Keto Flapjacks (No Oats, No Added Sugar)
These keto flapjacks swap oats for flaked almonds, pecans, desiccated coconut and seeds, bound with butter, Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener and an egg white, then finished with a drizzle of dark chocolate. Each bar has 2.7g net carbs. They take 40 minutes, plus cooling and 30 minutes in the fridge.
These keto flapjacks borrow from some well-loved recipes. Lorraine Pascale's easy flapjacks on BBC Food give us the classic method: melt the butter gently, pack the mixture firmly into a lined 20cm square tin and let it cool in the tin before cutting. The recipe's tip of swirling melted chocolate over the top inspired our drizzle. Sugar Free Londoner's keto granola bars, which she calls keto flapjacks, bind chopped nuts and seeds with ground flaxseed and an egg white, which showed us that an egg white helps hold the bars together without oats. Dara Dara Nutrition's keto chocolate-topped flapjacks pulse flaked almonds and coconut into an oat-like texture. We've brought those ideas together with our own sweetener and chocolate buttons.
The result is a buttery, chunky, golden bar that looks and eats like a proper British flapjack. A homemade oat flapjack of the same size has about 27g carbohydrate; one of these has 2.7g net carbs. If you're searching for sugar free flapjacks, these have no added sugar: the sweetness comes from erythritol and monk fruit decoction, and the small amount of sugars comes from the nuts, seeds and coconut. To find out why oats are off the menu on keto, read our guide Is porridge keto?
What we used: Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener melted into the butter in place of sugar and golden syrup, and Groovy Keto Dark Chocolate Buttons for the drizzle.
Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener
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Groovy Keto Dark Chocolate Buttons
View productKeto flapjacks vs ordinary flapjacks
Ordinary flapjacks are made from oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup, so most of their carbohydrate is starch and sugar. These are made from nuts, seeds and coconut, sweetened with erythritol, and erythritol counts as a polyol, which UK labels list within carbohydrate.
| Per bar (about 44g) | Carbohydrate | Sugars | Net carbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flapjack, shop-bought | 24.5g | 12.8g | 24.5g |
| Flapjack, homemade | 27.1g | 15.2g | 27.1g |
| This keto flapjack | 8.8g | 1.2g | 2.7g |
Ordinary flapjack figures are worked out for a 44g bar, about the weight of one of our baked bars, from UK CoFID 2021 data (food code 11-814, "Flapjacks, retail": 55.7g carbohydrate and 29.2g sugars per 100g; food code 11-1071, "Flapjacks, homemade": 61.6g carbohydrate and 34.5g sugars per 100g) – McCance and Widdowson's composition of foods. Carbohydrate excludes fibre, as on UK labels. Our carbohydrate figure includes 6.1g polyols from the erythritol, which are taken off to give net carbs.
Tips for keto flapjacks that hold together
- Pulse, don't blitz. A few short pulses give you oat-sized pieces. Keep going and the nuts turn oily and pasty, and the bars lose their chunky texture.
- Press hard. Packing the mixture tightly into the tin is what turns loose nuts and seeds into bars. Use the base of a glass to get the corners flat.
- Let the butter cool a little. Adding the egg white to a very hot mixture can scramble it. Five minutes' rest is enough.
- Watch the coconut. Desiccated coconut browns quickly. Golden edges are good; dark brown ones taste bitter, so cover with foil if needed.
- Be patient. Warm flapjacks fall apart. Cooling in the tin and chilling for 30 minutes gives you clean, neat bars.
- Use a hot, sharp knife. Dip the knife in hot water and wipe it dry between cuts so the chocolate drizzle doesn't crack.
Keto Flapjacks (No Oats, No Added Sugar)
- Prep time15 min
- Bake time20–25 min
- Total time40 min, plus cooling and chilling
- Makes12 bars
- Net carbs2.7g per bar
Ingredients
For the flapjacks
- 100g flaked almonds
- 60g pecans
- 60g desiccated coconut
- 30g ground almonds
- 40g pumpkin seeds
- 40g sunflower seeds
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 90g unsalted butter
- 60g Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener
- 1 medium egg white
For the drizzle
You will also need a 20cm square baking tin, baking paper, a food processor (or a sharp knife and board), a small pan and a large bowl.
Method
- Heat the oven. Heat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan, gas mark 3). Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper, leaving some paper hanging over two sides so you can lift the slab out later.
- Make the nut 'oats'. Put the flaked almonds and pecans in a food processor and pulse 4 or 5 times, until most pieces are about the size of porridge oats with a few bigger chunks. Tip them into a large bowl and stir in the coconut, ground almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and salt.
- Melt the butter and sweetener. Put the butter and sweetener in a small pan over a low heat. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until the butter has melted and the sweetener has mostly dissolved. Don't let it boil.
- Mix. Pour the buttery mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until everything is evenly coated. Leave it for 5 minutes to cool slightly, then whisk the egg white with a fork until frothy and stir it through thoroughly.
- Press into the tin. Tip the mixture into the tin and press it down very firmly and evenly with the back of a spoon or the base of a glass, right into the corners. The harder you press, the better the bars hold together.
