Heart healthy walnuts and dark chocolate chunks abound in these gooey, sweet keto blondies. They’re dairy-free and full of healthy fats. With only 2.7g net carbs per serving.
Once upon a time, about a billion years ago, I took a stab at making keto-friendly blondies. They turned out really well, and I was delighted to have such a healthy, low carb sweet treat that didn’t spike my blood sugar.
Then I went on to create many more Keto Brownies and Bars, and I forgot about the walnut blondies altogether. But I recently happened upon them again and thought they looked delicious. In the intervening billion years (okay, 12 years, but close enough), I have expanded my keto baking skills and thought I might make them even better.
Did I pull it off? Well let me just say that these keto walnut blondies FAR exceeded my expectations. They are so delectable, and have the ideal texture. Tender, a little gooey, and with a slight chewiness. The chunks of sugar-free chocolate don’t hurt either!
Why you need to try these walnut blondies
Not only are these blondies keto and sugar-free, but they are also completely dairy-free. And I honestly think that makes them even more gooey and appealing.
Following my original recipe, I used ground walnuts are part of the flour. I also used walnut oil rather than butter, to bring out more flavor. The results were spectacular.
Walnuts are an incredibly healthy choice for keto baked goods. They have a much higher ratio of Omega 3 fatty acids than other nuts, offering our bodies more heart healthy fats.
And they add wonderful crunch and flavor to keto dinners and baked goods. I have so many wonderful recipes that use these healthy nuts to advantage, like Walnut Chicken and Keto Coffee Cake. And I love adding some to my Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Ingredients
This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Walnuts: Walnuts make up the bulk of this recipe. Chop half a cup of the walnuts coarsely and grind the rest to a flour.
- Almond flour: You need a little more flour for the blondies and I recommend blanched almond flour for a finer texture.
- Swerve Brown: This brown sugar replacement gives the blondies a deeper flavor than granular sweetener.
- Collagen: You don’t have to use collagen but it does give the blondies a chewier, richer texture. I love Perfect Keto Collagen.
- Walnut oil: Walnut oil in walnut blondies just makes sense! However, I know not everyone can get hold of it, so you can use any neutral tasting oil, like avocado or even light olive oil.
- Eggs: You need one whole egg and one egg yolk. The yolk makes the blondies more gooey.
- Sugar free dark chocolate: I used dark chocolate for this recipe, because it goes so well with walnuts. You can use ChocZero, Lily’s, or your favorite brand.
- Pantry staples: Baking powder, salt, vanilla
Step by Step Directions
1. Chop and grind the nuts: Coarsely chop half a cup of the walnuts and set aside. Place the remaining 1 cup of walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground. Do not let them become walnut butter!
2. Combine the dry ingredients: Transfer to a large bowl and add the almond flour, sweetener, collagen, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine well.
3. Stir in the wet ingredients: Add the oil, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until the dough comes together. Stir in the chopped walnuts and the chopped chocolate.
4. Bake the blondies: Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges are golden and the center is just barely set. They will still be very soft.
Expert tips
Don’t grind too much! If you keep grinding the walnuts past the point where they become finely ground, you will end up with walnut butter.
If you prefer, you can use butter in this recipe. Just melt 1/3 cup of butter and stir it in along with the other wet ingredients.
Don’t over-bake! Make sure you keep your eyes on them and take them out when the edges are set and brown but the top is still a little soft. They will continue to firm up as they cool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Walnuts are low in carbs and high in healthy fats, so they are great choice for keto dieters. Eat them plain as a snack, add them to salads, or cook and bake with them. They add plenty of nutrition to all your meals.
Blondies become crumbly when they are over-baked or don’t have enough fats and eggs to hold them together. For these keto blondies, make sure to let them cool completely before trying to cut them into bars.
Store these walnut blondies on the counter in a covered container for up to 5 days, or in the fridge for up to 10 days. Make sure they are tightly wrapped up so that they don’t dry out. You can also freeze them for up to 2 months.
More recipes you might enjoy
Walnut Blondies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (175.5 g) walnut pieces, divided
- 1 cup (112 g) almond flour
- 2/3 cup (121.33 g) Swerve brown
- 1/4 cup (27 g) collagen protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 1/3 cup (72.67 g) walnut oil, (or avocado oil)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) vanilla
- 3 ounces (85.05 g) sugar free dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and grease an 8×8 inch metal baking pan.
- Coarsely chop half a cup of the walnuts and set aside. Place the remaining 1 cup of walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground. Do not let them become walnut butter!
- Transfer to a large bowl and add the almond flour, sweetener, collagen, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine well.
- Add the oil, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until the dough comes together. Stir in the chopped walnuts and the chopped chocolate.
- Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges are golden and the center is just barely set. They will still be very soft.
- Remove and let cool completely before cutting into bars.
Notes
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.
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Hi, thanks for the great recipe. I was wondering which perfect Keto Collagen you used. I noticed there were several options as well as flavored options. does the butter replace some or all of the oil or ground walnuts?
Well, in this one I used the plain but the salted caramel is my favorite and I often use it in baking. Butter would replace the walnut oil.
These are probably the best low-glycemic recipe I have ever made in 5 1/2 years of eating low-glycemic! They are just what I was craving! My daughter and husband and parents all loved them just as much as I did, and they usually are wary of my sugar-free creations, lol. Thank you so much, Carolyn! I’m off to make them again because they didn’t last long and I miss them!
