Crumbly. That was the first thing I thought as it came out of the oven. Scratch that, I knew before I put it in. As I was mixing the batter, even.



I suppose you could call this recipe as a failure? Perhaps. It didn’t do what it was supposed to (that is, be a cake). However, it was deeeeeelicious. And that’s all that matters. What am I talking about? One of these babies.

Don’t they look good? Trust me, they ARE good. Let’s backtrack for a second. I want to make sure you understand this – I LOVE lemon poppyseed cake. And so, post adopting keto, this means that my beloved lemon poppyseed loaf must be recreated and reinvented. Must. You hear me? I saved this little gem of a recipe (which I may try in its full capacity, when I have a little more money on my hand!), but I think I shot a little bit far of an actual lemon poppyseed cake (likely due to me having few ingredients on hand and being a bit overeager with substitutions).

These bars, on the other hand, have a texture reminiscent of a moist scone and a huge shortbread cookie – something new, but something GREAT. I dub thee shortloaf.

A cross between a loaf of cake and shortbread. Mmmmm. And with the delicious, crumbly, buttery texture, you wouldn’t guess that it only has (in my batch, anyway!) 3 tbsp of coconut oil in the entire batch. You can always substitute with canola oil or butter if you don’t have any handy. Hah! It feels like I just cheated economy or something.

These little gems melt so nicely in your mouth. I’m definitely keeping this recipe safe, even when I do end up finding a method for a real, fluffy, honest-to-god lemon poppyseed loaf.

Ingredients

(makes 16 delicious 2-inch squares)

1 1/2 cups Coconut Flour

1/2 cup Almond Flour

1 cup plain yoghurt

1 cup water

3 tbsp coconut oil or canola oil/butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks*

Juice of half a lemon

Zest of 1 lemon (or more, to taste)

2 tbsp poppy seeds

3 tsp liquid stevia

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract**

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Mix all eggs, extracts, stevia, and lemon juice. Stir in yoghurt and mix until smooth. Melt coconut oil/butter until liquid, cool slightly, then gradually stir into yoghurt mixture. Add lemon zest and poppy seeds to yoghurt mixture. In batches, sift almond flour, coconut flour, and baking powder into yoghurt mixture, stirring until incorporated, thinning out batter using excess water if necessary. The batter should be rather crumbly, with no sign of dry, unincorporated flours.

Spoon batter into a parchment-lined 8 x 8 baking tray and even top. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, until edges start to brown and toothpick inserted (diagonally!) comes away clean. Remove from oven, cool, nom.

*I used two eggs and two egg yolks because the other two egg whites were used in a previous macaroon recipe! Using 3 whole eggs should be acceptable, but may affect the texture and taste of the cake.

**I also did not use lemon extract in my batch – it was an afterthought. It should make the end product even more fragrant and delicious!

Nutrition (via MyFitnessPal)

P.S. the “3/4 cup” coconut flour lies because it doesn’t scale, it’s actually 200 grams/1.5 cups!