- Bake. Bake on the middle shelf for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown all over and a little darker at the edges. If the edges are browning too fast, cover the tin loosely with foil for the last few minutes.
- Cool and chill. Leave the slab to cool completely in the tin, which takes about 1 hour. Then put the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes so the butter sets and the slab firms up.
- Drizzle and cut. Melt the chocolate buttons in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between each, or over a pan of barely simmering water. Drizzle over the slab with a teaspoon, leave to set, then lift it out and cut into 12 bars with a sharp knife.
How to serve keto flapjacks
- With a cup of tea: a flapjack is a classic mid-morning or afternoon treat. For more ideas, see our round-up of keto sweet treats.
- In a lunchbox: pack a bar straight from the fridge or freezer and it will be ready to eat by lunchtime.
- Warm with cream: warm a bar for 10 seconds in the microwave and serve it with a spoonful of thick double cream for a quick pudding.
- On a biscuit plate: serve alongside our buttery keto shortbread when friends come round.
Storage and freezing
- Fridge: keep the bars in an airtight box in the fridge for up to 1 week. They're firmest and neatest straight from the fridge.
- Room temperature: they'll keep in an airtight tin in a cool place for up to 3 days, but will soften in a warm room.
- Freezer: freeze the cut bars, wrapped or layered between baking paper, for up to 1 month. Defrost at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Ways to change it
- Peanut butter flapjacks: stir 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter into the melted butter. If you love that combination, try our peanut butter chocolate chip fat bombs too.
- Spiced flapjacks: add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and the finely grated zest of 1 orange to the dry ingredients for a festive version.
- Different nuts: swap the pecans for walnuts or hazelnuts, keeping the total weight the same.
- Chocolate-topped: melt 90g chocolate buttons instead of 45g and spread them over the whole slab rather than drizzling.
Any of these changes will alter the nutrition figures.
Nutrition
Per serving (1 bar, one twelfth of the tray, including the chocolate drizzle):
| Nutrient | Per bar |
|---|---|
| Energy | 242 kcal |
| Fat | 23.3g |
| of which saturates | 8.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 8.8g |
| of which sugars | 1.2g |
| of which polyols | 6.1g |
| Net carbs | 2.7g |
| Fibre | 3.3g |
| Protein | 5.1g |
| Salt | 0.15g |
Net carbs are carbohydrate minus polyols. On UK labels, fibre is already listed separately from carbohydrate, so it isn't subtracted again. Figures are calculated from the Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction and Erythritol Sweetener and Dark Chocolate Buttons pack labels and UK (McCance and Widdowson's CoFID) data for the almonds (14-870), pecans (14-837), desiccated coconut (14-873), pumpkin seeds (14-842), sunflower seeds (14-845), butter (17-661), egg white (12-938) and salt (17-367), and will vary with the brands you use. Excessive consumption of polyols, such as erythritol, may produce laxative effects.
Allergens: this recipe contains nuts (almonds and pecans), milk and eggs. The sweetener pack says it is packed in a facility where there may be traces of nuts, cereals and milk. The Dark Chocolate Buttons pack says they are packed in a facility where there may be traces of nuts, cereals, milk and eggs. Always check the current pack labels before baking for anyone with an allergy.
FAQ
Can you make flapjacks without oats?
Yes. Pulsing flaked almonds and pecans until they're roughly oat-sized, then mixing them with desiccated coconut and seeds, gives the same chunky, golden texture as a classic flapjack. Melted butter and a granulated sweetener coat the mixture, and an egg white does the binding job that golden syrup does in the traditional recipe.
Are flapjacks keto?
Traditional flapjacks aren't, because they're made from oats, sugar and golden syrup: a 44g homemade flapjack has about 27g carbohydrate. These keto flapjacks use nuts, seeds and coconut instead of oats, with a granulated sweetener made from erythritol and monk fruit decoction, so each bar has 2.7g net carbs.
How do you stop keto flapjacks falling apart?
Press the mixture into the tin as firmly as you can, and don't skip the egg white, which holds everything together. Bake until golden all over, because pale, underbaked flapjacks crumble. Most importantly, let the slab cool completely in the tin and chill it for 30 minutes before you cut it with a sharp knife.
How many carbs are in a keto flapjack?
Each bar in this recipe has 2.7g net carbs, worked out as 8.8g carbohydrate minus 6.1g polyols from the erythritol in the sweetener and chocolate. It also has 3.3g fibre, 5.1g protein and 242 kcal. That's one twelfth of the tray, including the chocolate drizzle.
Can you freeze keto flapjacks?
Yes. Once the bars are cut and the chocolate has set, wrap them individually or layer them between baking paper in a freezer box, and freeze for up to 1 month. Defrost them at room temperature for about 30 minutes. They make an easy lunchbox treat straight from the freezer, as they thaw by mid-morning.
Can I add peanut butter to keto flapjacks?
Yes. Stir 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter into the melted butter and sweetener before you pour it over the dry ingredients. It makes the bars a little softer and chewier, with a salty, roasted flavour that goes well with the dark chocolate drizzle. The nutrition figures will change, and peanuts are an allergen.
