With fresh fruit in season right now, there’s no better time to enjoy an old high-carb recipe of mine I modified to make it suitable for Atkins low-carb. It’s a pretty dessert that impresses company and yet it is so easy to make! You make the crust a day ahead and put it all together right before serving. The crust is very dense (not at all crumbly) and can even be eaten with your hands just like pizza rather than with a fork! This recipe is not acceptable for Atkins Induction, but you can enjoy it once you get to the nuts and seeds level of Atkins Phase 2 OWL. Softening 1-2 oz. cream cheese and blending into the whipped cream is a good variation for this. But that is not calculated in the nutritional info below.
My favorite version of this dessert is one made with fresh peaches and a few drops of almond extract added to the whipped cream. Sooooo good!
VARIATIONS: Use sliced fresh peaches, use raspberries, use blueberries. You can also add 4 oz. softened cream cheese to the creamy filling and reduce the whipped cream for a firmer filling. 🙂
CRUST INGREDIENTS:
1 c. unsweetened coconut
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1/3 c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)
2 ½ T. low carb bake mix or almond flour (or 1 T. coconut flour)
2 egg whites lightly beaten with a whisk until frothy
1 tsp. almond extract
TOPPING INGREDIENTS: 1 c. heavy cream, 1T. s/f syrup like DaVinci or Torani and 1 pt. fruit
DIRECTIONS: Line a pizza pan with foil. Grease with butter a 9-10″ circle. Combine all crust ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Using fingers, spread and press firmly the coconut crust mixture into a 9-10″ circle on a greased sheet pan. Bake at 325º for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.
The day you want to serve, place crust on flat cake plate. Whip cream with a splash of vanilla and sweetener of your choice (I like coconut or vanilla DaVinci sugar free syrup). I always add a dusting of glucomannan powder to my whipped cream when I need it to “firm it up” for things like this, but this is not absolutely necessary if you don’t have any. Spread whipped cream evenly over coconut crust and top with raspberries, sliced strawberries or if on the fruit rung of OWL, this is good with thinly sliced peaches. Chill for an hour and then cut into 8 wedges and serve.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving (using strawberries) contains:
273 cals. 25g fat, 12g carbs, 5.1g fiber, 6.9g NET CARBS, 5g protein, 43 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
Is there anyway to use a low fat or fat free heavy cream
Low-carbers don’t use low-fat dairy products Eleanor. Not just on principal, but low-fat cream has sugar in it. Read the ingredients on a carton and you’ll see (dextrose I believe if I remember right). Not a good choice for a low-carber. When companies make low-fat products, they usually add ingredients that are less healthy, like some form of sugar, to make up for the flavor they have removed with that fat. I certainly can’t stop you using low-fat versions, 😉 but if used regularly you will be sabotaging your low-carb weight-loss efforts with a little sugar here and a little sugar there. Before you know it it’s a LOT of sugar in a week. Then you’ll be wondering why the scale isn’t budging. Just trying to help you be successful, my dear. 🙂
you mentioned coconut cream pie. My fav. How would you modify this?
Well obviously you wouldn’t use the whipped filling. I’d take your favorite coconut cream pie recipe and add more thickening to “firm it up”. Should bake in this shell (prebaked) nicely if you protect the edges of the crust with foil to prevent overbrowning. Then when cool, top with the whipped topping.
I’ve also seen this made with a cream cheese frosting or spread. How would you do that sugar free? Thanks! Looks delicious!
Just use a sugar substitute for the sugar, splenda, erythritol or stevia.
I’ve never heard of DaVinci or Torani. Is there anything else that can be substituted? Thanks.
Just use some vanilla or whatever extract you like. You will need some sweetener, too.
oh my word Miss Peggy you done it again.. this looks devine… we have blueberries starting in… do you have any majic for them…sheila
Only magic is to EAT ’em, Sheila, as fast as you can. 🙂
I haven’t done this “pizza” with the blueberries yet. That was going to be my next one. Peach is my fav.