trying not to look like ass

My buddy Charles wrote in to say that the keto chia pudding I showed off the other day looked "like ass," to which I responded that most chocolate puddings, unless they're out-and-out chocolate mousse, generally look like diarrhea. I decided to try and make my own sugar-free chocolate dessert: a panna cotta made with half almond milk, half heavy cream. I've got erythritol in there as the sweetener; it has a glycemic index of 1. Panna cotta sets thanks to gelatin, not thanks to eggs, as is the case with chocolate mousse. Gelatin is an animal product; it has 14 grams of carbs per 100 grams, and a single sheet of gelatin weighs a single gram. For what it's worth, here's the recipe for what I just did:

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons almond butter
2 heaping tablespoons chocolate powder, unsweetened
2 heaping tablespoons erythritol
1 sheet (1 gram) gelatin

Mix heavy cream, almond milk, chocolate, almond butter, and sweetener together. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the heat, wait 30 seconds, then add the sheet of gelatin. Immediately begin whisking. The gelatin ought to dissolve for the most part, but when done whisking, strain the mixture through a sieve to catch any unmelted bits. Pour liquid into ramekins. Chill for several hours, allowing gelatin to set. Serve cold, like revenge.

The heavy cream is highly caloric, but extremely low in carbs, and there is no added sugar in this recipe. Some nutrition information:

1 cup heavy cream = 345 calories, 2.8 g carbs
1 cup almond milk = 60 calories, 1 g carbs
2 tbsp. almond butter = 190 calories, 6 g carbs
2 tbsp. chocolate powder = 30 calories, 4 g carbs
2 tbsp. erythritol = 0 calories, 0 g carbs
1 sheet (1 g) gelatin = 1 calorie, 0 g carbs

So that's a total of 625 calories and 13.8 grams of carbs. Divide that by 2 for a single, 1-cup serving, and that's your essential nutrition information, at least in terms of carbiness. 6.9 grams of carbs for dessert is low-carb compared to a normal dessert (22 g of carbs for a single slice of apple pie versus 6.9 g for one cup of my dessert), but it's still somewhat high-carb compared to what a true keto dieter would eat. A true keto dieter would probably have no more than half a cup of panna cotta, but I'll be honest: that's impossible for me. I'm blessed or cursed with a sweet tooth, so at the very least, I'm going to eat a whole cupful of dessert. I'll earn it first by going for a walk for an hour.

My buddy Tom was singing the praises of sugar-free Jell-O the other day; I do love Jell-O, so there's a chance I might order myself a bundle of that to help satisfy certain cravings.

Anyway, the panna cotta is chilling in the fridge right now; I'll slap up a picture in a few hours once it's ready for prime time. Hopefully, it won't look like ass.

Two pics:

I think that looks a bit better than the chia stuff, yeah? Next time, though, I'll use two sheets of gelatin to make the panna cotta firmer.