Low Carb Cranberry Shortbread Streusel Bars
The perfect blend of sweet and tart, these cranberry shortbread streusel bars will be your new favorite keto cookie! Low Carb & Gluten Free too!
The perfect blend of sweet and tart, these cranberry shortbread streusel bars will be your new favorite keto cookie! Low Carb & Gluten Free too!
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 tbsp butter melted
- 2 cups superfine almond flour
- 1/2 cup erythritol granulated sweetener
- 1/2 cup erythritol granulated sweetener
- 1 tbsp cointreau orange liquor (optional)
- 1/4 tsp arrowroot powder (or xanthan or guar gum)
- 1/3 crust mix (from above)
- Carbohydrate 1.99882781270092 g
- Cholesterol 11.4386718799054 mg
- Fat 5.56000578413676 g
- Fiber 0.839143742282323 g
- Protein 0.258344843901417 g
- Saturated Fat 2.83999718876097 g
- Serving Size 1 1 bar (25g)
- Sodium 31.0880625132671 mg
- Sugar 1.15968407041859 g
- Trans Fat 0.366412125178138 g
- Calories 57 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine all of the crust ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix well with a fork.
- Remove approximately 1/3 of the crust mix and set aside for the streusel topping.
- Press the remaining 2/3 of the crust mix into an 8x8 baking pan, preferably lined with parchment or foil for easier removal after baking.
- Bake in a 350 degree (F) preheated oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine the cranberries, sweetener, water, Cointreau, and arrowroot powder and stir well.
- Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
- Stir and pop all of the cranberries that remained whole after cooking.
- Remove from heat and cool for about five minutes, or until no longer steaming.
- Spread the cranberry filling evenly over the partially baked shortbread crust.
- Add the cinnamon and chopped pecans to the 1/3 crust mix you set aside earlier.
- Work with your fingers until clusters are formed.
- Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the cranberry layer.
- Bake the bars at 350 degrees (F) for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.
Almond flour behaves differently than wheat flour because it lacks gluten, requiring deliberate binding agents to prevent structural crumbling. Granulated erythritol measures cup-for-cup like standard sucrose, yet it lacks the moisture-retaining properties of sugar, making almond flour preparations prone to dryness if baking times exceed the threshold. Parchment paper lining an eight-by-eight-inch metal pan ensures safe extraction without tearing the delicate base during slicing. Simmering cranberries with water, sweetener, and arrowroot powder for ten minutes breaks down the cellular walls, thickening the mixture into a spreadable jam consistency. Arrowroot powder functions as a starch thickener at low heat, but substituting xanthan gum requires reducing the quantity significantly due to its potent thickening capacity. Butter provides essential dairy fats that coat almond flour proteins, compensating for the absence of gluten networks. Pecans and cinnamon blended into the reserved portion of the crust mixture form discrete streusel clusters when worked manually by fingertip friction. Cooling the baked pan thoroughly on a wire rack before cutting allows the fats to solidify and the structure to set properly.
