A great new low carb scone recipe with the delicious combination of hazelnuts and chocolate. Move over, Nutella, there’s a healthier option in town.
When I was growing up, chocolate for breakfast was simply not an option in our house. My mother didn’t keep a lot of sweets in the house, and cookies and ice cream were clearly for dessert only. The breakfast foods were sensible choices like whole grain cereal or toast and fruit. We didn’t have chocolate muffins or chocolate cereals or chocolate spreads for our toast. There was nary a Cocoa Puff to be seen in my house. Or houses, rather, since my parents were separated and both households ate sensibly according to the understanding of nutrition at the time. We had plenty of chocolate but it was always a treat, a dessert, not the main part of the sensible meal. And so I carried on, as ever in my adult life. Breakfast was breakfast and chocolate was not meant to be a part of it.
I remember quite vividly my first taste of Nutella, at a friend’s house after a sleepover. It was utterly foreign to me to be served chocolate for breakfast, and I am not sure I even knew what hazelnuts were at that point. And although I quickly fell in love with the delicious combination of chocolate and hazelnut, I wasn’t exactly hooked on Nutella. Especially not for breakfast. It just seemed out of place, too sweet and cloying a substance with which to break my nightly fast. Not surprising, since the first ingredient in a jar of Nutella is sugar. Not hazelnuts, not chocolate, but sugar. If the same thing had been offered up for dessert, I might have quickly become a Nutella junkie. But it would never have graced my daily breakfast table and it certainly never will now.
Times have changed in many ways, though. For one thing, I no longer consider cereal or toast a sensible breakfast, no matter how little the sugar or how whole the grains. And I do eat chocolate for breakfast with relative frequency. It still remains mostly a dessert food, but sometimes a little chocolate for breakfast can help you start your day right. As long as it’s in a low carb, grain-free package, and not laden with ridiculous amounts of sugar.
But the Nutella lovers of the world got one thing right: chocolate and hazelnuts are heavenly together. Yes, even for breakfast.
- 2 1/2 cups hazelnut meal
- 1/2 cup golden flax seed meal
- 1/3 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup hazelnut oil
- 2 tbsp cream
- 1/2 tsp hazelnut extract or vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp stevia extract
- 1/3 cup sugar-free chocolate chips such as Lily's
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 oz dark chocolate such as Lily's, chopped
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together hazelnut meal, flax seed meal, sweetener, baking powder and salt. Add eggs, hazelnut oil, cream and extract and mix well until dough comes together. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Turn dough out onto prepared baking sheet and pat into a rough rectangle, about 1 inch thick (it should be about 6x8 inches). With a sharp knife, cut into 6 even squares, then cut each square diagonally into two triangles.
- Carefully separate and lift scones and place them around the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between them. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until just firm to the touch and lightly browned.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely.
- In a small bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt butter and chocolate together until smooth. Drizzle over cooled scones and let set, at least 20 minutes.
Serves 12. Each serving has 11.77 g of carbs (with the glaze) and 6.52 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 5.25 g.
Food energy: 323kcal
Saturated fatty acids: 5.23g
Total fat: 28.43g
Calories from fat: 255
Cholesterol: 37mg
Carbohydrate: 11.77g
Total dietary fiber: 6.52g
Protein: 7.01g
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Jeanette | Jeanette's Healthy Living says
Love how you recreated the nutella experience into something so much healthier! You are the queen of scones!
Robin says
Question about hazelnut meal and hazelnut oil. Can I make my own hazelnut meal by grounding hazelnuts the way I make my own almond meal? Also, how necessary is hazelnut oil vs. using another oil like coconut oil or hemp seed oil? I would be willing to purchase these products if absolutely necessary but was wondering if I could use something I am already using and have on hand. Thanks for the help! The recipe looks fantastic!
Carolyn says
If you have something that can grind them finely enough, go for it. It’s just tough to get a nice “flour” vs a “meal” when you grind your own. And yes, you can use another oil but they will have a less distinct hazelnut flavour.
Robin says
The ground meal works great and I bought some hazelnut oil from Amazon. These are cooling now! Thanks!
Mimi says
Now those are some good looking scones!
Cecelia says
Do you have a good pie crust recipe?
Carolyn says
https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2013/07/coconut-cream-pie-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html
Jamie | My Baking Addiction says
This would be a welcome breakfast any time at my house!
-Jamie
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
These scones look SO delicious. What a great recipe! I am totally obsessing over that chocolate drizzle, wish I had one of these scones to devour right now.
Stacy says
Hello!
I notice you use Stevia and small amounts in some of your recipes. I have tried to like Stevia and just can’t enjoy the initial and after taste. What would be the conversion for adding Swerve in place of Stevia? Do you have a recipe for making the chocolate drizzle by using cocoa and swerve instead? I also have a on of Just Like Sugar…not too big of a fan of that either but am wondering if you know of a good use for it. Thank you!
Carolyn says
You can replace the 1/4 tsp of stevia with 1/4 cup Swerve. For the chocolate drizzle, if you don’t want to use Lily’s, use something like 85 or 90% Lindt Chocolate.
Becky says
Just wanted to let you know that after finally gathering all the ingredients for this recipe (had to order the hazelnut extract online and the Lily’s chips went on sale at my Whole Foods) I got to make it last week. Love them! It’s so nice to have one with my morning cup of coffee. Thank you for another winner!
Chantelle says
I made these and they are delicious! I didn’t have hazelnut oil so I used olive oil. I used coconut sugar instead of Swerve. Also, I only had about 2 Tbsp ground flaxseed left so I threw that in and hoped for the best. Since my mixture was quite wet due to way less flaxseed, I dropped 8 round ‘scones’ on the baking sheet (faster than shaping and cutting, too). They were moist and tasty, and held together really well – which surprised me considering the lack of flaxseed, and that I’d whizzed up whole hazelnuts in my processor that weren’t particularly fine. Thanks so much!
Georgie says
Looks great
Kelly says
Can they be frozen?
Kimberly Griffith says
I have frozen all of her scones and had success. 🙂
Kimberly Griffith says
These are delicious!! Taste like Nutella only better. As someone said, you’re the queen of scones!! I subbed coconut oil for the hazelnut oil and added a touch cocoa to the batter. They were so yummy and just perfect.