The Triple-Threat Awesome of Keto Menu Expansion

[RightNOW]

I’m waxing on here.

Every few years a recipe comes along that is a “game-changer” in keto, and wildly expands the menu options for people eating ketovore or keto, ketogenic lowcarb, and lowcarb.

The first one I recall in the early 00’s was the mock danish or bowl muffin or mug cake, microwaved cream cheese and egg (and sometimes a spoon of some other powder more than or instead of the creamcheese) and various spices or sweetener that made anything from a custard-ish to a bread pudding-ish to a gentle muffin-ish to even a bread-ish you could grill.

The next big thing was really more a conglomerate of ‘smaller’ ones, like the use of cauliflower for everything other than combat (the only thing it was fit for prior), and the market offering things like coconut flour and almond flour and xanthan gum that were not easily available before. I mean one or more were on walmart shelves by then.

Then came fathead pizza dough, a breadish recipe that Tom Naughton’s (‘Fat Head’ movie guy and comedian) brother posted on Tom’s blog (it was not his own, he credited the author), and that was an almond-flour-and-cheese based breadish that then got expanded with some other options (esp mixing almond+coconut meals) into everything from that to cinnamon rolls.

Meanwhile, frankenfoods abound in the grocery $shelf, and a special super high-gluten high-fiber variant of wheat has allowed keto breads and wraps (and sometimes other mixes) to proliferate. If the modern variant of wheat gluten were not a scourge of health in modern society this would be better. But for some people that works.

Those of us who need to be grain and gluten free
Those of us whose guts are torn up by nut/seed meals
Continued to wish for a breadish that wasn’t creamcheese or cauli.

Or eggwhites like the cloud bread.

Three other things have come around recently, all of which have the potential to dramatically expand the menu of people who are eating keto, grainfree, nutfree foods.

As everyone knows, the frustration of keto for many is not that the food isn’t delicious or filling. It’s that it would be so damn much easier – and more fun – if it could be on bread, wrapped in a tortilla, or mixed with noodles. (And not those gross asian things or zucchini shreds.)

Here are the three things I’ve been watching endless videos on and beginning experiments with – I need more $ to do much more of this alas, it’s tight right now – that I think are the wave of keto future.

I. PSMF bread has dramatically improved with experimenting.

Eggwhite bread was famously
(a) dry as hell,
(b) tasteless, and
© had a texture somewhere between angel food cake and your memory foam mattress.
I suppose if you were desperate it was ok. But
(d) it didn’t resemble bread, as when it baked up, the sides fell in radically, the top split open in bizarre crazy ways – it was like some terrifying mutant thing of unpredictable shape – and
(e) you had to let it sit in the oven half an hour after baking (making everything take longer) and still it usually fell somewhat. This combination of downsides, combined with the fact that
(f) you either need a stand mixer or beaters and a lot of patience to whip it up, combined further with the fact that
(g) some tiny bit of anything improper meant whipping your egg whites failed – what a pain in the butt! – made it relatively unpopular outside of people on that very specific dietary strategy.

As it turns out… It doesn’t need to be that hard. You can just use eggwhite powder and water – seriously. And it whips up fine.

Also: if you add a little egg yolk powder (or whole egg powder) near the end, it improves the taste a little, and the texture A LOT, and it no longer falls in on the sides, or goes crazy on top when baking. So now you have something actually way more like bread that bakes up in a nice shape.

Also: you can add butter powder, or yeast or nutritional yeast, to improve flavor still more.

Also: if baked in the new ‘mesh silicone’ pans, sprayed first, they have an awesome texture around the outside as well. Here’s a hamburger bun pic and then the bottom/side so you see the texture. If sprayed it gets more crispy.

And this recipe base tends to taste better after a night in the fridge. (I’ve found that anything with flax was like that as well.)

This is the “evolution” of Maria Emmerich’s egg white PSMF bread, but it’s an evolution that takes it from being a niche, workable but not very good option, to being a very good option even for people not in that niche. Maria began this evolution herself, with the powder-only approach (but otherwise original recipe) which she shows in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f0JiSd1uJI

And because it’s not based on nuts and cheese, it’s drastically less calories, less carbs, and for a lot of people less gut issues. And it’s definitely more protein.

So far some of my fave variants on this (with varying degrees of the newer options I mention above) include:

1. Pull-apart breads (pizza, monkey-cinnamon, etc.). Bake a big shallow sheet of bread halfway, slice it in a grid, put whatever you like in all the slices (say, butter and brown-sugar sweetener+cinnamon, or butter with italian herbs, and then pepperoni) and bake the rest of the way.
   pizza
   

   
   
   monkey
   
   

2. Hot pockets/etc. The deeper 4" mesh-silicone pans allow a lot of space in the middle for any kind of filling (though you can do it with any pan you like, this photo is regular silicone shapes). Beefy mushroom, chicken alfredo, pizza toppings, etc.
   making some
   

   
   
   after
   

3. The ordinary bread, with the adds to make it better in basically every way, is pretty close to what everyone wishes for so they could just have a bleeping sandwich (or made in bun molds, a burger). Or even just take the bun so you can buy a burger from a drive-thru while out and put it on your own bread.
   

