Sweet keto chocolate pastry with a tender almond flour and mozzarella crust. Yes, mozzarella! This delicious fathead crust makes an amazing low carb and grain-free pastry.
Anyone who really knows me knows that I can be a little obsessive about things sometimes. It’s not the OCD sort of obsessive; I am not overly neat or super organized and my side of the closet often looks like a bomb exploded in it. My car is a little dirty, I don’t shower every day, and sometimes I reuse a pot or a pan multiple times before washing it. I figure I am saving water that way. So clearly neither hygiene nor personal space are my forms of obsessive. But I do get obsessed with ideas and concepts. A certain something will get lodged in my brain and I will think about it constantly. I will worry that subject like a dog with a bone, unable to shake it or let go until it reaches some sort of conclusion or climax, good or bad. Usually good. This trait can be a strain for others, especially because I often have to discuss my obsession with someone at length. I can’t get it out of my head until I’ve gone over it a few times, from every conceivable angle. I am sure I’ve driven a good friend to the brink once in a while. And my husband puts up with a lot of it. Give the man a medal.
When it comes to food, this obsessiveness usually plays out to good, sometimes great, results. I see an idea on another blog or I notice something about the interplay between my ingredients, and I begin to obsess about how I can use that quality or idea in some other way. I don’t notice it at first. I don’t realize that the idea has lodged itself firmly into my brain, waiting to take it over when I least expect it. It just gets in there and more and more of my thoughts become its slave, turning toward it when I really ought to be thinking about something else. Suddenly I find it’s all I can think about, and I just have to play with it, try it out, and put it into action. The good thing with these food obsessions is that I don’t need to bother friends and family with them. I can just get into the kitchen and mess around. Seriously better than talk therapy!
So my latest obsession is the mozzarella-based low carb dough that I first saw on Up Late Anyway. I couldn’t believe that a danish could be made with mozzarella cheese, even as I saw readers and followers raving over it. Since I don’t particularly like danishes, I didn’t bother to try it out myself at the time. But then I made Maria’s stromboli from The Ketogenic Cookbook and I was amazed at how that dough came together and how much it was like REAL DOUGH! I knew I had to get playing around with it and seeing what else I could come up with.
I had so many ideas for this dough, I barely knew where to start. And then I came across these delicious Chocolate Swirls from Lori of Recipe Girl. I’d saved them to a Pinterest board last Christmas with the idea of making them over, but I was never quite sure about the crust part.When I saw them this year, I nearly shouted out loud. They were the perfect vehicle for test driving the mozzarella dough. Of course, I made plenty of changes to the dough itself. I wanted it a bit bigger and a little doughier, so I used a combo of almond and coconut flour and increased everything, including the mozzarella.
The result was so delicious, so tender and chocolatey. They weren’t really like cookies, but more like lightly sweet, chocolate filled pastries. We ended up eating the slices for breakfast with our coffee and it was like having a low carb pain au chocolat. I made two logs and froze one of them and I can say that this works wonderfully as well. Oh, my friends, consider making these for Christmas morning or another holiday brunch. You deserve it! And there are many more recipes to come with my version of mozzarella dough…oh, so many good things to come.
Chocolate Walnut Swirls
Ingredients
Chocolate Walnut Filling:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Dough:
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
- 5 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Powdered Swerve Sweetener, for sprinkling
Instructions
Chocolate Walnut Filling:
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine heavy cream and powdered sweetener. Whisk to combine and bring to just a simmer. Add chocolate and let sit 5 minutes, then whisk to combine. Add vanilla extract.
- Set aside while preparing dough.
Dough:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a large baking mat with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
- In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, sweetener, and baking powder. In a large saucepan, melt cheese over low heat until it can be stirred together.
- Add butter, egg, and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Stir in almond flour mixture until dough comes together (keep heat on low). It will still have some large streaks of cheese. Turn out dough onto a parchment-lined surface and kneed until uniform (this only takes a little kneading).
- Divide dough into two even pieces. Cover first pieces of dough with another piece of parchment and roll out into a long rectangle, about 6 by 12 inches.
To assemble:
- Spread dough with half of the chocolate mixture, leaving a 1-inch border on the long sides and a 1/2-inch border on the short sides. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup chopped walnuts. Starting at a long end, carefully roll up dough and pinch the seam to seal. Pinch ends to seal.
- Repeat with remaining dough and remaining chocolate mixture. **Rolled dough logs can actually be frozen at this point. Thaw completely before baking.
- Place logs on prepared baking sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool completely (don't cut into it while still warm or your chocolate filling will ooze everywhere!). Sprinkle with powdered Swerve and slice into 1/2 inch slices to serve.
Notes
Total fat: 15.33g
Calories from fat: 137
Cholesterol: 31mg
Carbohydrate: 4.02g
Total dietary fiber: 1.98g
Protein: 5.50g
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Carolyn, long- time stalker here when I came across this recipe! I’m a scientist by nature but was forced into nursing (all that chemistry must have leached into my bones) so I love the process you come by a new recipe! one ponders, could the method of crossiant making be applied here as well to make an incredibly- flakey layered dough? Also for those concerned about needing dairy- free mozz, not sure if it would work.. but if they make yogurt from lactose- free milk and strained the whey, preserving it until they had about a gallon, one could make curds and a bit of rennit to technically have DF mozz i believe. No science evaluation on its properties as I’m an experiment and only rarely a cheese maker. =)