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
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I’ve had a problem with the dough cracking on the sides -allowing most of the chocolate to ooze out. Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong? Tastes amazing , just would like to keep it all together!
Hmmmm, that has not been my problem at all. A few possibilities are brands of almond and/or coconut flour. Another is that maybe you are rolling it too thin?
Hi love all your recipies! I’m from Scotland and we don’t have swerve sweetner available here. The closet thing I can get my hands on is erythritol and stevia ? Can I substitute the swerve for erythritol for all of your recipies or will it notwork ? Im desperate to try the above.
Yes you can. Swerve is a little sweeter than plain erythritol, so do my same amount of Swerve and then up the stevia by a bit. Is it powdered stevia or liquid?
Any reason I couldn’t use full fat mozzarella since I have it on hand?
I haven’t tried but people say it doesn’t always work, that the part skim works better.
Thank you!
WOW thanks for this recipe. It looks like a european treat my grandmothers would make.
Carolyn, I have seen recipes that are similar to this, and they call for melting the cheese in the microwave. I don’t have a microwave, so I just tried to melt it in a pan, but it always seems to stick to the pan, and I end up with a gluey mess in the bottom of the pan that’s hard to remove. Am I doing it wrong?
Not sure…it could be the wrong cheese? I find that it is sticky and gluey but once you add the other ingredients and you keep stirring, it starts to come together. You do end up with stuff still stuck to the pan, but the dough comes out nicely once it’s well-stirred.
I melt the butter in the pan completely, swirl it around a bit to coat it then add the cheese. If you keep it on low and use a pan thats relatively new and shiney it shouldn’t stick. Hope that helps.
Wow….yum….Ahmazing….another winner Carolyn. Many thanks. Reminds me of a Choc croissant.
I have made a hundred of UpLateAnyway’s cheese Danishes and the dough can be tricky. Your method over low Heat was perfect.
One tip….I should have measured the Choc filling into 2 precise portions instead of eyeballing it. A bit of a mess on one log. Thanks for all you do for us.
Yes, i found that keeping it over low heat while I was mixing the dough really helped.
lol I had to read this to my husband. He thinks he deserves a medal too. Hi, I’m Paula and I obsess, but in a good way. I said that like Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally…Currently, I’m playing with the Cheesy Skillet Bread. Today I baked it in a 9×13 clay baking sheet to get it thin and crispy. It burned a tad on two corners, but otherwise came out pretty darn awesome. I am a soup lover, and I wanted something that could hold up to being dunked, since the French baguettes are out. Done pouting about the loss of yet another food I can’t eat. However, my blood glucose is stable, and I am so thankful for your blog Carolyn! Trying this chocolate walnut thing tomorrow. <3
Favorite movie of all time, I think. Because I can watch it at any given moment and always enjoy it.
Yuuuuuuuuum! Thank you so much for posting this, it turned out wonderful and my sugar and carb loving co-workers devoured it in 5 minutes. I’ve used different forms of cheese dough to make savory things like rolls and bagels but was hesitant to try something sweet but as soon as I saw this recipie I was hopping to try it out. I did phone it in with the filling (just used Liliys chocolate chips) and melting the cheese (microwave) but it worked. Just a note though–I found that the log that I froze then baked turned out a bit better as far as spreading out than did the one I baked right away and baking it in a glass dish with parchment, seam side up, gave it a nice golden crust on the bottom.
Thanks for the tips!
This made me curious… would this work for a pie crust???
Yes, I think so. Might need to pre-bake it a little to get a crispy bottom.
I’ve made Up Late Anyway’s Stromboli, with great success. Thank you for making this sweet! Can’t wait to see what creations you make with it. And I’ve a hankering for rugelach this season; this might just be the dough to use.
I was thinking of trying it in rugelach too. It’s more doughy, though. Not quite flaky enough.
hmm, yes….you’re right. maybe I need to try playing with your tart crust, add a little cream cheese to the dough, perhaps…
You are most definitely not the only one who obsesses over recipe creations!! I am the exact same way, but its more soothing to me that stressful!! I am amazed by the use of mozzarella in the dough, Im sure it lends the perfect doughy texture to these swirls! And of course you can never go wrong with chocolate and walnuts for the filling! Id greatly appreciate one of these beauties for breakfast 🙂
I’ve been playing with the Uplateanyway dough as well, and I can’t wait to try your sweet spin on it. Thank you for sharing!
Get.In.My.Belly.
WOW, I am making this. It looks amazing, you have the best recipes, thank you!
Love this dough, I have been using versions of it for pizza, danish, and the list goes on. Can’t wait to try your recipe.THANKS!!!
This looks fantastic and I’m making it this weekend for sure! Do you grate your own cheese? I’ve read that there is a difference between dough that is made with pre-shredded cheese and dough made with block cheese. Any truth to that?
I’ve only used the pre-shredded cheese. My husband got a big bag at Costco.
Awesome, thanks! Makes it much easier 🙂
I’ve tried a dough like this for pizza with both pre-shredded and fresh shredded from a block. The only real difference I noticed was the cheese melted together easier when fresh shredded, because there’s no anti-caking powder on it. That said, I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble when making this type of dough. Pre-shredded cheese is easier, and it still made a perfectly fine dough.
Great tips!
Yay! I am so making these, like, today! Isn’t that dough amazing? I found the recipe a few weeks back and made the danishes (the answer to a prayer since I’ve had to go low-carb–I’ve been known literally to travel miles for a good cheese danish, which are not the easiest thing to find here in Maine) as well as sausage & green chili pinwheels. But, quite honestly, I’ve been so caught up with (should I say, obsessed with?) trying your recipes that I’d almost forgotten about this dough. Just this past week it popped back into my head and I told myself I had to make something with it again–and here it is. Thank you so much!
Stay tuned, I’ve got more recipes coming with it!
*yrs.
Just a note from a huge fan … I follow you on Pinterest and my FB news feed … I am 68 yes old and just committed to Wheat Belly lifestyle abt 5 months ago … The saying ‘Better late than never’ seems to have been created for me … Am enjoying huge success eating clean and you are one of the blogs I look forward to … I smile the whole while I’m reading:)! You are special, Thank you
Thank you so much, Diana! Glad you are feeling good on the wheat belly lifestyle.
WOW, just WOW! Cannot wait to make these!