These Keto Carmelitas are going to blow your mind. Heavenly low carb crumb bars filled with sugar-free caramel and chocolate. Hard to believe this grain-free treat isn’t made with oats!
The first time I ever tried Carmelitas, I think swooned and fainted away. I was so overcome by the delicious, oat-y, caramel-y, chocolate-y crumbliness in my mouth, all other senses faded away. I was utterly transported.
Well good news! These Keto Carmelitas are just as swoon-worthy as the classic. I love them, I worship them, I adore them. And I think you will too!
And if you love dessert bars filled with gooey deliciousness, be sure to check out my Peach Cobbler Bars and my Keto Fudge Crumb Bars.
Why this recipe is so awesome
If you’ve never had a carmelita, let me tell you a little bit about them.
Conventional carmelitas are made with a crumbly oat and brown sugar crust, and are filled with caramel sauce and chocolate chips, with a top layer of the same crust. Can you see why I fell so hard and fast in love with them?
Oats are lovely but they are not lovely for me. And presumably not for you either, since you are reading a low carb, grain-free food blog. So how do you make carmelitas without oats?
Well, friends, I have come up with the best keto replacement for oats. It’s a trick I use in many recipes, including my Keto Oatmeal Cookies. And it results in the perfect texture with no grains and no added sugars!
Reader Reviews
“I have so many favorites from your website and your baking book. But these have risen to the top of my favorites short list! Can’t believe how easy it was to make the caramel and put together the bars. So good! Thank you for sharing your talent with those of us who are trying to live a sugar-free life. ????” – Kathya Singh
“Oh. My. Goodness! This is my new number one favorite recipe. I told my husband they’re horrible so he won’t touch them 🙂 Mine… They’re all mine!” – Sheryl C.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for this recipe ! They are devine. Every bite is a mouthful of joy.” – Frieda
Ingredients you need
- Flaked unsweetened coconut and sliced almonds: I chop these roughly in the food processor just enough so that they resembled oats in size. This creates an oatmeal-like texture for these keto Carmelitas.
- Nut flours: I use a combination of almond flour and coconut flour to create a crumbly crust, along with the coconut and sliced almonds.
- Sweetener: I recommend an erythritol-based sweetener for the crust to give it the right texture. I used Swerve, which does contain a little allulose, but not enough to affect the results. You can also use my homemade brown sugar substitute.
- Sugar-Free Caramel Sauce: You will need to make the sugar free caramel sauce prior to making these bars. Just be sure to leave out the additional water in the recipe.
- Sugar Free Chocolate Chips: I used Lily’s chocolate chips, but you can use any other low carb chocolate.
- Baking staples: Butter, baking soda, and salt
Step-by-step directions
1. Make the “oats”: Combine the coconut and sliced almond in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles oat flakes. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Prepare the bottom crust: Add the almond flour, sweetener, 2 tablespoons of the the coconut flour, the baking soda, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press a little more than half firmly into the bottom of a greased 9×9 inch square pan.
3. Bake the crust: Bake 10 minutes at 325ºF, until puffed and edges are just golden brown. Remove and let cool completely.
4. Make the filling: While bottom crust is cooling, make the caramel sauce and let it cool 10 minutes or so. Then pour the caramel sauce over the crust and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
5. Add the top crust: Add the remaining tablespoon of coconut flour to the remaining crust ingredients and mix well to help make it drier and crumblier. Break it up into small crumbs. Sprinkle over the tilling and press lightly to adhere. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the bars are golden brown.
6. Remove and let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Expert tips
The crust for these low carb bars is meant to be on the crumbly side, to mimic the texture of real Carmelitas and other crumb bars. The little crumbly bits are sometimes the best part. The way they fall back into the pan or onto your plate, and you lick the tips of your fingers to press into them and lift them into your mouth. Yum!
Remember when you process the almonds and coconut you do not want them to be ground to a fine powder. You want it coarse like oatmeal, but not too big where the bars fall apart.
You can bake these bars in an 8×8 pan, but you will need to bake them for a little longer since they will be thicker. Some of my readers like to double the recipe and bake it in a 9×13 pan. Yes, that are THAT good!
Frequently Asked Questions
Conventional Carmelita bars can have upwards of 50g of carbs per serving. No, I am not kidding! Whereas this recipe for Keto Carmelitas has 7.6g of carbs and 3.3g of fiber per serving. That comes to 4.3g net carbs per bar.
You can store the bars in an airtight container on the counter for several days. They will keep longer in the refrigerator, up to one week. These bars also freeze well for several months.
For a dairy-free version, try using a vegan butter replacement in the bars and the caramel sauce, and use coconut cream in place of the whipping cream. Use a little less of the coconut cream, because the caramel doesn’t thicken quite as well as the dairy version.
More recipes you will love
Carmelitas
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
- ¾ cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup almond flour
- ½ cup Swerve Sweetener
- 3 tablespoon coconut flour divided
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter melted
Filling:
- 1 Sugar-Free Caramel Sauce (leave out the additional water)
- ½ cup Lily’s Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips or other low carb chocolate
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325ºF and grease a 9×9 inch square pan (can also use 8×8 but baking time will be longer).
