I’m posting these Vanilla Protein Blackberry Crumble Bars in honor of the rebrand over at Equip Foods, my favorite protein brand. These are made with Equip’s vanilla Prime Protein, which I love because it has only four ingredients: beef isolate, coconut milk powder, vanilla, and stevia. No gluten, dairy, whey, soy, hormones, antibiotics, fillers, artificial sweeteners, or preservatives.

Maybe the idea of putting beef in your Vanilla Protein Blackberry Crumble strikes you as a bit off. Don’t worry, Prime Protein doesn’t taste like beef at all! I personally think it tastes like sweetened condensed milk, which makes it an interesting ingredient to experiment with, in baking.    

I won’t label these as keto per se, but they definitely did not kick me out of ketosis when I ate them. They’re low in carbs, using coconut flour, blackberries (6 grams of carbs per cup versus 17.4 grams in a cup of blueberries), eggs, oil, vanilla, lemon, and the sweetness of the stevia in the Prime Protein itself.

I even experimented with a coconut drizzle: 1/2 cup coconut butter + 4 tbsp coconut milk + stevia to taste. Really pretty in combination with extra lemon zest. 

I honestly don’t know if this recipe will work with other protein powders. I have heard that plant-based protein powders perform very differently in baking than ones made of whey, or beef (such as Prime Protein). Prime Protein is actually the only protein powder I’ve ever tried to bake with, so, let me know if you try it with another kind of protein and it works well!

Vanilla Protein Blackberry Crumble Bars (Grain/Gluten-Free)

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• Author: Rachel Marion
• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 1 hr
• Total Time: 1 hr 15 min
• Yield: 6 servings 1x

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 lemon
• 6–9 oz fresh blackberries

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8″ square cake pan, set aside.
2. Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Zest and juice the lemon. Combine its zest and juice with the eggs, coconut milk, 2 tbsp coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
4. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Reserve 1/3 cup of the batter, press the rest into the bottom of the greased cake pan. Blind bake in the preheated oven for thirty minutes, until browned and firm.
5. Remove from the oven, and top with the blackberries. Spoon the remaining batter over and around the blackberries. Return to the oven, and cook for an additional 30 minutes, until browned.
6. Slice and serve.