Hello all!! I’m allergic to all tree nuts. This includes almonds, pecans, walnuts, and coconut. I’ve never tried the other tree nuts and don’t plan to. I’m working with my husband on his Keto diet and trying to be supportive but every meal I’ve encountered has one of these in flour form. I cannot eat them.
What are some other flour alternatives? And, for example, if recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour, how much of your flour do you use?
While I do dredge my liver in almond flour, it is not really necessary to “bread” it. For most of the foods I eat, flour is not even in question. I don’t use any kind of flour for making bacon and eggs, or steak, or roast beef or roast pork, or fried or roast chicken. It plays no part in ribs, and I don’t put any sort of flour on my broccoli, my cauliflower, or my salad, and I don’t use any in my salad dressing, either. As far as I know, there is also no flour of any kind in my butter, my bacon grease, my tallow, or my lard, nor is there any in my heavy cream or my coffee.
I have been keto 2 months without using any sort of flour. The only thing I have used to “bread” anything was Parmesan cheese and crushed pork rinds. I don’t really like replacements for my old way of eating.
Maybe I should have been more specific considering some of the smarty pants responses. I’m not doing the diet. I am looking for my husband for dessert/cookie/treats recipes that don’t contain those flours.
Hi! This is one area I’m really interested in, so I know a lot about baking for people with allergies.
Basically what you’ll want to look at are two things: flourless cakes, and cheesecakes. Flourless cake (or at least the keto varieties I know of) are made with egg and dairy, plus things like cocoa, sweetener, flavourings, and then additions like xanthan gum to create the right kind of squashyness. Other ingredients are things like ground chia seeds and ground flaxmeal to add fibre. You might get some recipes for cookies that use chia seeds as a base with egg for extra binding and butter to cook, I think it’d taste a bit like oatmeal cookies.
Cheesecakes are another great option because you can make the base from butter and flaxseed/chia seeds, plus cinnamon or sweetener to taste, and then the cake itself is just lots and lots of cream cheese with, again, sweetener and flavourings. The baked cheesecake I do uses egg as well but there are a lot of no-bake recipes out there that use heavy whipping cream. If you can’t get a base that you like, you can also just make the cheesecake without and then go a little easier on the flavour.
Apart from that - fat bombs! There are SO MANY RECIPES for fat bombs. Many will use things like peanut butter as a binding, just ignore those and look for ones that use butter or egg to bind instead. Some use cream cheese similar to how it’s used in the cheesecakes.
There isn’t really any good flour alternative that isn’t nut-based, apart from what I’ve mentioned above, in my experience. If you really want to get into baking keto-friendly desserts and treats, then you will have to just toss out all your recipes that use wheat flour. Keto baking is a whole other game with different rules.
If you’re also allergic to egg or dairy (or you’re a vegan), then all I can say is: give up now before you drive yourself insane.
Sidenote: you can get things like wheat gluten and oat fibre, but I can’t really comment because I’ve never used them. I don’t see them much in recipes online apart from in those for bread, and I buy low carb bread instead of making it.
[edit] I almost forgot! Hemp hearts! I’m eating a hemp heart chocolate chip cookie right now 
My particular recipe uses almond butter as well for flavour but I’m sure you could remove it and add some cinnamon or allspice or whatever you like.
I don’t believe any of those were “smarty pants responses.” For example, pork rinds can be used to make pancakes and waffles. Cheese, chicken, sausage, and cauliflower are all ingredients that can be used to make pizza crust.
Unfortunately, nut flours and coconut flour are the usual substitutes for wheat flour. There are desserts that can be made that are keto, but are not baked goods. Diet Doctor is a good resource. Maria Emmerich also has dessert recipes that rely heavily on eggs - raw and hard boiled. Maybe check out some of those resources?
Ahhhh! You’re making dessert recipes. That makes an awful lot more sense.
So the first question is, does your husband really need dessert? Some of us find that ketofied versions of foods we used to eat are more bothersome than going without sweets altogether.
