(Part 2) Best wheat flours & meals according to redditors

Another edit - a step by step photo album is here: https://imgur.com/a/qfDslUR

Edit: The carbalose flour on Amazon is by Tova/Carbquick and has a higher net carb count than the Dixie brand. It will still work, but your net carbs will be higher. Tova has 19 grams net per cup vs. 8 grams net per cup for Dixie, which is the approximate amount used here. This will put your net carbs at around 3g per slice. Still keto! Just something to keep in mind.

Also, lupin flour is made from a legume. The interwebs tell me that if you are allergic to peanuts it's possible that you might have a reaction to it. Safety first!

​

I’m finally able to experiment with breads again, and I’ve branched out into different shapes, as well as feeling more comfortable with other ingredients. With a yummy taste and lovely texture, perfect for sandwiches or toast, or whatever…..this is the result.

If you are new to low-carb breads, a few things to note.

1. A high-carb syrup is used to feed the yeast. Don’t panic! This is used up by the yeast and none of it remains.
   
2. One of the many side effects of this is that low-carb breads tend to only get one good rise, so there’s no punching it down and letting it rise back up to develop texture and flavor. In this recipe I’ve created a sponge to help combat these issues.
   
   Below is the recipe:
   
   115g carbalose flour(not all carbalose flours are the same, this is the lowest net carb version I’ve found)
   
   26g oat fiber
   
   123g vital wheat gluten
   
   90g lupin flour (not all lupin flours are the same – I’ve poured several pound of disasters out in my compost. I use this one)
   
   1.5 tsp salt
   
   1 tsp xanthan gum
   
   1/4 tsp ginger
   
   2 eggs, room temp
   
   26g sour cream, room temp
   
   2 tbsp olive oil
   
   1.5c water, divided
   
   1/8 c butter, softened, cut into small pieces
   
   1.5 tsp corn syrup or honey, divided
   
   3.5 tsp instant yeast, divided
   
   The technique:
   
   Combine the dry ingredients minus the yeast.
   
   Make the sponge: scoop out ¾ c of the mixture, and combine them in a bowl with ½ c cool water, ½ tsp of corn syrup, and ½ tsp of yeast. Let this sit for 4-6 hours, or better yet, over night.
   
   When your sponge is ready, prepare a cup of warm-ish water. Mix ½ cup of the water with 1 tsp of corn syrup and 1 tbsp instant yeast. Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, mix in the sponge along with the other wet ingredients (minus the butter). Pause the machine and sift in the dry ingredients. Mix for a couple of minutes with the paddle mixer, then add in the butter, and if it seems dense or tough, add more warm water. I usually add another 1/3 to ½ cup. Then switch to the dough hook and mix on low for 10 minutes. If the dough is shaggy or sticky, try kneading for a few more minutes before adding any more flour. If you do need to add more flour, dust your work surface with carbalose, dump the dough out onto it, dust more on the ball of dough, and knead it in by hand.
   
   If it’s not shaggy or sticky, turn it out onto your work surface. No additional flour should be necessary, even for dusting. Knead it briefly to help form it into a roughly 6” ball, tucking the edges in and pinching them as you go. Using a sharp knife, slash an X in the top.
   
   Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit comfortably in your 6 quart dutch oven. Place the parchment on a cookie sheet, place the ball on the parchment, and place all of it in a warm place. Depending on your location, humidity, elevation, etc., proving time could be 30 minutes, could be a few hours.
   
   As it proofs, place a 6 quart cast iron dutch oven with a lid in your oven and preheat it to 450 degrees for at least 30 minutes.
   
   When your dough has proofed and your dutch oven is hot, take your dutch oven out, place your dough and parchment in the pan, and put on the lid.
   
   Turn the oven down to 375F, and bake for ~30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the internal temp is 190 degrees. Take it out of the dutch oven, let it cool on a rack until completely cool.
   
   I can usually get 15-17 slices out of it – I’m a weirdo who likes the end pieces. Macros per slice are: 103 calories/8.0 carbs/6.2g fiber/1.8g net carbs/4.2g fat/12.7g protein.

