Keto baking can be tough when a recipe calls for ingredients that you may or may not have access to. Sure, if you’ve been keto for a little while you may have a stockpile of approved flours and additives but what do you do when you run out or if you don’t have quite enough almond flour and you are craving a fudgy brownie? You pull out this simple and satisfying recipe for keto brownies that uses only basic ingredients!
The key to making these brownies come together is the process in which you prepare the ingredients. Beating the eggs until they turn pale and begin to thicken is important because it incorporates air and begins to form an intricate structure between the egg and granulated sweetener that will give you a better crumb, while the butter and chocolate mixture which is added later amps up the fudgy texture. Baking in a small pan (8×8) at a higher heat (375°F) verses a larger pan at lower heat produces a thicker brownie with a crustier edge and a softer center. If you prefer a firmer texture I recommend baking at 350°F for an extra 5 to 10 minutes.
Like a cake brownie, these have a decent crumb and stay together without falling apart but with a thick and fudgy texture. Bake a batch of these brownies and cut them into individual servings and store in the fridge or wrap them in cellophane and freeze for a quick keto treat. That’s planning ahead and portion control!
Yields 16 Flourless Keto Brownies
The Preparation
- 5 ounces low-carb milk chocolate
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 large egg
- 1/2 cup stevia/erythritol blend
- 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
The Execution
1. Heat oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Melt 5 ounces chocolate in a glass bowl on medium heat for 30 intervals, stirring each time until smooth.
2. Add butter and microwave the bowl for ten seconds. Stir. Repeat until smooth. Set aside to allow to slightly cool while you prepare the batter.
3. In a large bowl, beat three eggs and ½ cup granulated sweetener on high until the mixture becomes frothy and the eggs become pale. This should take about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth.
5. Sift in half of the cocoa powder (2 tablespoons) and ½ tsp salt and gently mix. The power will resist mixing with the egg so go slow and keep at it.
6. Sift in the rest of the coco powder (another 2 tablespoons) and stir until all of the mixture is dissolved and the batter forms.
7. Make sure you chocolate is still melted. If not, heat for 10 seconds and stir. Fold the melted chocolate into the batter and mix well until it is creamy and there are no lumps.
8. Pour batter in prepared 8×8 pan and bake at 375°F for 25 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles.
9. Remove from pan and cool completely before cutting!
This makes a total of 16 servings of Flourless Keto Brownies. Each serving comes out to be 108 calories, 10.1g fats, 4.1g net carbs, and 2g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 5 ounce low-carb milk chocolate | 513 | 48.2 | 76.5 | 19.8 | 56.7 | 2.8 |
| 4 tablespoon butter | 407 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
| 3 large egg | 236 | 15.7 | 1.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 20.7 |
| 1/2 cup stevia/erythritol blend | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese | 488 | 51.5 | 3.4 | 0 | 3.4 | 5.2 |
| 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder | 80 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| 1/2 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 1743 | 163.4 | 93.2 | 27.8 | 65.4 | 33.3 |
| Per Serving (/16) | 109 | 10.2 | 5.8 | 1.7 | 4.1 | 2.1 |
Flourless Keto Brownies
Ingredients
- 5 ounce low-carb milk chocolate
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 3 large egg
- ½ cup stevia/erythritol blend
- ¼ cup mascarpone cheese
- ¼ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients. Heat oven to 375F and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl on medium heat for 30 intervals, stirring each time until smooth.
- Add butter and microwave the bowl for ten seconds. Stir, then repeat until smooth. Set aside to allow to slightly cool while you prepare the batter.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs and granulated sweetener on high until the mixture becomes frothy and the eggs become pale. This should take about 3-5 minutes.
- Add the mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth.
- Sift in half of the cocoa powder and salt, then gently mix. The power will resist mixing with the egg so go slow and keep at it.
- Sift in the rest of the cocoa powder and stir until all of the mixture is dissolved and the batter forms.
- Make sure your chocolate is still melted. If not, heat for 10 seconds and stir. Fold the melted chocolate into the batter and mix well until it is creamy and there are no lumps.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles.
- Remove from pan and cool completely before cutting!
Hey guys! I wonder if replacing the mascarpone cheese for ricotta cheese would work? Or any other suggestions?
