Low Carb Keto Chocolate Banana Brownies

Chef's Notes

NotesHere are some tips to avoid dry brownies:

Cocoa powder needs to be sifted. Often times when bringing it home from the store, it is caked together so tightly that one needs to scrape it out with a spoon, resulting in clumps of compacted product. This leads to using much more cocoa than a recipe calls for. I break up and sift cocoa from the store and either put it back in the same container or put it into a different air tight container. Actually, I buy good cocoa powder from King Arthur’s flour (Black cocoa, and Bensdorp/red cocoa) and I mix them 1:1 or 1:2. This results in a dark and complex cocoa that tastes exactly like dark chocolate with some smokey overtones. It’s what I used in this recipe and why they are so dark in color.
Again, ingredient compaction. Make sure to whisk to fluff-up any low carb flour before measuring. Almond flour and particularly coconut flour tend to form clumps. Measuring compacted ingredients leads to over-measuring and, in the case of coconut flour which absorbs so much moisture, leads to dry baked goods.
Glass baking dishes require the temperature to be lowered 20 degrees F. They take longer to heat, but also hold onto heat for a much longer period of time. This means that baked goods continues to cook for a while they cool outside of the oven. If I use a glass baking dish, I make sure to take my goodies out of the oven just before they are done. Sometimes this leads to mild sinking in the middle. I find that glass baking dishes are famous for producing baked goods with overdone sides and underdone middles.
This recipe was cooked in a large (25 year old) gas oven. I have found that electric ovens, especially smaller wall ovens, require a slight decrease in temperature or shorter cook time. I have a new electric oven and have had to adjust baking times when making recipes I had tested in my older oven.