If you're going to add protein, you want to go with vital wheat gluten.

You probably want Cake flour. It has a lower protein content. But you'd probably be fine using your All Purpose flour.

In order of increasing protein: Cake flour has less than All Purpose flour which has less than Bread flour

Cake Flour on Amazon

AP Flour on Amazon

Bread flour on Amazon

Fellow celiac here! I have a horrible selection for grocery stores, so I buy a lot of things off of Amazon a case at a time. It is way cheaper than I can find anywhere this way. Stop buying the Udi's muffins. Honestly, they taste like crap and you can make ones that are soooo much better! I like to do a lot of baking mixes so I don't have to guess on what ratios of flours to use. Anyways, here are a few of my favorites:

• Pasta that tastes good and has good texture - Tinkyada
  
  
• Pizza crust mix that my husband likes even better than the gluten filled stuff I used to make - Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza Crust Mix
  
  
• Bread mix that we make in a dedicated GF bread machine - Glutino Gluten Free Bread Mix
  
  
• Muffins - King Arthur Muffin Mix
  
  
• Pancakes, waffles, cookies, biscuits, muffins, just all around awesome baking substitute - Pamela's Gluten Free Baking Mix
  
  
  If you get adventurous and want to try baking your items with a flour substitute, Cup4cup or Better Batter are both great. I've used them both as replacements of regular flour in things I've made and turned out very similar to using regular flour. I also make my own chicken fingers using the GF Bisquick (there is a GF chicken finger recipe on the box). We also eat a lot of rice and quinoa.

Ummm... Amazon is your friend.

https://www.amazon.com/White-Lily-All-Purpose-Flour/dp/B005QQ1KCA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FFFCUODUZHPG&keywords=lily+white+flour&qid=1572960096&sprefix=lily+w%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-1

Was this the flour?

https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Napolentana-Extra-Fine-Flour/dp/B00EJR37K0

If it was, you really want to stay away from 00 in a home oven. Save it for when you've got an oven that's capable of making Neapolitan pizza.

You can do it! And when you get even 1/4 of the way there, you'll feel like a different, healthier, more mobile person. It's amazing.

Enough motivational drivel. To your question, I'd first advise to not worry about cravings until you're through keto flu. It's hard enough to not eat carbs. Don't make it harder by trying to starve yourself as well. EAT. ENJOY SO MUCH BACON. This will not last long and will most likely reduce your lifespan less in this time than being overweight long-term will.

You will also probably have cheat days. Don't judge yourself for them. It was actually kind of eye-opening to go back and forth a bit and feel the difference in my health very tangibly.

My fave foods that I used in the beginning (and a few subsequent falls from grace) were:

Drinks:

I try to drink lots of water. Water gets really boring. Unfortunately, most of the sugar-ish drinks you find have artificial sweeteners in them. I know that these sweeteners aren't great, but I don't think they're as terrible as some folks believe. I drink them anyway, but I try to minimize my intake.

• SodaStream - This bastard is indispensible for me. I use it all the time, but I love drinking plain seltzer. You can also add...
  
  
• Sugar Free Syrup or Sugar Free Lemonade - When I do get a bad craving for a sweet drink, these are my favorites. You can add the lemonade powder to regular water. The soda...not so much.
  
  
• Coke Zero - Again, I try to limit these, but they're a solid replacement for Coke.
  
  
• Coffee & Tea - It's coffee tea. By this point in your life, you probably know if it's your thing or not, so if you like it, drink a lot more now. Just use heavy whipping cream or half and half as a creamer, as milk has a lot of sugar. Adding stevia is...okay. I usually just drink it black.
  
  Meals & Snacks:
  
  
• FatHead Crackers/Nachos - Crikey these are good. I would eat these when not on keto. They're good alone, dipped in salsa, baked with nacho toppings (shredded chicken, black olives, guacamole). Top them with pepperoni and cheese to make little mini pizza-crackers. Or you could have...
  
  
• FatHead Pizza - This is also worthy of a crikey. The crust doesn't taste exactly like bread per se, but it's fantastic. Top however you would a pizza. Make your own sauce, as a lot of the store bought brands have too much sugar.
  
