Keto Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cookie Delights

I’m really terrible at doing keto. I can go three, or four days tops with no carbs in my life. Then I end up inhaling half a bag of dark chocolate cookies from the freezer. Until now. I discovered a sugar-free dark chocolate cookie recipe.  The baker in me has found a new calling this month and that is sugar-free baking. Who knew? As a healthy eater who has the hardest time saying no to my sweet tooth I finally found a love for keto baking!

A whole new world; Sugar-free baking shenangians

I’ve always found sugar-free baking about as annoying as a pair of snowshoes that don’t fit correctly. You buy these expensive snowshoes, then the bindings won’t stay tight. They are constantly coming off of your feet and then you have to keep readjusting them in cold chilly snow. You feel like you are wasting time and money. That is what sugar-free baking harkens me back to; Until today.

I have purchased Spenda. Stevia. Truvia. Sucralose. Aspartame. If Whole Food’s carries it, I’ve probably tried it. I’ve tried sugar-free baking in the past and I just hate that fake sugar aftertaste. What exactly is this saccharin anyway? Did you know that people who cut these God-awful artificial sweeteners out of their lives are known to recover from IBS, weight gain and depression? Do you know what makes me less depressed? Snowshoeing and sugar-free dark chocolate cookies!

Snowshoeing and sugar-free dark chocolate cookies.

My kitchen cabinets are full of discarded bags of artificial flavors, sucralose and Splenda baking sugar that I will never use. If I did they would probably give me cancer. My kitchen cabinets are chock full of these useless-for-me fake sweeteners, kind of like those shitty cheap snowshoes you bought at a yard sale. They were priced so low you never noticed the bindings were faulty until you were powering through two feet of snow and your frozen fingers realized the bindings were faulty. Now they just sit in your garage gathering dust in the corner. But yet you don’t think to throw them away.

Well, last week I did two things. I went for a snowshoe in those new snowshoes and I also made sugar-free dark chocolate cookies that actually tasted good! After many different attempts, yes I have discovered a flavor combination to make delicious sugar-free baked goods! Move over Martha Stewart!

I may have never found a nack (Until now!) for sugar-free baking but what I am good at is snowshoeing. Usually, I am a snowshoe pro. Today however was a challenge. And it really shouldn’t have been. I just purchased two new pairs of snowshoes for my guests for my hiking business and yesterday was a snowy winters day. It was the absolutely perfect February mountain morning for a snowshoe hike with the puppy.

I had just purchased two new pairs of Youth 2.0 snowshoes from our local new and used sporting goods store in town. Okay, I know they are branded as Youth 2.0 so possibly kid’s snowshoes but I was pretty sure they would fit most normal-sized ladies’ feet. I wear a size seven so they fit me with room to spare. The first time I wore them earlier in the week, I thought at once, I actually prefer these new snowshoes to my twenty-year-old LL Bean snowshoes. The Youth 2.0 ones were smaller and easier to walk in for a relatively short person. (Who has not been powered by carbs in a month) Do you know how hard it is to hike and snowshoe twelve miles in a workday when you haven’t had bread in close to thirty days?

Flash forward to yesterday’s snowy morning and the second time I tried the Youth 2.0 snowshoes in two feet of deep snow. The fresh snow was deep and getting deeper by the moment as I powered uphill at well over seven thousand feet in altitude. I was snowshoeing close to the top of Snow Summit Ski Resort and if the clouds had moved out at all the view would have been spectacular. But unfortunately on this Monday morning, the view was socked in. And that was the least of my problems.

Shots! Shots! Shots!

Have you ever snowed uphill at over seven thousand feet through two feet of fresh snow? We call it breaking the trail and it’s not easy. Especially when you are powered by only a low-sugar Ginger Turmeric Immunity Juice breakfast, not a carb to be seen in sight! And then your brand new Youth 2.0 snowshoes bindings keep coming undone! After the sixth time this happened, I was beginning to realize why they label these towards youths… Because kids don’t know as many cuss words as I do! And then my pup decided to disappear for forty-five minutes chasing deer! What happened to my zen morning in the snow? I was ready to slap Smokey the Bear with one of these snowshoes! This is why I need Ginger Turmeric Shots!

The issue with my brand new snowshoes was that in the fresh new deep snow, the bindings were freezing and you couldn’t adjust them when they came loose. Not a good design whatsoever for a pair of snowshoes! My fingers were wet and freezing and I could have used a breakfast muffin or possibly a puzza drippings with grease. But alas I was on top of a snowy mountain with nothing but stupid mixed nuts in my backpack. #KetoProblems

Smile, bitch

Well, the good news was I gave up on the uphill journey of my hike after the puppy finally came back. I punished her by forcing her to go sledding with me after snowshoeing. After a morning of snowshoeing, sweating and forcing the photo-shy pup to have multiple pictures taken of her I was ready to go back to our warm cabin and cuddle up with my Cuisinart mixer. I was ready for some baking shenanigans with sugar-free dark chocolate cookies.

The keto baking trifecta

Do you see why I need sugar-free dark chocolate cookies in my life? I may be shying away from sugar these days but that does not mean I do not crave baked goods. Let’s face it, if it’s a snowy rainy day the baker in me wants to create. There are multiple reasons that these sugar-free dark chocolate cookies are so deeply delicious. The mixture of almond flour, coconut flour and monk fruit is the ultimate trifecta of keto baking.

Are you searching for a sugar-free gluten-free chocolate goodie to create for your keto-krazed love this Valentine’s Day? Look no further than these decadent dark chocolate creations!

Keto Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cookie Delights

1/2 cup of monk fruit powder for baking

1 cup of salted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of Hershey’s Extra Dark baking powder

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of almond flour

1/2 cup of coconut flour

Cream the butter and the monkfruit powder. Mix in the vanilla, then the dry ingredients.

After your dough has come together, roll it tight into a log onto a piece of sarane wrap. Roll it up tight in a log, wrap it well and leave it in the fridge at least 3 hours. When you are ready to bake these sugar-free dark chocolate cookies, slice the dough into cookie-sized wedges and place each a few inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes. These cookies will be soft but will firm up when they cool.