4. A variety of cinnamon roll, custard danish, jelly roll, donut and sweetbread options.
   blueberry custard danish
   
   raspberry sweet bread thing
   
   cinnamon danish-donut-thing
   
   some bar-like donut-ishes
   

   

People have also been making variations on cakes and pies… angel food cake, lemon meringue pie, banana bread, etc.

You get the idea. It’s a “concept recipe” you can muck about with until it’s what you want. With allulose it browns, without it it’s very light, what you might want depends on recipe. You can make it with actual eggwhites if you’re poorest, egg whites in carton for a bit more expense, or eggwhite powder if you have more money and want it to be easier. Things like the yeast(s), butter powder, yolk powder, etc. change not only taste but texture so are important.

II. Keto pasta just keeps getting better.

First there were the terrible-smelling, glass noodle things from asia, which were never my thing. Then there were some hack versions of fathead which was also a fail. Then there was the “spiralize every kind of veggie” like zucchini to make into pasta, and those are ok as long strings of zuke but nothing like pasta.

Innovation really came around when the Two Keto Guys who run this forum came up with a recipe that used transglutaminase to come up with the closest thing to keto egg noodles anybody’d seen, and that was pretty cool. This didn’t take off in the big internet attention way the next one has though, possibly because while innovative and decent it was a bit of a job to make.

The woman at youtube channel Keto Asian Flavors used some molecular gastronomy ingredients (calcium lactate and sodium alginate) (ok, and a blender and a pointy-tip plastic squeeze bottle) to create what turn out, after creation, to be actual spaghetti noodles. Like amazing. They taste like spaghetti that is fairly al dente, not cooked very long – but they taste like spaghetti. The channel Serious Keto instead of using egg yolk powder used drained canned chicken (!) and made this as well. Others have used other ingredients, including adding spinach powder, and are raving about the recipe. The KAF original lady just today posted a video showing how to make a big flat sheet – from which you can cut anything from lasagna noodles to fettucine, to – with a cutter – wonton/ravioli/calzone pieces.

III. Making a Keto tortilla/wrap sure got easier.

1 Tbsp each of whole psyllium husks, heavy cream, whey protein isolate, almond flour (sub: 1 tsp coconut flour), 1 room-temp egg, mix and dump onto a silicone mat you can tilt it into a circle on, nuke for 90 seconds, give a few to rest then peel off silicone. I was so surprised this tasted ok, and even my adult kid liked it fine.

I didn’t have cream to used milk. It might have been slightly less moist and less flexible as a result but it worked fine for some shred chicken and cheese with spicy guac for a quick lunch. I have not yet experimented with fridge, freezer, baking it, frying or grilling it etc. but the ingredients can vary a little (Serious Keto has a second video on it with variants) and I think this has enormous potential. Because if you could make a burrito of anything and wrap it up and then nuke it on your lunch hour at work, well how cool would that be?

These three things:
Bread and many variants,
pasta with variants, and
tortilla/wrap,
are or can ALL be gluten & grain free, soy free, seed & nut free, super low carb, and depending on which one and what you’re making also low calorie or low fat for those who care about those things.

So I could make my own hamburger helper with burger and mushrooms. I could make my own chicken alfredo with fettucine. I could make my own heavy meat spaghetti. I could make my own pizza-pocket calzone. And relatively decent bread.

I have been off and on keto for years. I’m about 205# down from where I began. But I’ve been here for a long time. I find I sometimes have trouble now that I won’t bother to make food that is fun because I feel like why bother, I mostly eat meat, which I like fine, but not enough to inspire me to cook it unless I’m hungry, which I seldom am. I often end up eating offplan lately (an issue I never had prior) in part because I have to eat something and was too lazy to prep cook and then am stuck either starving or eating poorly. But aside from the tortilla which is basically 5 minutes to make including cooking, the other two can absolutely be prepped in bulk and ahead of time, and eaten cold or dumped in with something else cooking.

So making food for breakfast and lunch at work suddenly seems a lot more feasible. And having a big variety of yummy foods, not just what is fast or super basic to the point I’m bored of it, is suddenly a thing again.

I was thinking about all this today, so I just thought I would tell some others about it.

