a toaster oven / air fryer, I set it to bake at 350; I don’t preheat, 20-25 it’s good, my machine heats up very quickly. Ovens vary, some take a long time to preheat. You may definitely want to preheat.

The reason you’re baking them is cook the eggs and bacteria from the eggs. Please don’t eat the dough raw.

Cooling

I let the loaves sit on the counter for 30 minutes or more. But it’s just paranoid again. I don’t like putting hot things in my fridge.

These must go in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. They must cool, or they fall apart in your hands.

Portion

In the morning, I pop the loaves out of the pan on a cutting board. I use a butcher’s knife to cut them into 8-10 squares, and I do two loaves, so I end up with 16-20 portions.

Freezing

Each portion I don’t immediately devour, I wrap in aluminum foil and stick in the freezer. If you prefer, you can use cling wrap or plastic wrap or zip locks or reusable containers. I use aluminum foil because it’s easy, plastic wrap is just as effective.

I have eaten these out of the freezer after two months. I didn’t die. I find no reason to defrost them, and they tasted fine at two months.

Mint

In secret, I add a ton of peppermint extract to mine. I love mint. I love dark chocolate & mint goodies. I don’t measure the mint.

I have a bottle of McCormick Peppermint Extract, I use about an ounce.