Easy and buttery sugar free blondies make a quick and satisfying dessert that'll surely become of your favorites, what’s even better is that these are low carb and keto blondies too. No one will know you've lightened the recipe from the traditional recipe and instead you made healthy almond flour blondies everyone can enjoy. It's a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
What is a blondie?
If you aren’t familiar with blondies and haven't had them before, they're basically blonde brownies and do not contain any chocolate. At my house, my family will always request blondies over traditional brownies any day and for any occasion. They are soft and moist in the center, get their amazing flavor from brown sugar, and will satisfy any sweet tooth.
It wasn’t until I was in my 30's that I had the honor of tasting my first blondie. Although I'm incredibly sad it took that long in life.
And I have to say, ever since tasting my first blondie, they've been the most often eaten and most often requested dessert in our house.
While traditional blondies call for brown sugar, to lighten up this keto cookie recipe and make them no sugar and low carb, we used the Swerve brown sugar substitute, which is made from erythritol.
If you haven’t yet cooked with erythritol, it can be substituted one for one in recipes and comes in granular, brown, and confectioners sugar. Swerve has zero calories, it's natural, and measures, tastes, and bakes like sugar. Each serving only has 0 net carbs!
Some people say that erythritol has a cooling effect, so you feel a cooling sensation in your mouth when you are eating the treat. I felt this mildly myself and neither my husband or son reported that effect.
How do keto blondies compare to regular blondies?
Being that our traditional Blondie recipe is our favorite family dessert, I was skeptical about how swapping brown sugar for Swerve and regular flour for almond flour would be.
I’m happy to report the low-carb blondies were just delicious! Stopping at 2 and not eating more was a tough one.
I was pleasantly surprised at how the keto blondies turned out, yet I will say these did not taste exactly like our regular go-to recipe. Instead, my son assumed it was just a different blondie recipe that I was trying that day.
I didn’t expect almond flour blondies to taste exactly alike because regular all-purpose flour and almond flour don’t taste the same, and while the swerve brown sugar substitute does taste exactly like brown sugar, they have a different texture.
Here's a photo of Swerve brown sugar substitute made from natural erythritol. It looks just like the real deal!
Since I didn’t want to consume the entire pan of low-carb and gluten free blondies by myself, happily my husband, son, and his friends helped me out and finished off the pan. Fortunately, I received rave reviews from all the boys.
Ingredients
Other than the two specialty ingredients (that are staples for keto baking), the other ingredients are basics many people already have at home.
Depending on where you live, you might or might not be able to find ingredients like almond flour or brown sugar erythritol. And even if you can purchase these locally, you can often buy them online for a lower price.
My two favorite places to buy are from here (most popular) and here (least expensive)--Plus 25% off with your first order
NEEDED INGREDIENTS:
- 1 โ cup Almond flour
- 1 cup Swerve brown sugar substitute, packed
- ยฝ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Another fantastic variation to blondies is adding low carb and sugar free chocolate chips. Hands-down, the best brand on the market is Lilys Dark Chocolate Premium Baking Chips. Lily's are natural, contain no sugar, are non GMO, vegan, and keto friendly too. I will admit over a month-long period, I consumed an entire bag on my own (a few pieces at a time) without my family not knowing.
The chocolate chips on their own or a dessert in itself!
Recipe Tips
You might be tempted to overcook the low carb and gluten free blondies, which can result in a dry interior and crumbling texture. To make them soft and moist and a little like heaven in the center, you need to undercook them slightly and pull them out of the oven. They will continue to cook as they sit.
What’s funny is this is actually a big debate in our house, I love things really soft and my husband likes them on the dryer side. So it always works out perfect because I can eat the center of any bar dessert and he wants to eat the dryer corner pieces.
Step by Step Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° in place your rack in the middle position.
Lightly grease a 9x9 baking pan.
Whisk together the almond flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
In a medium sized bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the brown sugar and mix well. Add the egg and vanilla, beating well until all is combined.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. If you're using chocolate chips, you'll want to add them at this point. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared baking pan.