Mascarpone Substitutions
The closest cousins to mascarpone are English clotted cream and French creme fraiche. However, high-quality creamy ricotta or cream cheese can also be a substitute for mascarpone.
This is probably too late (4 months after the fact) – but I used ricotta and it came out great! I just used an 1/8 cup ricotta and 1/8 cup heavy cream
I made these today and they are AMAZING! I would have never known that they weren’t regular, sugary, carby brownies. They are also super moist and fudgey. These will absolutely curb my sugar craving. Thanks for another awesome recipe! To note, important to use milk chocolate or they don’t taste as good. I also used all stevia instead of the mixture with erythritol (just because I didn’t have any), and it was still great.
Has anyone tried this with dark chocolate or stevia sweetened chocolate (lilly’s)?
I just made these yesterday with Lilly’s dark – 55% and they turned out great. It also significantly reduces the net carbs as 5oz of Lilly’s was about 10 net grams rather than 40 for the other choc.
Thanks for the great tip!
What is the low carb milk chocolate I haven been able to find Any.
Cocoperfection, Lily’s, and ChocZero are a few examples of some of the low carb chocolates out there. Pretty much any will work, just make sure that the chocolate fits within your dietary guidelines.
Wish there was a printable version of this.
All of our recipes have a printable version 🙂
The printable version doesn’t show up on this particular recipe.
Sorry David, I think I forgot to put it in when I scheduled the post. I’ve fixed it now. 🙂
These are absolutely AMAZING. I’ve already made them 3 times and I am only 6 weeks into Keto. I made them at Tanksgiving for my family and everyone loved them! I’m about to make them for a Christmas party. I LOVE this website and your recipes, and can’t wait to try more! (I’ve already done quite a few!) And I make these with Lilly’s chocolate!
These are really excellent. I had to use a monkfruit/erythritol extract mix instead of Swerve, which the grocery store had run out of, and I’m happy to report that it turned out reeeeally good. The mascarpone gave it a really lovely, creamy texture. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the feedback! They are super good, aren’t they?
I wonder if anyone has used a vegan cream cheese or something like that. I’m dairy intolerant, so I’m looking for a substitute
So… Chocolate Milk? or Bakers Chocolate?
We used Chocorite in this recipe, which is a low carb milk chocolate. There are many different brands available that will work, though.
I tried making these brownies for the first time last week. They turned out delicious but did not have the thickness or ‘crumb’ yours did.
So two things, I halved the amount of Swerve because I tend to not like things too sweet. I found the sweetness just right with 1/4 cup rather than 1/2.
I also only beat it for 3 minutes and not the full five you recommend.
After baking they flattened out and while they taste delicious, they are very fragile and not right. So, as I know you test recipes over and over I wonder whether the problem was the lower Swerve amount or whether I just didn’t beat the eggs enough first.
Also have you tried making them where you beat the egg whites stiff beforehand?
I don’t particularly want to experiment with the Lily’s bars costing $6 per recipe and wanted to see what you’d tried before attempt to make these again.
It’s probably the lower beating time – you want to get enough air in there to keep them fluffed up. However, I have found that when these are stored in the fridge they do become quite dense and fudgy.
Can I substitute either sour cream or Greek yogurt for the mascarpone? I imagine cream cheese would be the best substitute but I don’t have any. 😢
You can use either one (as long as it is full-fat, no sugar added), but you might need to add extra keto sweetener to counteract the tanginess that each one has.
Where in the grocery store would I find this low carb chocolate?
Lilly’s can be found with the other chocolate bars in some grocery stores, but it’s harder to find so you might want to buy it online.
Can I use just Stevia instead of Swerve?
You can but it will change the overall texture of the recipe. Swerve is a granular sweetener and adds some “bulk” to the batter. Stevia won’t be able to do this so you may need to reduce some liquid and use a smaller container to bake if you want the same thickness/texture.
Tasted good, but they all fell apart. Tried to make them as a Valentine’s gift, waist of $20+ just for ingredients. 🙁
I’m sorry it didn’t turn out Kellie!
Hope you didn’t throw them out… crumble it, put some cream cheese in there, make balls out of them and dip them in some low carb chocolate and let them set… instant cake balls- or brownie balls. 🙂
What is the brand of sweetener you use?
