Keto Baking is Hard

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Despite all the benefits this keto lifestyle has provided, goddammit do I miss baked goods.

So, this weekend, I tried my hand at two different baked goods – one savory, one sweet. The verdict? Maybe keto baking isn’t for me. 😦

Still, I took some pictures and thought I’d share my failure all the same.

First up, a savory coconut flour biscuit based loosely off this recipe. Rather than garlic and cheese, I went with sage, hazelnuts, and duck fat – I replaced half the butter called for with an equal amount of duck fat (about 2 Tbsp.) It went a little something like this:

Dough smelled so amazing!
First hint that these might be too eggy: super yellow once they cooled.
Yeah. Probably too much sage.

The biscuits smelled incredible, but I found the overall recipe a bit too eggy for my taste, and I probably used too much sage (about 1 Tbsp). So, I tried my hand at an impromptu gravy using duck fat, heavy cream, and a dab of Better Than Bouillon chicken base. Three thumbs up for the gravy. 11/10, will pour over everything.

biscuits and duck fat gravy

My new best friend: duck fat gravy.

VERDICT: I will definitely try these again. Perhaps with one yolk removed? Or maybe a mix of coconut flour and almond flour? We’ll see. Seriously, though, duck fat gravy forever.

Next up was my attempt to do something with this basic coconut flour cookie recipe. I anticipated the recipe being a little too basic for my taste, so I decided to make sandwich cookies using this low-carb nutella recipe. I already had hella hazelnuts anyway.

Roasted some hazelnuts then popped them in the food processor.
Kept the food processor going until the hazelnuts formed a paste.

After adding all the ingredients per the original recipe, I added a couple of extra tablespoons of butter to make the mixture a bit smoother/glossier/spreadable. It worked!

adding extra butter to the core recipe.jpg

I made no changes to the coconut flour recipe, but I think I may have used too much coconut flour. The dough was very dry and crumbly. I’m completely inexperienced as a baker and wasn’t sure how to remedy that. Thankfully, the chocolate-hazelnut spread helped quite a bit. Here’s how it all went down:

Rolled the dough into balls before placing on a lined cookie sheet.
Flattened the balls with plastic wrap and a glass.
Out of the oven and onto a cooling rack. Edges were brown but tops seem a bit too light? 😦
Had to wait until the cookies cooled, but the spread concoction worked nicely.
Completed cookies. Doh! So many cracks. 😦
Pretty tasty, but still a bit dry and gritty. Womp womp.

VERDICT: Ehhh…  Everything smelled incredible, but the cookies themselves were dry and gritty. Again, I think I messed up with the amount of flour, so that’s on me. Both the cookies and the spread had a noticeable tang of sugar substitute (I used Stevia in the Raw.) Perhaps I’m just too new to keto to appreciate a good sugar substitute (I still remember what real sugar tastes like), or I’m just using the wrong ones.

While this weekend’s experiments in keto baking were certainly fun and educational, I feel the overwhelming lesson was that keto baking is hard and I suck at it. I have a lot of learning left to do.

 

Posted by Marie the Bee

10 responses to Keto Baking is Hard

  1. curmudgeonlyreader

    My first experiment I didn’t have almond flour and figured coconut flour would work the same. They don’t. I’ll try to find a title I’ve used that goes into detail for working with the odd ingredients and pass it your way.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. the20somethingexistentialcrisis

    I tried almond flour pancakes — so much nope. There ended up being more egg than flour and it all came apart anyways.

    Since then I only use almond flour as a binder and a “breading”

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marie the Bee – Author

      Argh! Have you tried coconut flour at all?

      Good call on using alternative flours as binders. I used just a smidge of coconut flour in my gravy as a thickening agent and it worked well! No coconut flavor and the texture of the gravy remained smooth despite the graininess of the flour.

      Liked by 1 person

      • the20somethingexistentialcrisis

        I haven’t. Honestly, I haven’t been looking for it lol. After my almond flour fiasco, I’ve just been keeping it pretty basic.

        Also, my S.O. hates, and I mean LOATHES, all things coconut. And he eats the vast majority of my cooking…

        Liked by 1 person

        • Marie the Bee – Author

          How does someone LOATHE coconut? It’s the best! 😛

          I’m lucky, my fiancé is a vegetarian (not the healthy kind, the beer and cheese pizza kind) and I cook mostly meats. I rarely have to consider his preferences when cooking. 😛

          I must admit that after this weekend’s experiments, I’m fairly disinclined to explore keto baking any further.

          Liked by 1 person

          • the20somethingexistentialcrisis

            I don’t blame you.

            I do want to get the gumption up to try cloud bread, but I’d hate to waste eggs….

            Like

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