Counting Carbs? Count on Dessert! 8 Fabulous Low-Carb Desserts

2 Comments | Written on September 3, 2012 at 5:00 pm, by Ann Hodgman

Milk Chocolate Pots de Crème

Let's jump right in with this rich, creamy, ultra-super-great French classic.

Ginger Creme Brulee

And as long as we're making delicious little pots of dessert, we need to re-visit creme brulee. Remember that portion size is one of the best ways to reduce the carbohydrates in any dish. It's also a great way to reduce the fat and calories, if that's what you're worried about. Why eat a big dish of bad-tasting low-fat creme brulee when you can have a smaller amount that tastes a million times better?

Chocolate Truffles

Similarly, one great truffle is worth more than ten low-fat truffles. This recipe, for the great kind, is also surpassingly easy to make.

Berries and White Chocolate Mousse

Whipped cream squared — that's what white chocolate mousse is like, which is why it goes so well with fresh berries.

Tiramisu Cheesecake Dessert

When you're looking for low-carb desserts, one thing you want to avoid is flour. A good low-carb cake is hard to imagine. But these bars, now — they're better than good. You won't miss cake, believe me.

Raspberry Sauce

This gorgeous ruby sauce reminds me: low-carbohydrate desserts aren't all about butter, cream and chocolate. Who'd want to eat like that every day? We also need tart, refreshing fruit desserts, especially when it's hot out. This sauce pairs as perfectly with fresh fruit as it does with chocolate mousse cake. It's also delicious stirred into a cold glass of seltzer.

Summer Fruit Cups

And here's a beautiful and bright-tasting summer fruit cup with an amazing lemon verbena syrup. Don't happen to have lemon verbena leaves on hand? As the recipe says, you can sub in lemon rind — but you could also try fresh mint or fresh basil leaves.

Peach-Lime Sorbet

This summer's been hard on peaches. At our local orchard, most of the crop has been bruised by hailstones. They're still delicious, but they have some parts you need to cut away. I've been using some of the "peach seconds" in desserts, including this fantastic sorbet. (I add a tablespoon of peach schnapps to the mixture before freezing.)

Remember thirty years ago when everybody decided that low-fat diets were the way to go? Except me, because I’ve never eaten anything low-fat unless it was born that way. Fruits and vegetables, yes. Low-fat cookies, pasta and desserts, no no no.

And now I’m vindicated. A few months ago, I decided to lower my carbohydrate intake to the U.S. recommended daily allowance — 300 grams a day. (It was probably double that before.) It took a little counting. I found that snacks like cheese and nuts weren’t as much fun as cookies, and I missed having as much pasta as I’d grown used to (six or seven pounds per serving). On the other hand, I learned that dinner doesn’t require a starchy side dish — why not have two or three vegetable sides instead? — and that I could still eat a nice big normal dessert every night.

That last detail was key. I’m not one of those “Hand Over the Chocolate and No One Gets Hurt” types, but I do need something sweet at the end of the day. And not something with low fat and horrible fake sugar. I mean a real dessert, with butter and cream and real sugar. Did you know that one scoop of Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream has fewer carbs than one scoop of Haagen-Dazs Lowfat Frozen Vanilla Yogurt? That’s the kind of counting I like. I decided that I would allow my daily dessert to total 10 percent of my daily carbohydrate allowance, or 30 grams.

Why was I vindicated? Because while I was eating all those nice desserts, I lost nine pounds without even planning to. And the weight’s stayed off.