Bake the blondies for 20-23 minutes until the top of the blondies appears mostly set but not yet completely firm. The keto blondies will continue cooking after you pull them out of the oven.
I'd recommend checking the low carb gluten free blondies after 20 minutes and adding a few more minutes to the timer if needed.
Blondies are supposed to be soft and even a little gooey in the center, so if you cook them too long they'll actually turn out dry and crumbly. It's better the gluten free blondies get a little undercooked than overcooked.
We'd love to hear h0w your easy gluten free and keto blondies turned out, please post comments or questions below. We'd also love to see your healthy low carb blondie photos on the Pinterest pin.
Happy baking!
More Sugar Free Desserts
- The Best Keto Candy to Buy
- 25 Keto Cream Cheese Dessert Recipes
- sugar-free chocolate covered almonds
- keto peanut butter fudge
- low carb blondies
- keto rum balls
Recipe
Keto Blondies (Sugar-Free)
Ingredients
- 1 โ cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Swerve brown sugar substitute
- ยฝ cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and position the rack to the center position. Grease a 9x9 baking pan and set it aside
- Whisk together the almond flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
- In a medium-sized bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the Swerve brown sugar and blend well.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla, mix until well combined.
- Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. If you're adding chocolate chips or nuts, add them now.
- Spread the mixture evenly into the greased baking pan.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes until the blondies are starting to set but aren't completely firm. They'll continue cooking during cooling.
- Set on a baking rack and wait until they've cooled completely to cut the gluten-free keto blondies. Enjoy!
N says
Literally the tastiest keto treat I've made in like 2 years, thanks for the recipe
Philip says
Please please please, can we have proper measurements rather than cups, as we are in the U.K. and donโt use cups. Thanks
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Philip, I'll weigh out the ingredients next time I make them. Jen
Dawn says
Made these tonight and so excited to have found a blondies recipe that is keto friendly. I also love love love blondies over brownies any day. I substituted Lakanto Golden Monk Fruit sweetener because I discovered that I was out of brown Swerve after already melting butter and getting started. Still turned out lovely, though the center texture was still pretty wet even after over-baking. I suspect it was the sweetener that impacted the texture so dramatically. Also added Lilyโs butterscotch chips (have been dying to try these since bringing them home).
Delicious recipe! Thank you. Will certainly try with Swerve brown sweetener and take them out of oven sooner next time, but already a winner!
Stacey says
Thank you for this recipe! ๐
For everyone commenting about nutritional info, mine came in at 1522 calories, 38g protein, 225g carbs, 12g sugar, and 135g fat for the ENTIRE recipe.
If you cut into 1/8, each serving is 190calories, 5g protein, 28g carbs, 2g sugar, and 17g fat.
Obviously, youโd need to use a nutritional calculator for exact numbers with your particular brands, but going off my numbers is better than demanding the info from someone who has already provided a great (and free!!) recipe.
Cat says
Looks about right. The recipe makes 16 servings, though, not 8.
I made a half batch. Subbed in a different erythritol blend (Pyure, with stevia) and virgin almond oil instead of butter, and just an egg white from a medium egg. Definitely a bit too sweet, and though baked for only 25 minutes, still fell apart. I might reduce the oil and add another egg white to see if that binds better.
Dawn says
Thank you for posting. I find it remarkable that readers demand nutritional information from recipe authors when nutritional calculators are readily available. Also, if one is particularly concerned, itโs always more accurate to calculate with the specific ingredients used. I also like to calculate my actual number of servings/serving size. ๐โบ๏ธ
Anyway, thanks again for posting this here for those that may not be familiar with the good calculators available online.
Salli says
A little too sweet. Was good though. I subbed cashew flour.
Annet says
Lilyโs now offers butterscotch chips that work wonderfully in blondies. Yum.
WholeLottaYum says
Yum! Those would be a great addition! I haven't tried them yet.