I am so glad!
Can this bar be made without the collagen? Or a substitute? I use your recipes mostly for sugar free baking for type 2 diabetes. Such good recipes!!!
Hi, I already talk about that in the blog post! 🙂
I am new to living a low carb lifestyle and I really appreciate your explanations of different ingredients and the time you to take to create and make recipes! Thanks to your blog I got Honeyville almond flour instead of the Bob’s Mill and it has made a world of difference in the recipes I make. I was wondering if I could use almond flour in this recipe or would it not work? Thank you again!
Well, it would work but it would be as walnutty! 🙂
I know this is an old post but I have to say I am going to make to make these again because they are so good. They do not raise my husband’s blood sugar so they are a good healthy snack. Thanks so much for these yummy recipes.
I love chewy Blondies and this recipe looks like my kind of Blondie. Carolyn, your recipes are outstanding. Please forgive me if I tinker with this recipe just a bit by using half browned butter and half toasted walnut oil and using English Toffee Stevia. Would it be overkill to put a drizzle of Sugar Free Caramel sauce on the plate when serving? 🙂
Your version sounds fabulous!
So when you said walnut meal in the beginning you meant almond meal like the recipe indicates? I was bummed out for a minute since walnut meal is hard to make! lol
I love these! I made a batch with a few substitutions–some Splenda (because I'm running low on my sugar alcohols) and plain walnut oil rather than toasted–which I really regret because I'm sure the added layer of flavor would have been excellent. Neverthless, these were fantastic. I would say for me there was still a tiny bit of a cakey texture, but not at all unpleasant–very good mouthfeel, in fact. I also used a Ghirardelli 72% dark chocolate bar for the chocolate chunks. I got the same pooling oil issue that Donna did, but I just let the blondies sit for a time and it re-absorbed just fine. These will remain a favorite for sure!
Carolyn –
A quick update. I made another recipe, your Cranberry Bliss Bars, and the same thing happened – there was a rim of melted butter around the edge of the pan. This time, though, I let the pan sit out on the stove for a couple of hours, and the oil soaked back into the cake, so I think that would work with this recipe as well. I don't know why it happened, but at least I know how to resolve the issue! 🙂
These look fab. I love the idea of baking with walnut oil. thanks for the recipe.
These sounds and look soooooo good! All the richness and flavor without the sugar crash. 🙂 Thanks for sharing – I love your style of baking Carolyn!
Donna, I hope you come back and let me know what happens. I am truly curious why your oil leached out and mine did not. One further thought…I removed mine from the pan before they were truly cooled. I don't know if that would make a difference?
I just made these again from your recipe in volume 1 of the Low-Carbing Among Friends book. That recipe is exactly the same except it calls for Almond Flour instead of Almond Meal, so I used a light, blanched almond flour similar to Honeyville (from Nuts.com). The only other thing I did differently was to use the same amount of Swerve for the sweetener, plus just a few drops of stevia.
I use parchment paper which absorbs a lot of oil, and let them sit, so I didn’t notice pooling, but mine are still soft and oily. This time I baked them a few minutes longer and used a bit less oil. They look like yours and are really good, except….they still TASTE oily to me.
When I think about it, a whole cup of oil seems like a lot, especially with 4 eggs, for an 8″ pan. Do you think the almond meal would make that big a difference? Or maybe this is the only one of your fabulous recipes that I might not make again… ?
I haven’t even thought about this recipe in a long long time. I might have to try it again and see if I can update it. I’ve come a long way since then.
NP, I didn’t pay attention to the date, just wanted to check online to see if it was different from the book. Obviously you are very busy coming up with wonderful new recipes, most of which I haven’t had time to try yet!
Thanks, Carolyn. When I bake a recipe for the first time, I always follow the recipe exactly as written. So the sweeteners were the same, and in the same proportions. My pan was not metal or glass, though – I use a silicone baking pan, which I really love both for ease of removing baked goods and for ease of cleanup. Maybe a metal pan would have worked better. I will give that a try.
Hi Donna – hmmm, I am not sure what happened there. Mine did not pool, although the sides of the pan were definitely oily after I'd removed the blondies. Did you use the same sweeteners as I did, in the same amounts? I've noticed that if I use xylitol in the same amount a regular recipe would use sugar (say 1 cup or so), that any oil or butter leaches out during baking.
Two possible solutions…cut back on the erythritol/xylitol if that's what you are using and add more stevia instead. Also, you might try lining the pan with parchment paper. I've noticed that my darker non-stick baking pans bake differently than lighter coloured metal, so it might be the baking pan and using parchment would help.
I made these today with the same ingredients as well. The oil pooled on my brownies also and the blondes themselves were very oily to the touch 🙁 I’m not sure what could have happened. Definitely gonna try again.
To get a gooey consistency, you will get some oil pooling. If you leave them and let them cool in the pan, it should re-absorb.
I made these, and the flavor is REALLY good. But I noticed that when I took the pan out of the oven, some the oil was pooling around the edges of the pan, and I had to blot it, so it clearly wasn't absorbed by the walnut and almond meal. I think they would have been much more moist if the oil hadn't separated/not been absorbed. Any ideas how to address this, or why it happened?
I'm always happy to find great gluten free recipes on your blog Carolyn! I feel I am not experimenting in this field enough yet and I'm not blogging about them. I should really get started. Thanks for sharing this one. Everybody loves blondies and everybody deserves them 🙂