Swerve confectioners. You could also use ground up erythritol. I think Pyure would also work, but you might need to adjust the amount.
Okay, these were AMAZING. I even made a couple of changes. I didn’t have marscapone (and didn’t want to pay for it), so I subbed it with used some ricotta I already had in the fridge and some heavy cream to make up the 1/4 cup. I also used both milk and dark chocolate. Would definitely make again!
I have an egg allergy. Can I make these without eggs or is there an egg substitute?
The egg provides the main structure for this particular recipe, so I think an egg substitute might not work here. We have other brownie recipes on the site that might work better with that, but they do have coconut or almond flour in them.
Okay. I’ll look for your other recipe and let you know if I have anoth question. Thank you 🙂
Made these tonight and enjoyed them. Considering adding some almond and/or coconut flour next time for a more cakelike texture. Thoughts?
That should work! We have some brownie recipes with flour in them too if you want to compare ingredient amounts. 🙂
I made these and they were yummy. I was thinking about adding some coconut and/or almond flour to make it a bit more cakelike. Anybody tried this?
I have tried it today with philadelphia instead of mascarpone and I had 70% dark chocolate. it is very sweet for me at the end. but once. I have tried it while hot – hold be perfect with home made ice-cream:)
These were delicious and I even forgot to add the salt! Are these freezer friendly/can I freeze them?
I think so! They might get kind of fudgey. That happened to me anyway, but they were still amazing.
Oh my goodness!!!The answer to my chocolatey sweet tooth. Thank you sooo much for posting. Topped with a blob of sugar free swiss meringue frosting …oh yes. Oh. Yes.
I must not be using the right chocolate, I couldnt find any “low carb milk choc” so I used 100% cacao unsweetened choc. Everything else was the same. They came out with a great texture, but not the slightest bit sweet. I really cant eat them, please advise! Thanks.
Hey Angie – that’s probably the case. The chocolate you used will be very bitter. The chocolate we used is similar to Lily’s, which is pretty widely available in health food stores now (we used Chocorite in this specific recipe). The 100% cacao unsweetened is probably why it came out tasting how it did. You could try making a glaze to go over the top with sweetened heavy cream?
I would mash them up with some melted butter and confectioners sweetener and roll them into cake balls, then dip in melted chocolate and refrigerate! ❤️
You would have to check the nutrition of that brand and make sure that it fits within your macros. If it does, it shouldn’t be an issue.
I’m sure you could. We include the full macros of the recipe so you’re welcome to import that into a tracking app and change the ingredient that is used for the chocolate to find the carb counts.
can you use Chocolate Almond Milk instead of the Chocorite?
Chocorite is a bar, so you’d need to replace the solid chocolate with something. I don’t think that the almond milk would give a good texture/flavor in this one.
Hello – Question – would I still use the same amount of sweetner ½ cup Swerve* if I use Lily’s dark chocolate since it already has STEVIA?
Yes, but if you like things less sweet then start with less and add to taste.
Ok so I changed a couple things I used one Lilly’s milk chicken and one Lilly’s crispy rice cuz that’s all I had. Then I used the brown sugar Swerve cuz I did not have the regular kind. I did everything else to a T. Oh yeah I sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top. They are so damn good. Thank you for this base line recipe with the ability to adapt the flavor !!
Great ideas, Dayna! Sounds so good. Thanks for the feedback!
You’re welcome !
My first time Sharing my ideas I’m glad it was received well !
**Milk chocolate ** wtf autocorrect I’m dying 😂😂😂
I have unsweetened Baker’s chocolate in the house but I only have stevia in the little packets. How could I make those ingredients work?
You could use the bakers chocolate instead of low-carb milk chocolate, you’d just want to add a bit of cream and sweetener to it to help it become similar to milk chocolate. As far as the stevia packets, you’d need to use a lot of them (about 1/2 a cup worth). That said, I’d be careful with those – they may include maltodextrin in them and if they do, they should be avoided. Maltodextrin will spike your blood sugar almost as high as regular sugar would.
Have you tried freezing these? Wondering if it would ruin them.
Hey Tisa,
Yes, you can freeze them. We recommend cutting them into individual servings and wrapping them in cellophane before freezing (so you don’t have to thaw the whole batch each time you want one).