Baking is a science. It takes patience and love, and the process isn’t for everyone, but like most s

Looking back over the last week, it’s a lot of calories and carbs. For the people I work with this is not always a good thing. I personally try to practice a lot of self-restraint and besides a small sample of the finished product; I don’t typically eat what I make. To be mindful of others and what they have going on in their life, I have decided to take a look at what I am baking and try to make something that tastes good, but isn’t so bad for you. I had plans to make bread, and last night while I was waiting for the cookies to bake, I was scrolling through Facebook (shocker, I know). My feed was filled with baking ideas, which is understandable based on the pictures I have been posting, but one post from a friend caught my eye, ketogenic pizza crust. It looked delicious and nutritious. I haven’t really gotten into the ketogenic diet, mostly because it seemed like another fad diet. At work we talked about it and the science behind it, which seems solid. The ketogenic diet, in case you were wondering, is a diet that looks at the macro and micro nutrients in the foods we eat, and how these affect the energy produced and burned by the body (this is a very general description). One of the major parts of the ketogenic diet is to decrease or eliminate carbs (Sacrilege, I know!). Carbs are a major part of most diets. Italian food loves pasta, Asian food loves rice, French food loves bread, and Americans love food, so you see the dilemma.

As I did some research into the ketogenic diet, I found an online recipe book, and one of those recipes was for bread. It just so happens that I was about to start a study in baking bread and its multiple uses throughout our lives! From what I read, the ketogenic bread is usually very thick and not a great texture, so the recipe I found tries to fix this problem with whipping egg whites into a meringue before mixing up the bread. I had an idea to look at the recipe and compare to a basic bread recipe to see what else is changed and discover a way to improve on the ketogenic bread. Here is my research:

I chose Amish White Bread for my side by side comparison, because the Amish seem to know what they are doing when it comes to a basic bread recipe and life in general!

Ketogenic Bread:

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup almond flour

6 large eggs

4 tbsp. butter- melted

3 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. cream of tartar

Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C)

Separate egg whites from yolks.

Add cream of tartar to egg whites.

Beat until soft peaks

In food processor, combine egg yolks, 1/3 of the beaten egg whites, melted butter, almond flour, baking powder and salt

(adding 6 drops liquid stevia can help reduce mild egg taste) Mix until combined.

Add remaining 2/3 egg whites and gently process until fully incorporated. Don’t over mix.

Pour mixture into buttered 8x4 loaf pan. Bake 30 minutes.

Ingredients

2 cups warm water

2/3 cup white sugar

1 ½ tbsps. Active dry yeast

1 ½ tsps. Salt

¼ cup vegetable oil

6 cups bread flour

In a large bowl dissolve sugar in the water

Stir in yeast

Allow to set (proof) until yeast resembles a creamy foam

Mix salt and oil into yeast

Mix in flour one cup at a time

Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth.

Place in well oiled bowl

Cover with damp cloth.

Allow to rise one hour (or until doubled)

Punch dough down

Kneed for a few minutes

Dived in have

Shape into loaves

Place into two well-oiled 9x5 pains

Allow to rise 30 minutes

Bake 350 degrees F (175 Degrees C) for 30 minutes

I looked at the two recipes, spoke with someone who actually knows what keto is and came to the conclusion that Keto bread is not something someone should eat. The result of my hypothesis is: F*** it, make bread and enjoy those carbs! I mean, it’s all about moderation really, so don’t eat the loaf yourself and you will be fine. In the name of science I will make both and do a side by side comparison.

*Baker’s Notes:

I thought that, in the name of science, I would do a side by side comparison, but when I went to find almond flour at the commissary (grocery store) my search came up empty. Instead I made the Amish bread and then looked up recipes for Japanese French Toast. If you haven’t had the pleasure of French toast in Japan, you are missing out on an amazing art form and the best French toast EVER! This is probably the number one reason to visit Japan (don’t worry; I will give you plenty more reasons to come to Japan). Unlike my search for almond flour, my search for the French toast recipe was fruitful, and I have a plan for tomorrow, which involves more searching. If I have successful search, get ready for mouthwatering pictures and an impressive recipe!

Here are the notes on bread. I added 2 tbsps. of milk, together after I added the last cup of flour, because my dough wasn’t coming together right. This didn’t have any effect on texture, but it gave it the extra liquid needed to form up. I put my oven on 190 degrees Celsius instead of 175, to try and account for it being a little slow and having difficulty maintaining a constant temperature. This worked out great and the bread baked for 30 minutes and came out looking great. I then brushed the tops of the bread, while still hot, with butter straight from the fridge. Let them sit to cool for a few minutes and added butter and enjoyed. This was an easy recipe that took little effort, mostly because I used a Kitchen aid mixture to do the hard part. I don’t envy the Amish for having to roll and knead the dough by hand, and I love my kitchen aid.

#baking #recipes