  
• Pizza Sauce - This is a simple sauce that tastes pretty good. It's fairly easy to modify ratios and tweak ingredients to match your tastes.
  
  
• Low Carb Tortillas - I generally can't taste the difference because mine are filled with delicious taco fixins.
  
  
• Cookies - Cookies. Nuff said.
  
  
• Pork rind crusted chicken nuggets - These are legit. I was doubtful of the breading, but I was pleased in the end.
  
  
• Weird, not-ramen replacement - I love ramen almost as much as I love my children. To replace it, I make this abomination. I don't really measure, but I'll give rough estimates. Also, please don't judge me.
  
  
  • Asparagus stir fry - An entire bag is 10.5 carbs. I usually eat half.
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 2T Peanut butter
    
  • 1T Soy sauce
    
  • 1 - 2T Heavy whipping cream (or more to achieve desired consistency or nutrient content)
    
  • 1/2 - 1t chicken bouillon
    
  • 1/4t - 1/2t Onion Powder - I'm guessing wildly at this amount. I just shake it a few times
    
  • 1/4t - 1/2t Garlic powder - Same as above
    
  • A few shakes of Fish sauce
    
    

1. Add frozen veggies to water and turn on stove, set eggs aside.
   
   
2. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl
   
   
3. When water boils, add eggs and poach to desired consistency (boiling for 3 min gets you soft-medium boiled consistency)
   
   
4. Carefully drain the water from the pan without busting the eggs. You don't have to get all of the water, as it can add
   
   
5. Pour veggies and eggs into the bowl and mix with the sauce.
   
   Misc:
   
   

• Bob's Red Mill - God bless Bob. He should be a patron saint of keto. He has all the flours. See below.
  
  
• Bob's almond flour, Bob's coconut flour. This is basically all you need. No Hindu crickets required. You can get fancy later when you're feeling better and want to branch out.
  
  
• Pork rinds - They're weird and taste like I imagine a football would, or...a piece of rawhide. But I use these for breading sometimes (they're surprisingly good when soaked in delicious avocado or coconut oil). I also occasionally eat these to make my craving for chips, or rather, entire appetite go away.
  
  
• Avocado - The best fruit/berry ever. They're good by themselves. You can also make delicious ice cream with them. And of course, there's guacamole for the FatHead Crackers/Nachos above.
  
  Okay. I'm tired now and have to work tomorrow. I'll try to come back and add more useful things. Good luck!
  
  Edit: Links & formatting. Also, In my tired state, I almost forgot to add fat bombs. Look up lots of recipes. It's a huge help to be able to eat delicious chocolatey, doughy things.

Yeah, I use the Uuni recipe. I come from years of oven baking pizzas, and find this simple one works the best: http://recipes.uuni.net/general/classic-pizza-dough-recipe/

A couple modifications:

• I add about 7% more water (for a total of about 320g.) I find it makes a softer, tastier dough without losing the integrity of the dough.
  
  
• I use this 00 flour. This is hands down the best 00 flour I've used, and I've tried a bunch. I wouldn't recommend 00 flour for oven baking though.
  
  
• It says to proof for 1-2 hours, but I would do a maximum of one. After two, it doesn't rise as much in the fridge.
  
  
• I also like to cold proof for 2-3 days instead of the recommended 1-2.
  
  

You can also buy powder that you just add water to if you don't have access to some of the ingrediants or are feeling lazy. Here's an example if you're way up north in canada I'm guessing there's not any ethnic grocery stores around, so the more expensive stuff online might be your only option.

If you're still interested in making Ghanaian food you could try making red red which is a stewed black eyed peas dish that goes really well with fried plantains.

Do you make seitan? When I'm bulking I make a ton of seitan and freeze it using this stuff. Pretty easy to add 50+ grams of protein a day from 50 cents worth of wheat gluten and 50 cents worth of other ingredients. And you can consume it in a single meal if you are hungry. Two servings (according to the recipe) of this is a common dinner for me with rice and a vegetable side as well.

