Carolyn Ketchum - The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking: Master All the Best Tricks for Low-Carb Baking Success

First published in 2020 by Victory Belt Publishing Inc.

Copyright 2020 Carolyn Ketchum

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-628603-84-2

The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and offers no medical diagnoses, treatments, suggestions, or counseling. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

Front and back cover food styling by Marcella Capasso

Front and back cover photography by Lance Friemuth, Kat Lannom, and Justin-Aaron Velasco

Author photos by Brad Self/JBSelf Photography

Cover design by Kat Lannom

Interior design by Charisse Reyes and Crizalie Olimpo

TC 0119

Preface

That girl. You know the one Im talking about. Shes your coworker, or maybe she sits next to you in class. Perhaps shes your neighbor or your friend. However you happen to know her, shes always the first one to volunteer to bring treats to a function, be it a work meeting, a study group, or a block party. She views every birthday as an excuse to make some sort of elaborate cake. Like an eager puppy, her ears perk up and her eyes brighten at the very thought of a gathering where people might eat her creations. And shes positively gleeful when her goodies are met with murmurs of approval. She loves to bake and she loves to share, and you know she will never come over to your house empty-handed.

I was that girl. I still am that girl.

The only thing thats really changed are the ingredients I use. Ive traded in wheat flour and sugar for almond flour, coconut flour, and alternative sweeteners. And in the process, Ive traded in the carb-heavy treats that took my blood sugar for a wild ride and substituted keto-friendly sweets that keep my glucose perfectly stable.

Maybe thats not such a small change after all. In fact, its quite a monumental change when you think about it. And it certainly wasnt one I embraced readily at the beginning. Truth be told, I would say that I came to the keto diet kicking and screaming.

See, I was mourning a very important part of my identity: my baking self. A self who, when staring down the barrel of type 2 diabetes, thought that she would never be able to enjoy baking again. Perhaps that sounds like a trivial concern in the face of a chronic disease, but it wasnt trivial to me. My love of baking was a huge part of who I washow could I be me without it?

Clearly, I couldnt. I quickly delved into the weird and wonderful world of sugar and flour alternatives with abandon. I read everything I could get my hands on about baking with nut flours and coconut flour. I spent a small fortune on new-to-me ingredients. And I tried. And I tried. And then I tried again.

I entered the keto baking world in its nascent stages, when there werent a lot of resources out there, and I had to go it alone much of the time. I made some serious blunders, thinking my new flours and sweeteners should behave the way my old ones did. But with every mistake and every failure, I learned something new, and I filed it all away in my baking-obsessed brain. And slowly but surely, I started to have more and more success.

It wasnt long before I was taking beloved conventional recipes and making them over with keto-friendly ingredients. And then I began to let my imagination run wild, dreaming up all-new recipes and getting into the kitchen to see if I could bring them to fruition. Slowly but surely, people started paying attention, making my recipes and asking me if I could make over their favorites, too.

I daresay I have become a much better baker in the process. In my past life, I never really paid attention to what made a recipe work or why it might fail. I didnt understand the difference between baking soda and baking powder or the role that gluten plays in helping baked goods rise or hold together. And it wasnt until I had to go without that I came to understand that sugar does so much more than simply sweeten foods. My technical baking skills have vastly improved, and I am far more creative in the kitchen than I used to be, developing new recipes on an almost daily basis.

That baking self I was so afraid of losing? Shes very much alive and kicking. I may have changed how I bake, but I havent changed why I bake: that deep and abiding passion to create something utterly delectable that will elicit ooohs and aaahs from the crowd. I still get that eager gleam in my eye at the very thought of warming up my oven and greasing my pans. I still view every get-together as an opportunity to indulge my inner domestic goddess. I am still that girl.

Since you are holding this book in your hands, chances are that you are also that girl, or that guy. Chances are that you too embarked on the keto lifestyle, apprehensive about what it might mean for your favorite pastime. Well, friends, I am here to tell you that you can still be that girl or guy. You can still bake, and you can still enjoy the fruits of your labor.

My deepest wish is that The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking becomes your indispensable keto kitchen companion. Come along with me for a journey into this strange but delicious world and enjoy everything the keto lifestyle has to offer.

Lets face it, a good creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people.

Audrey Hepburn

BAKERS GONNA BAKE

Why is it that some of us love to bake so much? And by some of us, I mean the millions and millions of us across the globe who love to indulge in this ancient pastime, who cant get enough of mixing and stirring, beating and whipping. Those of us who feel compelled to wake up in the morning, turn on the oven, and get to work to create some mouthwatering masterpiece.

A love of baking has far less to do with a love of eating than the uninitiated might realize. I bake cookies not so that I can stuff my face with cookies but for the deep sentiments that those cookies represent: warmth, comfort, home, family, and love. Do I enjoy eating the cookies when theyre done? Of course I do, but I love the process of creating and sharing them even more.

Baking affords me a sense of well-being that is hard to put into words. There really is nothing quite like it, but I am going to try my best to capture the essence and beauty of the baking experience.

Baking is magic. It is the modern equivalent of alchemy, the bringing together of various materials to create something altogether new, something that is far more than the sum of its parts.

Baking is sensual. It involves all five senses. Taste, sight, and smell are obvious, but hearing and touch are also involved. The whisk brushing against the side of the bowl, the hum of a preheating oven, and the whoosh of an electric mixer are all part of the symphony of baking. It is an incredibly tactile experience, rolling out dough, patting out scones, forming cookies by hand. If you didnt get your hands dirty, you didnt do it right.