- In a food processor, combine the coconut and sliced almond. Pulse until the pieces are broken up and about the size of oats in size. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the almond flour, sweetener, 2 tablespoon of the coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Press a little more than half of the mixture firmly into the bottom of prepared baking pan (it doesn’t look like it will be enough, but it is…just keep pressing it in, as thinly as you need to). Bake 10 minutes, until puffed and edges are just golden brown. Remove and let cool completely.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of coconut flour to the remaining crust ingredients and mix well to help make it drier and crumblier. Break it up into small crumbs.
Filling
- While the bottom crust is cooling, make the caramel sauce and let it cool 10 minutes or so. Then pour the caramel sauce over the crust and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
- Sprinkle the filling with the remaining crust and press lightly to adhere. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the top crust is golden brown.
- Remove and let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Tina says
These are incredibly delectable! Very hard to stop at one! Soooo good! My 13 year old even loves them and that’s saying A LOT!
Carolyn says
That’s great to hear!
Bonnie L. says
Carolyn, I made the Carmelitas and this recipe is so delicious! I would give more then 5 stars to you were that possible! Thanks so much, while I’m not a huge caramel fan in sweets, I must say this recipe is over the top made with your yummy caramel sauce! I also made another of your condensed milk as well while I was whipping up the caramel. Your condensed recipe is very good as well and I wanted to eat it with a spoon right out of my jar. 🙂 Instead though, I chose to cut back a bit on the caramel I poured over my crust and added just a bit of the condensed milk I had made in it’s place. YUM! My in-laws loved the carmelitas as well and they aren’t full on board with many of my low carb cooking and baking attempts. Thanks again!
Dawn says
Can you taste the coconut?
Carolyn says
Yes, a little.
Cindy says
These look delicious. Do you think that I could get the same texture for the crumb by using all sliced almonds and no coconut?
Carolyn says
Yes… as long as you make sure to not over-process it!
Kathya Singh says
I have so many favorites from your website and your baking book. But these have risen to the top of my favorites short list! Can’t believe how easy it was to make the caramel and put together the bars. So good! Thank you for sharing your talent with those of us who are trying to live a sugar-free life. ????
Sandy says
These are EXCELLENT! Doesn’t even taste keto. Fabulous!
Holly says
Carolyn, can I use organic erythritol instead of swerve in your recipes-like this one interchangeably? They both contain erythritol as a main ingredient swerve just has a few other additives and mine is only erythritol. I also have some lakanto left..does that perform about the same as swerve in your recipes? Thanks in advance.
Carolyn says
Keep in mind that plain erythritol is only 70% as sweet as sugar.
Randi V says
Hello 🙂
I do not have a food processor. Any other ideas how to get the right consistency?
Thanks, Randi V.
Carolyn says
Do you have a good blender? They tend to chop them too finely, though…
Kathy H says
Oh my gosh, this has to be the best thing I have had in months! Not sure now why I waited so long to make these. I think I looked at the recipe, saw I had to go an extra step & make caramel sauce & thought they’d be too much work. After all, caramels take forever…..not your sauce tho, went together fast & so good! I made them to take on a camping trip, not sure they will last long enough! Do these need to be refrigerated? Not a lot of room in my fridge in the camper but I’ll toss the lettuce if I have to to make room 🙂 Thanks for another great recipe!
Carolyn says
So glad you liked them!
KarenM says
These were soooo gooood! I could hardly stop dipping my finger in the pan of the no-sugar caramel sauce. Definately making these again. Thanks for a great recipe. Karen
Carol J Rhodes-Rice says
Hi Carolyn, when does the almond and Coconut mixture go in? I must have missed it?
Carolyn says
In step 2, it says to transfer them to a large bowl… then in step 3, it tells you to add the remaining ingredients into that bowl.
Carol Rhodes-Rice says
Thank you! I did reread it and saw that I was supposed to add the dry ingredients to the coconut almond mixture. D’oh! It’s still amazing!
Carolyn says
Glad it worked out!
Stefanie says
Made these today. Flavor is great, didn’t substitute anything – only used shredded coconut instead of flaked, but they came out completely dry and crumbly. Maybe I overbaked them? Anything I can do to add some moisture after the fact?
Carolyn says
So two things: the shredded coconut is finer and thus may account for some of the dryness. They may also have gotten a bit over-baked. Maybe crumble them over keto ice cream?
Dawnj says
Made these two days ago and they are gone. Thank you for all the effort you put into brainstorming these delicious recipes! I know the Carmelitas have many rave reviews but I wanted to also add how much my family and I enjoy them.
Tara says
By far the best cookie bar I’ve made in ages! I’m currently in the process of making a double batch now because I gave away so many of my first try because I just had to share how amazing they are. I did use allulose syrup instead of your magic ingredient in the caramel sauce because I was too impatient to order it. But it didn’t seem to affect the result as far as the yummy factor in this bar. Thank you, thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe. You are helping to make this Keto journey a joy for me and many others.
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it!
Deb Block says
Waiting for these to come out of the oven but I hope I didn’t mess them up…the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of coconut flour divided but it calls for 2 in the base then another in the crumble half…so is it really 3 T divided??
Taylor says
These look AMAZING! Can’t believe they are low carb and paleo! Definitely trying soon!
Becky Hardin says
These are favorites here at our house!!!
krissy says
Due to food allergies its hard to find a good low sugar gluten free treat. But these are amazing! I highly reccomend them!
Tara says
Delicious crumbly little treats, how I love thee!