Dirt cake is a fun no bake dessert made with a combination of cookies, pudding, and other sweet ingredients. This 3 layer keto dirt cake recipe will blow your mind! Crumbly grain-free chocolate crust with layers of creamy sugar-free peanut butter and chocolate filling. So decadent.
Dirt cake: not a very attractive name for a dessert, is it? Sounds like something you might have made in the sandbox in kindergarten, or something the school bully might make you eat on the playground after school. Thankfully, it is neither of those things but a delicious, creamy, no bake dessert only made to look as if it contains dirt. Which surely appeals to the kid in all of us.
Dirt Desserts
I’d never actually heard of them until relatively recently, perhaps because of my “north of the border” upbringing. But I have to admit, they look ridiculously good. Who can argue with crushed chocolate cookies and pudding? Not me, that’s for certain. Dirt dessert recipes come in all shapes and varieties. Like this adorable Dirt Pudding from NeighborFood.
It’s not always about chocolate dirt cake, although because of the dirt-like appearance, chocolate’s the most popular flavor and cake is the most popular form. Some people prefer to make single-serving flower pot dirt cups, while others go a step up, into the land of dirt poke cake recipes. And if they are exceptionally gifted in the dessert making department, they make dirt ice cream brownies!
A reader recently reached out over Facebook to request one because her mother always made them on her birthday. And she linked to a delightful one with a peanut butter layer too on The Cookin” Chicks.
Wait, what? Chocolate cookies, peanut butter AND chocolate pudding? Well that just jumped to the head of the to-make list! Of course, I wasn’t about to make it with the Oreos or packaged pudding that conventional dirt cakes contain.
But a quick look at the ingredients let me know it really wouldn’t be tough to de-carb, in the end. I just had to make all the layers from scratch. A bit more work, perhaps, but definitely worth it.
How to Make Low Carb Dirt Cake
When converting her recipe into a low carb dirt cake recipe, I tried to adhere to the spirit of the original peanut butter chocolate dirt cake recipe as much as possible, including making it a no-bake treat. Summer is coming and we should all be able to enjoy some deliciousness without turning our kitchens into a furnace.
So the crust requires no baking, just some firm pressing into the bottom of the pan, and it holds together beautifully. The only part of the dirt cake that gets cooked here is the chocolate pudding, but that’s right on the stove top and doesn’t take more than about 10 minutes. Then the whole thing gets popped in the fridge to set.
I made mine in a springform pan because I figured being able to release the sides would allow for easier serving. But you could also make this in a square pan or even a trifle bowl, and serve in big scoopfuls.
You could even do individual servings in little plastic flower pots for a fun kid-friendly dessert. Dirt desserts don’t get more fun than that, right?
Low Carb Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 ¼ cup almond flour Honeyville
- 5 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 3 ½ tablespoon tbsp butter melted
Peanut Butter Layer:
- ¾ cup whipping cream divided
- ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia extract
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
Chocolate Pudding Layer:
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup whipping cream
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 4 egg yolks
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ oz unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 3 tablespoon butter in 3 pieces
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Crust:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, cocoa powder, and sweetener. Add melted butter and stir until well combined.
- Remove about ¼ cup of crust mixture and set aside.
- Press remaining crust firmly and evenly into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.
Peanut Butter Layer:
- In a large bowl, whip ½ cup of the whipping cream with the stevia extract until it holds stiff peaks.
- In another large bowl, beat cream cheese with powdered sweetener until smooth. Beat in peanut butter and remaining whipping cream until well combined.
- Gently fold in whipped cream until combined.
- Spread peanut butter mixture carefully over crust. Refrigerate while preparing pudding layer.
Chocolate Pudding Layer:
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine almond milk, whipping cream and sweetener. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sweetener.
- In a bowl, whisk egg yolks until smooth. Slowly whisk about ½ cup of the hot cream mixture into the yolks to temper. Then slowly whisk tempered yolks back into saucepan.
- Reduce heat to medium low and sprinkle surface with xanthan gum, whisking vigorously to combine. Whisk in cocoa powder and cook until thickened, about 3 or 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in chopped chopped chocolate and butter until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Let cool about 15 minutes and then spread evenly over peanut butter layer. Sprinkle with reserved crust ingredients.
- Refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours. To serve, run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan and remove sides. Run the knife under hot water to cut nice even slices.
Notes
Evelyn says
Mercy!! This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it.
Natalie Harrington says
We made this for Christmas 2021, and it turned out incredibly well. I’ve never made pudding from scratch, and the joy when I removed that spring form pan, and everything held… magical! Thanks for this!
Carolyn says
Fantastic!
