Low-Carb Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

This delicious low-carb coffee cake is very filling, since it's made with almond meal. If you don't like cream cheese, you can leave out that layer, or use less cream cheese (see below). It is also delicious with raspberries instead of blueberries.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups almond meal
• 1 ½ cups sugar substitute (liquid or powdered, see below)
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup butter (4 Tablespoons), chilled and cut into small pieces
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extracts
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 6 oz. cream cheese
• Salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen (but not thawed) blueberries or raspberries

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter or oil 9X9 inch pan (cooking spray is fine).

Coffee cake is prepared in three layers. If you are using a standing mixer, you can use the same bowl if you make the layers in the order listed - just remove them to separate bowls until ready to assemble.

1)Streusel Topping: Mix 1 cup of the almond meal, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ cup sweetener, a pinch of salt and the 4 Tablespoons butter. I find that the whisk type attachment on my standing mixer works well - you want the mixture to stay crumbly. You can use a pastry blender, knives - whatever works. But if it all clumps together, don't worry - just crumble it over the top when the time comes. This is one area where I used to use powdered sweetener, but I have found more recently that liquid sucralose (zero carbs; no aftertaste) works fine.

2) Cream Cheese Layer: Mix cream cheese, 1 egg, and ¼ cup sweetener. If you want a thinner layer of cream cheese, you can use 4 oz. instead of 6. The mixture won't be as thick and will pour more evenly over the cake layer.

3) Cake layer: Mix dry ingredients: 2 cups of almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, ¼ ½ teaspoon cinnamon, teaspoon salt, and ¾ cup sweetener if you are using a powder. Then add the sour cream, oil, extracts, liquid sweetener if that's what you're using sour cream, and 2 eggs and mix well. At this point, you might want to add 1-2 Tablespoons of water, depending on the consistency. You want the batter to be thick enough to support the rest of it, but not too gloppy - you should be able to spread it easily in the pan. I usually end up adding about a Tablespoon of water.

4) Assembly: Spread the cake layer in the pan, and spread the cream cheese on top (if it's the larger amount of cream cheese, you won't be able to spread it evenly, but that's OK). Then sprinkle the blueberries on the cream cheese and the streusel on the top of that.

5) Bake for about half an hour, or until toothpick not inserted into a berry comes out clean. If you use a thermometer, it should be about 155° F. in the center.

6) Cool and slice. It is filling, so I usually cut it into 16 pieces.

Nutritional Information: For 16 servings, each serving has 3 grams effective carbohydrateplus 2.5 grams fiber, 6 grams protein, and 217 calories.

• FRUGAL TIP: Use only half of a dishwasher tablet at a time.