These keto blueberry crumble bars are perfect for your keto diet. Blueberries are a great source of fiber and are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. As long as you stick to a reasonable portion, eating blueberries should not kick you out of ketosis.
For this blueberry crumble bars recipe from Sarah, co-founder of CJ’s Keto Kitchen, you only need a cup of blueberries, which contains 9 grams of net carbs. The other ingredients are also keto-friendly, such as almond flour, xanthan gum, and a natural sweetener.
Each slice of these Keto blueberry crumble bars contains only 3 grams of net carbs, so you can enjoy a few slices while still sticking to your low carb diet. Best of all, they are easy to make and require only 30 min to prepare.
If you are a lover of blueberries then I have a number of other blueberry recipes on this blog that you might like. Who doesn’t like blueberry muffins? This Keto Blueberry Muffins Recipe makes 8 delicious almond flour muffins.
Of perhaps you’d rather have a blueberry cake. This delicious Keto Blueberry Cake is made with almond flour and sour cream. Yet another tasty recipe is this Keto Blueberry Cheesecake. It has an almond flour crust with a filling of cream cheese and sour cream and a topping of juicy blueberries.
Superfood Blueberries
Blueberries were one of the first foods to be known as a superfood because of their high antioxidant levels. It’s these antioxidants that makes them such a healthy food.
Many of the health benefits of blueberries is down to anthocyanins, a potent flavonoid, which is one of the main antioxidant compounds. The darker color the blueberries are the more antioxidants they have.
Health benefits of blueberries
The health benefits include their anti-inflammatory effect, preventing heart disease, bone strength, skin health, lowering blood pressure, diabetes management, improving memory, brain function and cancer prevention.
Not so good for some is the fact that blueberries contain very high amounts of salicylates. This is a natural compound which can cause side effects such as gastrointestinal symptoms in people who are sensitive to them.
Different varieties can be found growing in different parts of the world. Cultivated blueberries are sweeter than those growing in the wild.
Should you buy organic blueberries?
Organic produce contains more nutrients than non organic and does not contain any pesticide residue. Blueberries do not figure on this year’s EWG’s Dirty Dozen but they don’t figure on the Clean Fifteen either.
In the opinion of Dr. Carl Winter, a professor of toxicology at the University of California, Davis the amounts of pesticides found on the Dirty Dozen list are too small to merit concern in the first place.
On the other hand What’s On My Food website list a number of pesticides that have been found on blueberries that could affect health. 52 pesticide residues were found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program although the figures for blueberries were from 2008.
Nevertheless EWG states that in fertility studies’ classifcation of pesticide residues done by researchers from Harvard University using USDA test data, blueberries were classified as haivng high pesticide residue score.
So there you have it. Best to buy organic if you can. If not then it’s best not to eat too many blueberries and other produce that is on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen list.
Keto Blueberry Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/4 tsp Xanthan gum
- ¼ cup natural sweetener
- 2 tablespoon filtered water
Crumble crust and topping
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconuts
- ½ cup brown sugar natural sweetener
- 1 teaspoon natural almond or vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons melted grass-fed butter
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
2. Prepare a 7×11 inch baking tin by lining with non bleached parchment paper. Grease it and make sure the parchment covers the sides too.
3. Heat the blueberries and water in a large saucepan and bring to a low boil and cook for 10 minutes.
4. When cooked mash the berries lightly. Remove from heat and add the sweetener. Add the Xanthan gum sprinkling it in evenly. Mix in well then leave to cool.
5. Combine all the dry ingredients in another bowl mixing well. Add the melted butter and almond or vanilla exptract and mix to form a sort of doughy crumble mixture.
6. Press half of the crumble mixture into the baking pan, then bake for 10 min or until it develops a light golden texture. Leave to cool.
7. Next, spread the blueberry mixture onto the bottom crust. Top with the rest of the crumble mixture and press down lightly.
8. Bake for 20 to 25 min or until lightly browned.
9. Leave to cool before cutting into 12 bars.
Here’s Sarah’s video demo of how to prepare these delicious keto blueberry crumble bars.
