If you’re a sane person, then peanut butter is probably one of your guilty pleasures – I know it’s one of mine. But, when we’re on a ketogenic diet, we can’t always grab it by the spoonful to lick it off as a snack because of the carb count. Every once in a while, though, I get a huge craving for peanut butter and have to make something that’ll combat it. So, since I’ve been on a smoothie/milkshake stint lately, I decided to put together something I know you’d all love.
You can also sub out any nut butter you prefer for the peanut butter in this recipe. Caramel goes well with the flavor profile for almost every type of nut out there – so do your finest! If you want to use almond butter, macadamia nut butter, or some other form of delicious nut butter, be my guest – it’ll all work and it’ll all be fantastic. Just make sure you save some for me 🙂
If you want to see the other milkshakes and smoothies that have been posted, check them out:
- Blueberry Banana Bread Smoothie
- McKeto Strawberry Milkshake
- Cucumber Spinach Smoothie
- Blackberry Chocolate Shake
Really, I could eat peanut butter for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack at pretty much any time of the day. It’s creamy, homey, and takes me back to my childhood. So, instead of making this into a full serving sized recipe, I broke it up into 2 servings and made in snack-sized for a decadent little treat between lunch and dinner. I chose to garnish with a little bit of cocoa powder, purely for aesthetics. I like the taste of it when it was mixed in, but it certainly doesn’t have to be part of your shake – it tastes delicious on its own.
P.S. I got a lot of questions about what type of coconut milk I’m using. I use the “So Delicious” brand of coconut milk in the carton. The unsweetened type will be in a green and white carton, normally find near the other milks in the grocery store.
Yields 1 serving of Peanut Butter Caramel Milkshake
The Preparation
- 7 large ice cubes
- 1 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar-free salted caramel syrup, such as Torani
- 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoon mct oil
The Execution
1. In a blender, add 7 Ice Cubes, 1 cup Coconut Milk, 2 tbsp. Peanut Butter, 2 tbsp. SF Torani Salted Caramel, 1/4 tsp. Xanthan Gum, and 1 tbsp. MCT Oil. I’m using a Ninja Blender with Mini Ninja Attachment.
2. Blend everything together for 1-2 minutes or until consistency is where you want it. It should be slightly thickened with a nice hint of crushed ice running through it.
3. Pour it into a glass and serve! I broke this into 2 snack-sized servings with a small sprinkle of cocoa powder on top for presentation.
This makes a total of 1 serving of Peanut Butter & Caramel Milkshake. The serving comes out to be 360 calories, 33.6g fats, 4.5g net carbs, and 8.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 7 large ice cubes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk | 45 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 tablespoon peanut butter | 190 | 16.1 | 6.5 | 1.9 | 4.5 | 8.1 |
| 2 tablespoon sugar-free salted caramel syrup | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum | 4 | 0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon mct oil | 122 | 13.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 360 | 33.6 | 7.4 | 2.9 | 4.5 | 8.1 |
Peanut Butter & Caramel Milkshake
Ingredients
- 7 large ice cubes
- 1 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon peanut butter
- 2 tablespoon sugar-free salted caramel syrup such as Torani
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoon mct oil
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender. Pictured is the Ninja Blender with the Mini Ninja attachment.
- Blend together for 1–2 minutes or until desired consistency is reached. It should be slightly thickened, with a nice hint of crushed ice running through it.
- Pour into a glass and serve!
Have you noticed any extra fat burning with the MCT oil? Or do you use it for another purpose?
I’ve been on maintenance for quite a long time now, so I mainly use it for the energy benefits. But it does have fat burning properties – though I’m not sure how effective that would really be mixed in with coconut milk and peanut butter. One of the biggest reasons I use it in the shakes is for fat and for it’s liquid properties even while cooled.
I was just thinking about the MCT oil – I recently bought some but haven’t used it much. Is it like regular coconut oil, in that it is rather ‘stimulating’ or energizing (which means I only use it in the morning?)
Yeah it is rather energizing – the medium chain triglycerides are converted directly to ketones in the liver (which gives that effect).
Hi Craig! Thanks for all you do! Do you think sugar free maple syrup could replace the caramel? I dont have any available.
Hi Susan, I think you’d be okay making that substitute, but the final flavor will be impacted a little bit. In my head maple and peanut butter sound delicious, so I see no reason why not!
Awesome! I’ll let you know!
Sounds good – look forward to hearing about it!
Hi Craig,
Great website! I am sure you hear it all the time, but it bears repeating. I have a very limited kitchen situation so I am not able to try most of your awesome recipes, but I think I could swing the smoothies if I bought a blender.
I did have two questions – what does Xanthan Gum do? and
Why do you use Coconut milk instead of cream?
This is not an accusing question, just curiosity. Lactose sensitivity? Too many calories? Not enough nutrients? Is the flavor of the coconut milk simply more delicious?