Thanks! We had to order ours from amazon . The only difference I noticed was it was a silkier dough and less spring back when shaping. My wife said it tasted “more like a pizza from a proper pizza place” than previously. Not sure if that’s a compliment to the flour or a slap in the face to my precious pizzas...

http://www.amazon.com/Guar-Gum-Bulk-Pound-Bag/dp/B0007NC0US/ref=sr_1_7?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1419374600&sr=1-7

sorry, switched to laptop now so here's the page link without Pinterest

https://www.frugallivingnw.com/amazing-no-knead-bread-step-by-step-recipe/

Basic No-Knead Bread

Slightly adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread

Ingredients

6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 c. cool water

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
   
2. Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
   
3. Place a full sheet/large rectangle of parchment paper on a cotton towel and dust it with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the parchment paper as it rises; place dough seam side down on the parchment paper and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Pull the corners of parchment paper around the loaf, wrapping it completely. Do the same with the towel. Let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
   
4. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Unwrap the towel and parchment paper from around the dough and slide your hand under the bottom of the dough ball; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Pull the parchment paper off, scraping any stuck dough into the pan. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
   
5. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
   
6. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Well you know -- it's the starches in flour that make it so keto unfriendly. The gluten itself is actually pretty okay. You can get vital wheat gluten, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Vital-Gluten/dp/B00JSC99XU. I hear rumors that you can get a roux out of it. Maybe experiment with that, if you're a roux expert?

There are other things you can try. Guar gum, konjac powder. And if you get right down to it, regular old flour is about 6 carbs per tablespoon. That doesn't go far if you're making rolls, but for sauce, if you can't live without it . . . seems affordable to me. I don't know how much roux you make at a time; in my pre-keto days, I always did 1T butter + 1T flour + 1c milk or multiples of that as a base for cheese sauce. Swap out the milk for cream or chicken broth or something, and the flour itself seems affordable.

This is a tripled recipe of Roberta's that yields 6 rounds.

Ingredient | Weight | Notes
---|---|----
Antimo Caputo flour | 459 grams | 10-pack, Amazon
All-purpose flour | 459 grams | King Arthur
Water (65%) | 600 grams | 110°F?
Fine sea salt | 24 grams |
Yeast | 6 grams | Saf Instant Yeast
Olive Oil | 12 grams | extra virgin? maybe doesn't matter


I believe that all adds up to 65% hydration. Roughly? I haven't gotten into what all we should counting. Let sit

I cut it up into halves, and then those halves into thirds, for a total of 6 rounds. I put 'em in plastic baggies and then the fridge.

I let it slow ferment for 24-72 hours (the rounds I use last are always the best) in the fridge. Get it out anywhere from an hour to 4 hours before you plan to put it in the oven, remove it from the bag, and reform it into a ball. Cover with saran or something, and re-rise.

It's VERY easy to get it stretched out enough, and VERY easy to get it too thin. This is something I'm still struggling with.

I'm unsure how common this is, maybe very common, but I had a great pizza in Austin and the pizza man brushed olive oil around their entire round and the edges — for my oven, that's necessary to have a decent crust. Anxious to see what happens with something that goes higher with and without oil.

I get it from amazon, usually in bulk. But I also make a ton of fresh pasta. It can be too expensive to buy individual bags https://www.amazon.com/Antimo-Caputo-Chefs-Flour-Pound/dp/B0045RE69A/ref=sr_1_9_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1495388736&sr=1-9&keywords=00+flour

Buy cake flour, then. This is what I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZOKPZE

Six 32 oz boxes for $18.

why are you looking in the city. Try amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Presto-Rising-Flour-32-Ounce-Boxes/dp/B002ZOKPZE/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1415339103&sr=1-1&keywords=presto+baking+flour

Nevermind I did it for you

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002YLG6I8/

Original recipe here

Instead of leftover oat porridge, I used leftover hot cereal that I make. It has equal parts barley, oat groats, farro, corn grits, rye berries, & red wheat berries all coarsely ground and cooked 4:1 with water & milk.

Also, I used walnuts instead of almonds and omitted the oil.

For the 85% extraction flour, I used this and am very happy with it.