What I find is that on keto I have very little need of dessert, although sometimes some blueberries with whole-milk yoghurt and/or heavy cream, or yoghurt and cream without the blueberries really hits the spot.
Another possible dessert is a couple of squares of unsweetened chocolate melted along with a dollop of heavy cream and some artificial sweetener. A warning, however: some people react with an insulin spike to one or another of the artificial sweeteners (it’s completely individual, and your husband will have to experiment), and some people find that artificial sweeteners trigger sugar cravings.
If you check the “Recipes, recipes, recipes” section of the Food forum, you will find quite a few keto dessert recipes, including various excellent cheesecakes.
People were trying to be helpful. Now that we know deserts that makes a difference. My daughter and I do keto with out any desert like menu items.
Keto on.
No reason to call us smarty pants, I mean you asked a question and we have an answer. Sorry your question was misunderstood but it happens.
So chalk this one up to we eat strange things (strange to those that are not keto). Port Rinds are a thing that we can eat and there is a fried chicken receipe that uses pork rinds as the coating. http://blog.2keto.com/recipe/ketoky-fried-chicken/
@carl
I’m sure we sounded weird but folks were seriously trying to help you. Don’t shy way. Its a good group.
My husband did try unsweetened chocolate squares to remedy the craving last night. He was never a big sweets eater but for some reason got a hankering for it.
I was trying to make desserts using the Keto method that my kids will enjoy that if my husband saw and wanted, he could have without guilt. I don’t want to make anything that’ll tempt him but still want to make treats for our 3 boys.
Looks like I’ll just have to bake cookies the way I always have and just hide them and/or won’t eat in front of him.
Thanks for the help!
Could you send me the hemp heart cookie recipe? I’d like to try one that someone has already tried and loved! Could I substitute regular butter instead of the almond butter?
Has anyone used Flax Meal for a substitute for flour? I’ve read pros and cons about it. But cannot find specifics. Also, how do I substitute? 1 cup of all purpose flour equals how much flax meal? Just trying all my options.
If I remember correctly the 666 brownies don’t have any nut related stuff, use the search bar and search 666 brownies. I like them, their more like cheesecake consistency to me. Make sure you add all the suggested sweetner. I also add liquid stevia to it.
Well the recipe is from the Keto Connect cookbook, called Keto Made Easy, with some modifications by me. (I highly recommend their book and their YouTube channel by the way!) It’s very easy too.
Half a cup each of hemp hearts, nut butter, and Lily’s Dark Chocolate Chips or Krisda Sugarfree Chocolate Chips
A quarter cup of granular erythritol
Half a tsp each of baking powder and vanilla extract
One large egg (or a tbsp of chia seeds with three tbsp of water)
If you want to use regular butter, I would melt it first and use a little less of it because it’ll make the mix a bit too runny. If you’re using chia seeds, however, go ahead and melt the butter and use the full half a cup. You may need to eyeball it a bit to get the right consistency.
Heat the oven to 350F.
Cream up the butter in your mixer, if you’re using nut butter.
Toss everything but the chocolate chips into the mix, and look for the right cookie dough consistency. If it’s too wet, add more hemp hearts. If it’s too dry, add more water (if using chia seeds) or add another egg.
Once you’ve got the right consistency, fold the chocolate chips in.
Use a cookie scooper to put the cookies onto your lined baking tray.
If you’re using chia seeds, you will likely need to flatten the balls of dough before baking. If you’re using regular butter, you probably won’t.
Bake them for about 15-20 mins, or until the edges start to brown a little. Bear in mind that they won’t brown like regular cookies because they have no sucrose in them.
You will need to let them cool and harden for 20 mins to half an hour when you take them out.
FYI any substitution is going to be very problematic because flaxseed has no gluten in it. The texture of whatever you make is going to be dry, crumbly, and probably very much like eating chalk.
If you want to start developing flaxseed recipes, then I highly recommend you look into any with quite a lot of eggs (for binding and rising) and then add xanthan gum to get the “springyness” of regular sponge cake.
Welcome to keto baking it’s virtually all experimental.