Kristy says
Can this be made and then frozen for later? If so how long would it keep in the freezer?
Carolyn says
I honestly can’t say as I never tried to freeze it.
Wendy says
I have macadamia milk on hand and was wondering if I could use it instead of the almond milk
Tara says
This is my 3rd time making this dessert and I just want to say, it is superb! I honestly would never know that it was sugar free had I not prepared it myself!
Kristeen Downs says
What can I use in place of Liquid Stevia?
Carolyn says
More Swerve.
Saadia says
Best keto dessert ever! I used crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy and it worked out fine. Initially, I had trouble getting the stiff peaks to form while whipping the heavy whipping cream, but after watching some YouTube videos, I realized my bowl was too large. Once I moved the cream into a smaller bowl, it whipped up nicely. Also—I cheated a little and used store bought sugar free jell-o pudding for the chocolate pudding layer. The first time around I used sugar free white chocolate and added cocoa powder and extra powdered Swerve. This second time, I used sugar free chocolate pudding. I mixed the pudding mix with half almond milk and half heavy whipping cream the first time. The second time, since I was using a larger jell-o pudding box that called for 3 cups of cold milk, I used 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, and 1 cup of FairLife milk. Added extra powdered Swerve to taste. Topped my cake with crushed pecans in addition to the “cookie” topping. Simply delicious. Also, since this second time I made the cake in a 7” springform pan, I had extra chocolate pudding from the larger jell-o pudding mix, so I created two individual dirt cakes for my husband’s co-worker. Just layered each mason jar with the “cookie” crust on the bottom, peanut butter cream cheese layer, some extra cookie crumbles, chocolate pudding layer, more cookie crumbles, and chopped pecans. Sending it to hubby’s work tomorrow. Will let everyone know what the co-worker says! I’m taking the 7” cake to my sister’s for a holiday party, so I can indulge in a sugar free dessert while everyone else is eating non-keto desserts. Thank you Carolyn for a delightful keto cake recipe that I will make again and again.
Carolyn says
Excellent!
Daughter oftheKing says
perfect that’s the only word you need to know!
Lindsay says
I’m not usually a fan of keto desserts but this is the first keto dessert recipe that I’ve made that turned out amazing!
Carolyn says
So delighted to hear it!
Sandy says
I made this last night. It looks yummy. Hopefully will be as good as it looks. Will let you know when we eat it this weekend. Going to experiment freezing some since it’s only my husband and myself. Will let you know about that too! Lol. Thanks for the recipe!
Daneille says
Oh man, now THAT is pudding! Absolutely delicious, and the texture….!
I haven’t gotten to eat the fully assembled cake yet, but I just wanted to let other readers know, if they are lazy pudding makers like me (I NEVER bother with tempering eggs), it will still come out fine if you mix all the ingredients together at the start. Just be sure to cook for 2-3 minutes more once you start seeing un-burst bubbles following in the wake of your whisk (the xanthan gum makes the surface tension too heavy for bubbles to break on their own). Scrumptious!
Daneille says
Also, for people having trouble with the xanthan gum, I mixed mine into the cocoa powder before adding to the eggs/milk. This helps prevent clumping
Joi says
I’m making this for a new home construction party this weekend and am excited – and a little bit terrified of the powdered Swerve in the peanut butter layer. I have such bad luck with Swerve. Is there anything I can sub that won’t get crunchy/have that cool aftertaste? I normally sub Ideal (xylitol) But there isn’t a powdered version of Ideal and it’s super grainy. Help, pretty please? 🙂
Carolyn says
I don’t experience the cooling effect with Swerve but you do need a powdered sweetener so I think it’s your best bet.
Joi says
Thanks for the advice! I tried the PB layer tonight and the minty cooling effect is minimal; am sure it will be fabulous. (Sorely tempted to try the brownie layer from your brownie cheesecake as the base layer… 🙂 Thank you so much for all your amazing work and public service!
Greg Rallo says
I made this last night. WOW! Is is amazingly rich, and creamy, and yummy.
I followed the recipe exactly with only one exception. I don;t have liquid stevia extract. I omitted it altogether and still thought the pie was AMAZING!
I don’t buy swerve, but I have an erythritol/stevia blend that I buy in bulk. I just dropped it into a coffee grinder for 5 to 10 seconds and it was a fine powder. I highly recommend doign this. It blends/dissolves so much easier.
Michele says
When you say whipping cream you mean heavy whipping cream correct?
Carolyn says
Yes. But they are really both the same for these purposes.
Aileen says
My sister made this this weekend and it was soooooo good !!! Just a fabulous recipe and the pudding layer was perfect pudding! YUM!!
Carolyn says
So glad you like it!