Instead of 500g of 'medium strong wheat flour' I used 150 g of AP and 350 g of bread flour.

I wasn't too happy with the oven spring, but the final loaf had a great crumb. It made a surprisingly good french toast this morning too.

Heck with that, I pure pure gluten pancakes myself.

I was using the Bob's Red Mill, but ran out last week, so the ones I made tonight were using Anthony's. I have been using a Corningware Mug, but tonight I tried a new Sistema Microwave Plate -- I was hoping to cut the resulting square into four 4" x 4" bread-sized slices, but the batter came out a bit thin. Doubling the recipe would be too much.

I'm thinking I can make a "bread mix" with all the dry ingredients, so I can just pull out 1/4 cup of it with 1/4 cup of liquid and an egg, to speed up the process. Then I don't need to measure out all of the spices every time. If I drop the cheese, I may need more mix and liquid. More coconut flour might require another egg.

I've done a number "muffin-in-a-minute" recipes in the past, so I kind of winnowed them down to a generic recipe. I used to do a sweetened version using the flax meal, but they can be too much fiber. :)

This year is really my first jump into using coconut flour instead of almond flour.

I used the traditional Antimo Caputo flour. I got it from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Antimo-Caputo-Pizzeria-Flour-Repack/dp/B00EX4Y6AY/

I tried bread flour before which also seems to work reasonably well.

+azcalg:

You can also buy powder that you just add water to if you don't have access to some of the ingrediants or are feeling lazy. Here's an example if you're way up north in canada I'm guessing there's not any ethnic grocery stores around, so the more expensive stuff online might be your only option.

If you're still interested in making Ghanaian food you could try making red red which is a stewed black eyed peas dish that goes really well with fried plantains.

Just looked in Amazon for this one

100% lupin flour
Many of the reviews say about bitter taste did adding sweetner alter the taste?

Why is 00 bad to use without a commercial oven? I made a few pizzas with Caputo 00 flour and they turned out perfectly tasty? Compared to pizzas I made with KABF, they seemed less 'gummy' as I recall.

I did add diastatic malt to the dough when I made with 00 flour though, as recommended here.

I get mine at Whole Foods, and the same stuff is on Amazon.

I actually prefer bread flour, though, which is definitely easier to find.

For eggs, I usually use the same number the instruction call for, then add water until the dough is right.

Cheers. I got on the chaffle train recently and I do love them. Great alternative but sometimes you just want bread and this is it.

Two Main Ingredients:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0079OPFO6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BRFLR7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They also make an all-purpose flour without leaveners in it. Here’s an Amazon link. I hope this helps you make some delicious biscuits.

There are no bakeries where I am in the uk that stock the Caputo flour I use for my neapolitans, so I get it on amazon. I think it's gluten is around 10-11%. I was always annoyed why my pizzas didn't come out malleable and stuff like on youtube or whatever, but i use the serious eats no-knead dough recipe and cold prove for 4-5 days and it works flawlessly.

One of the things that has been hardest for my wife is good pizza. There’s a lot of GF options, but many of them are pretty crap. She actually likes the GF pizza from Blaze, if there’s one near you.

If you manage to find GF Ravioli let me know, I still haven’t found any.

For cooking at home, I’ve gotten to the point where I swear by this flour. I use it just like normal flower in any recipe and it has cooked normally. Many of the other GF flowers require you to modify ratios to cook right, but this stuff has been great... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CHUWQA?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Like I said, you're not going to replicate it perfectly. You're right about getting them thin though, that part is certainly going to be significantly tougher. Maybe something like this
http://www.amazon.com/Foods-Gluten-Flour-Pure-Ounce/dp/B001EO685M

might actually help. I haven't experimented with it myself yet but you might be able to use it as an additive to give flax seed or almond flour dough a little more strength and elasticity.

Everyone seems to be missing the important point here... 300kg of guar gum and gel up a BIG pool. Given that you can buy the stuff at Amazon in 50lb bags ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007NC0US?ie=UTF8&tag=steampunk0b-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0007NC0US ), this should make for an interesting summer for our friends with backyard-sized pools.