Low Carb PB Cookie Dough Bites
There's just something special about cookie dough. The process of combining ingredients and forming the dough with your hands is oddly satisfying and might even put you into a Zen-like state of bliss while the smells from the baking cookies make you salivate. For many of us, cookie dough also inspires warm memories of baking with grandma, who (if you were lucky) let you taste a spoonfull of the flavorful dough before the cookies were sent to the oven.
Even with the risk of salmonella due to consuming raw eggs, cookie dough is a popular treat that's here to stay. Its flavors are prominently featured in foods like ice creams, deep fried fair food, candies, yogurts, and even in cookie dough flavored protein shake mixes. However, cookie dough is so laden with carbs that it's nearly impossible to do on the Keto diet, until now!
We created a low-carb peanut butter cookie dough that (A) can be safely consumed raw and (B) tastes so much like regular cookie dough that it will take a lot of restraint to eat only one serving. The dough features vanilla protein powder and almond flour, which gives it a nice thick texture just like regular cookie dough. For chocolate chips, we used Lilly's low carb, low sugar dark chocolate chips, which nicely enhance the peanut butter flavor. The end result is a creamy and rich ball full of flavor that tastes like the real thing.
For "science," we served these to a group of friends so that they would share their feedback about their taste and texture. The best feedback we received was that these didn't last very long - the plate was empty in under 10 minutes. Our friends were also shocked that these were low carb. We hope that you'll fare better than we did and make these last longer.
Ingredients:
½ cup Trader Joe's organic Valencia crunchy peanut butter
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (we used Muscle Milk Vanilla)
4 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 cup Erithritol
3 T coconut oil
¼ cup Bob's Red Mill almond flour
4 oz Lilly's dark chocolate baking chips (about 120 chips)
½ tsp vanilla
1- 2 T heavy whipping cream
Directions:
Step 1 - While the cream cheese softens, line a cookie tray with parchment paper.
Step 2 - In a bowl, mix the cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
Step 3 - Add some slightly melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, and softened peanut butter to the mixture. Combine until smooth (mixture will be thick).
Step 4 - In a separate bowl, combine almond flour, and protein powder.
Step 5 - Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, carefully stirring mixture until combined. Add chocolate chips. Mixture will be crumbly.
Step 6 - Add 1 T of heavy cream to moisten mixture enough so that the balls will hold their shape. If dough is too crumbly, add up to 1 T more.
Step 7 - Using your hands, form small cookie dough balls and place them on the lined cookie sheet. We made 26 balls with this recipe, but you can make more by making them smaller.
Step 8 - Place the sheet in the fridge and let them cool for at least 1 hour. Transfer balls to a sealed container and store in the fridge until consumed. You can also obtain a firmer texture by freezing them.
