I've never had much of a sweet tooth. Don't get me wrong, I like dessert as much as the next person, but if I have to choose between sweet and savory, savory wins every time, hands down. So for me, being on a low carb diet isn't a problem as far as missing cakes, pies, candy, ice cream, etc. It's been two weeks and I haven't really missed sugar much at all. The other day a random craving hit though and I resorted to a little bit of sugar free ice cream. I decided to devote some energy to coming up with some low carb sweets for the blog (and myself) so that next time I want something decadent and sweet I'll have some recipes to fall back on. Back in August I posted a recipe for a classic tiramisu that was simple and delicious. I wanted to try something like it using the cream cheese pancakes to stand in for the ladyfingers. I intended to use mascarpone mousse as in the classic version but being in the South I couldn't find it in any of the grocery stores I scoured. I was annoyed but it actually worked out for the best! I don't love the fact that the classic version uses raw eggs anyway so I went in a totally different direction. I got some sugar free caramel flavored syrup (you can use Davince or Torrone or whatever you can find) and blended it with some cream cheese. Then I whipped heavy cream and folded the two together. It was amazing. You can just keep eating it with a spoon! Thick and creamy, sweet and caramelly it was sooooo good! I ate it this morning on my leftover cream cheese pancakes with sugar free chocolate sauce drizzled over it! Best Sunday morning breakfast ever!!! Anyway, back to the Tiramisu! So I soaked the unsweetened pancakes in unsweetened cold espresso for a few minutes. Then I layered the pancakes, caramel cream, and unsweetened cocoa powder. That's it. Holy Toledo! It was so good that I wish you could taste it right now! Actually I wish I was tasting it right now! If you can stand to wait, it's even better if you put it together and then chill it for half an hour before eating. Totally satisfying, this is going to be my new no carb dessert of choice for a long time!! I might make the cream with sf hazelnut or white chocolate syrup next time. The sky is the limit on flavor! Oh and if you are REALLY craving something decadent, make sure you load it up with sf chocolate sauce....lots and lots of it!
don't love the fact that the classic version uses raw eggs anyway so I went in a totally different direction. I got some sugar free caramel flavored syrup (you can use Davince or Torrone or whatever you can find) and blended it with some cream cheese. Then I whipped heavy cream and folded the two together. It was amazing. You can just keep eating it with a spoon! Thick and creamy, sweet and caramelly it was sooooo good! I ate it this morning on my leftover cream cheese pancakes with sugar free chocolate sauce drizzled over it! Best Sunday morning breakfast ever!!! Anyway, back to the Tiramisu! So I soaked the unsweetened pancakes in unsweetened cold espresso for a few minutes. Then I layered the pancakes, caramel cream, and unsweetened cocoa powder. That's it. Holy Toledo! It was so good that I wish you could taste it right now! Actually I wish I was tasting it right now! If you can stand to wait, it's even better if you put it together and then chill it for half an hour before eating. Totally satisfying, this is going to be my new no carb dessert of choice for a long time!! I might make the cream with sf hazelnut or white chocolate syrup next time. The sky is the limit on flavor! Oh and if you are REALLY craving something decadent, make sure you load it up with sf chocolate sauce....lots and lots of it!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
12 4x4 squares of cream cheese pancakes (unsweetened)
1 cup espresso or coffee, cooled
Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
For the filling:
4 oz of cream cheese, softened
2 Tbl caramel flavored syrup
1 cup heavy cream
Mix the cream cheese with the caramel syrup until smooth and creamy. Whip the heavy cream until stiff. Fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the caramel mixture. Add the caramel mixture back to the remainder of the whipped cream and fold gently until fully combined. Chill for a few minutes. The cream, not you. Meanwhile, soak the pancakes in the coffee for about 2 minutes. Since they aren't very porous it takes a little time for them to absorb the coffee - you can soak them longer if you want a stronger coffee flavor. Add the cream to a pastry bag with a large star tube attached. Have four small plates ready. Place a coffee square on the plate. Pipe a layer of cream on it. Dust with cocoa powder. Repeat until you have three layers. Repeat with the rest of the plates. Serve with optional sugar free chocolate sauce. You don't have to make this pretty, you could layer the coffee soaked pancakes with spoonfuls of cream into an 8x8 pan and then chill it and cut it into squares (or just stand at the fridge and eat it with a giant spoon at 2am when nobody is watching.) Not that I did that. No I really didn't... but I would have if there had been any left! :) Yeah, I'll be making this again! And again! And again...
Add the cream to a pastry bag with a large star tube attached. Have four small plates ready. Place a coffee square on the plate. Pipe a layer of cream on it. Dust with cocoa powder. Repeat until you have three layers. Repeat with the rest of the plates. Serve with optional sugar free chocolate sauce. You don't have to make this pretty, you could layer the coffee soaked pancakes with spoonfuls of cream into an 8x8 pan and then chill it and cut it into squares (or just stand at the fridge and eat it with a giant spoon at 2am when nobody is watching.) Not that I did that. No I really didn't... but I would have if there had been any left! :) Yeah, I'll be making this again! And again! And again...
As always I love to hear from you guys so let me know what you think!
**Update: I changed the title from "Zero Net Carb" to "Low Carb" because it was brought to my attention by some hard core low carbers that some of the ingredients do have traces of carbs even though the labels say 0. Apparently when you add all that together there may be a carb or two (literally) per serving. I don't want to be accused of false advertising so for the sake of accuracy I changed the name. Next time I'll be sure to do my homework in advance and avoid any discrepancies! 0 carb, 1 carb, 2 carbs (gasp!) - it's still delicious!!!
**Update: I changed the title from "Zero Net Carb" to "Low Carb" because it was brought to my attention by some hard core low carbers that some of the ingredients do have traces of carbs even though the labels say 0. Apparently when you add all that together there may be a carb or two (literally) per serving. I don't want to be accused of false advertising so for the sake of accuracy I changed the name. Next time I'll be sure to do my homework in advance and avoid any discrepancies! 0 carb, 1 carb, 2 carbs (gasp!) - it's still delicious!!!
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