These are mostly curiosity related, since my dairy consumption has gone up a bit since starting keto. I am not sure if this is bad or not. I used to experience a negative reaction to drinking dairy, but since I eliminated non-vegetable carbs it has not been an issue.
Would enjoy your take on the subject.
Thank you very much 🙂
-Maya
Hey Maya,
Thank you so much!
The xanthan gum works as a thickener, slightly changing the texture of the overall smoothie to become thicker while not using a bulking agent like fruit to do it.
Coconut milk from the carton was used because coconut cream from the can would be much more carby. Although it has more fats, I find the carb count to be quite high, so I generally prefer coconut milk from the carton. You could easily use coconut cream, though.
And don’t worry – I don’t take offense to anything 🙂
Hi Craig,
So I substituted the caramel with maple and it was very yummy. Delicious shake! Mine was really thick though. I think I’ll skip the xanthum gum next time and see how the thickness is.
Thank you!
Susan
Sounds awesome – that may be because maple syrup that you get normally has xanthan gum in it already. Probably should have mentioned that, sorry! Glad you enjoyed it nontheless 🙂
OHHH!! HAHA!! Good to know! 🙂
OMG this is delicious! I made it exactly as instructed. After dinner I was entering in my last meals macro’s for the day and realized I was only at 430 calories for the day and way low on my fat gram goals but at 8 carbs which I where I like it to be around. So I decided to make these for my husband and I. Unfortunately I didn’t check the carb count on my coconut milk until after I finished drinking it. My milkshake totaled 12 carbs, putting me at 20 carbs for the day. (Oh No!)
What brand of coconut milk do you use? Yours lists 1 carb, my brand is Silk original coconut milk and lists 80 calories per cup and 7 carbs. Can brands really differ than much?
Thanks!
20g isn’t so bad, so don’t fret too much about it. I use So Delicious brand – but you have to make sure yours is unsweetened. Silk does sell a brand that is less (unsweetened), but So Delicious brand seems to be the lowest that I can find easily. Sometimes it’s not refrigerated, so you have to check the Asian section.
Craig
I came across your sight and I am so thrilled!!! I peruse many LCHF sights for inspiration but by far, I’m impressed with yours. Ok, now my review of this recipe! It was fabulous!!! I’ve had it two nights in a row. I’m hooked on ice cream, but I don’t always like to use heavy whipping cream as I want to minimize my dairy intake. The coconut milk is awesome, and just happened to have some on hand! One thing I did discover on the Bob’s Red Mill site (I was comparing guar gum vs xanthan gum) as I only had the former on hand, was the mention of incorporating your “gum” into the oil component of the recipe first (MCT in this instance). I did this the 2nd time I made it because I learned this after the fact. It really made a difference. Blended more evenly. It also mention that guar gum does better in cold recipes, such as ice cream, whereas the other worked better in baked goods. Thought that was an interested point, however true it might be. Anyway, I love your sight. I’ve cooked every meal since Sunday morning using only your recipes! Keep up the great work.
Glad to hear you liked it Janice! I haven’t read the comparisons on Bob’s Red Mill site, but I’m not sure about all of them. Xanthan gum is commonly used in cold ingredients (especially ice cream – it’s one of the most popular additions). I’ll have to look into it more, but generally speaking and from my experience, you can use xanthan or guar gum interchangeably (2x more guar than xanthan) in most recipes.
Thanks for that feedback because since I have guar gum on hand I’ll experiment with using a bit more to set how it works. Either way, I’m so glad I discovered the recipe. Have you tried a chocolate and peanut butter milkshake, using a chocolate low carb syrup, or any other flavored milkshakes. Of course I haven’t gone though all pages on your site! No doubt there are more fabulous discoveries awaiting!!
I hope so – and I hope you like the other recipes! I’ve used guar gum instead of xanthan in many recipes and been pretty successful. I hope you find it the same way.
I went ahead and made this tonight (for dinner) with just regular coconut oil and I added 1/4 cup of heavy cream and used unsweetened almond milk instead of coconut milk. Oh my gosh…this was so delicious….Thank you, as always, for such a great recipe! You never fail me!
Really happy to hear that you liked it! Milkshakes used to be a favorite in our house 🙂
Could I just ask whether the peanut butter has added sugar or not?
All of the peanut butter we use usually only contains peanuts and salt. Try your best to avoid added sugars in it.
Hello,
Is it ok to use coconut oil instead of MCT? I really don’t want to use MCT because of the environmental impact (I haven’t seen you mention this on your website). I know you can get rainforest friendly MCT but still I’d rather avoid it. Also bottles of MCT seems to be around £15 here and Ive already spent about £200 on items from the health food store!
Thanks
Alex
You could use coconut oil but it may leave chunks of coconut oil in the milkshake. MCT oil will blend smooth.