PJ

[Shinita]

I like your writing style! A lot of things you wrote about isn’t familiar to me (how can a butter powder exist? whatever, it’s not important) but whipped egg bread, that’s my thing. But most of my dietary questions has “eggs” for an answer so it’s easy for me. Though my 100% eggs sponge cakes still could get better. Powder is out of question as even if I buy normal meat in shops, I refuse to buy eggs from questionable sources. I want it from more or less properly raised hens. I start to wonder about making yolk powder myself… As I have problems with the not smooth boiled egg yolks. But I don’t want to talk about my things, just wanted to thank you for your post, it was a lovely read! We have similar opinions about things, others may love all the mentioned not so good stuff, well I never could get charmed by it. Eggs are fine but I need the yolks. And if eggs aren’t enough, I can add meat or skin, I rarely really need something else. Not all meat stuff needs a lot of time and I often have roasted meat in my fridge, it’s not like it’s hard… But I am almost always at home, like to cook sometimes and I am rarely in a hurry to eat so yep, my situation is different (but I always loved to have my main meal at home. and I worked late a lot). I just need things beyond simple eggs and meat because I need other textures, sometimes some bread type thing to spread something on, crunchy things, fillable things (it’s pancake for me, not tortilla. I doubt I ate tortilla more than 2 times in my life. but my pancake muffins usually have a hole inside too so I can stuff things in).

I will read more carefully the pasta section as while I am pretty okay without pasta since ages and I have eggs anyway but… I like the shape. Actually I want macaroni but it’s impossible. I am fine with spaghetti but that’s hard too but probably possible, I just don’t know if I want to bother with it. Dumplings are easy. poached eggs are even easier but I can fry eggs, that was my old pasta but it’s not carnivore so I use it rarely, only for my poppy seed pasta. I want my pasta to taste eggs, not flour or nothing like eggless pasta (though we have quite eggy ones too - proper pasta has no added water, only eggs. I think only homemade ones are on that level - as it’s traditional but they don’t come in macaroni shape, not even spaghetti just almost. they are angular and short. and way too carby and not enough eggy for me, of course. there is hardly such a thing as too eggy in my world) so the flavor is no problem.

Nothing can replace rice, though (and it’s surprising as normal rice barely has any flavor) but I can live with that. It’s not one of my absolutely vital textures (like crunchy and fluffy).

It’s good carnivore makes my life simpler (partially through losing interest in most food) but I probably never will stop playing with recipes and experimenting.

[buxomlass]

Thanks for an interesting round-up.

I have to say, I’m hanging for the day when a good, genuinely low-carb, actually-pasta-tasting keto pasta is readily available in stores, because I couldn’t be bothered going to great effort to make it myself (not a fan of the kitchen - I keep things very simple). But then again, maybe I would end up overeating that in the same way I used to overeat regular pasta anyway…

The game-changers I have used with some success are the keto mug bread (for mock white-bread toast) and chaffles (I just cook them flat in a frypan, like a bready pancake) - basically because they’re both so easy to do. One day I will get around to making Fathead-style garlic breads and the like, because they do look amazing…

Speaking of mug recipes, I’ve tried a few different keto mug cakes over the years when hankering for some kind of dessert, but never found a recipe which I liked enough to bother making a second time. Any suggestions or tried-and-true recipe links would be appreciated.

[islandlight]

@buxomlass I don’t have a waffle maker at the moment. I’ve thought of making paffles(?) in a pan. Can you give me any tips? I have a 12" teflon pan. I’ve made the basic shredded cheese and eggs chaffles before, and would like to keep it simple. Thank you.

PS. I can’t eat nut flours or cream cheese, so I’m not looking for recipes. I was wondering if you’ve learned how thick to make them, how hot the burner, things like that.

[Polly1]

Thank you @RightNOW PJ.

I tried the PSMF bread recipe from Maria E and found it absolutely repellant. I may have another go with the addition of egg yolk as I still have powdered egg whites to use up.

[ctviggen]

I have not tried this, though I did get everything to make it.

The PERFECT Low Carb Protein Bread

I may be able to make some of this next weekend.

[buxomlass]

Hey Laurie - my recipe does include some ground almonds, so I don’t know how leaving that ingredient out would affect the behaviour and ultimate texture of the mix. You could try it without, but just be verrrrrrry careful when turning because it might be quite soft without the ground nuts giving the mix some body.

My mix is the usual chaffle ingredients, including eggwhites, mozz, baking powder, a little almond meal and a splash of cream - I just blitz with a stick blender to make a thick paste, and then dollop onto a small, non-stick frypan over low-medium heat.

Not sure I have many useful tips - I go with pretty much the same thickness and heat setting as you would do with a regular pancake, I guess. Just watch the surface for a few minutes until bubbles come up (like regular pancakes), check if golden underneath, and then carefully turn - that’s the tricky part, they’re pretty soft and collapsible. Might be best to keep them quite small, so they’re more manageable to flip, and if you stuff one up somehow you won’t have wasted all the mix and will learn for the next one!

They don’t turn out crisp like I imagine they might with a waffle-iron (which I don’t have), but still make a nice enough flattish sandwich “bread”, though I usually eat them warm straight away with butter and toppings, like limp toast.

[islandlight]

Thanks so much, @buxomlass. Mmm, limp toast, can’t wait!