Sunday 27 April 2014

Keto Oreos!

I set myself this challenge a few days back and today am ready to share what I came up with.
There's a fair bit of work involved, but I'm really pleased with  the results and would take one of these over a real Oreo any day. Seriously.
Also, I use the Cadbury's Bournville Cocoa Powder as it seems to have about 1/2 the carb content of the others I've seen so far (just 10g per 100g).

   

Ingredients - Biscuit

  • 3/4 Cup Ground Almonds 
  • 2 Tbsp Cocoa Butter
  • 1.5 Tbsp Truvia
  • 4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Egg White

 

Ingredients - Filling


  • 150ml Coconut Cream 
  • 1 Tbsp Truvia
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2 Tsp Xanthan Gum

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 F).

First, the filling: Mix all filling ingredients apart from the Xanthan Gum, using an electric hand mixer on the slowest setting, then begin adding in the Xanthan Gum until a toothpaste-like consistency is achieved.
Place the result in the fridge.

Next, evenly mix all dry biscuit ingredients in a mixing bowl. Completely melt the Cocoa Butter (I used a ramekin and a microwave for around a minute), and add it to the mixture along with the Vanilla and Egg White. Press the mixture together with your hands, or a large spoon, until you end up with something which moves a bit like fudge, and looks like Oreo biscuit dough.
Spoon out the dough onto a sheet of baking paper, cover with another sheet of baking paper, and roll out to about 0.5 cm.

Now the hard part, take your time here...
Use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough out into circles, carefully moving them onto a third sheet of baking paper on top of an oven-able flat thing, like a metal baking sheet.
It's difficult, because the dough really doesn't want to hold together. It sometimes flakes, sticks a bit, and generally refuses to cooperate.

Once you've got all the circles you can, recombine the remnants into one lump, repeat the rolling out process and start again; I managed to get about 12 circles in total.
Now carefully place the baking sheet with paper and circles on into the oven, and cook for about 8 minutes.

Once the time's up, pull the circles out of the oven, carefully remove the baking sheet from underneath the paper to help them cool faster and WAIT. They will be squidgy, they will want to break. Have faith and patience and leave them alone for about 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, they will be slightly more amenable to handling, though still quite brittle. Use a spatula to, again carefully, move them onto something like a plate and stick them in the fridge for a good 30 minutes at least.

Almost done now, I promise ;) . They should be reasonably solid and biscuit-like. (If they aren't, leave them longer in the fridge). Begin sandwiching blobs of filling between the biscuits until you have around 6 'Oreos'. Back in the fridge, and half an hour later they'll be perfect.

Phew, got there in the end, eh?

I ended up with a surplus of filling, but it's pretty versatile stuff; you don't need a huge imagination to figure out where else you can put it - Berries, cheesecake, some kind of muffin. You could also just eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon; I would recommend this approach :) .

Again suggestions, insults, comments welcome below.

Monday 21 April 2014

Lemon Keto Muffins

Easter - Urgh

My family likes to celebrate easter with chocolate and, taking my standard approach to such things, I ate a lot of chocolate. Far too much chocolate. After at least two big lindt chocolate bunnies and countless eggs, mini-eggs, cakes and other things, I ended up not only crashing, but feverish. My girlfriend seemed genuinely concerned at one point as I crawled into bed, barely able to even speak.

Now, I'm not going to launch into an onslaught against sugar, citing this experience as proof that it should be eliminated; this was not a normal amount of sugar by standard-western-diet numbers - this was hundreds of grams of simple sugar over the space of a couple of hours.

New Job

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been getting to grips with my new job in a neighbouring city. I don't drive, so the only way to get there is by two hours of train and two hours of walking every day.
It's working out; the job is good, and I've even been able to retain some kind of social life. Keto has made this possible, as it requires I get by on between 4 and 6 hours of sleep per night - something I can't do on a standard diet whilst still being functional throughout the day.

Before long, I'll be able to move to the city and end this 04:40-to-? waking schedule, giving me more time to focus on training and enjoying myself.

Recipe - Lemon Keto Muffins

So back on the keto train I go; I'm feeling better already after a couple of these:














This recipe originally made 5 muffins.

Filling

  • 150ml Double Cream
  • 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
  • 2 tbsp Truvia/Erythritol
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 tsp Lemon Extract
  • 1 tsp Yellow Food Colouring
Mix everything together except for the xanthan gum, with a hand mixer.
Add in the xanthan gum very slowly, stopping when the mixture starts to form stiff peaks, a bit like toothpaste. 1/4 tsp may be too much, stop when the consistency is correct.
Put it in the fridge.

Muffin Part

  • 1 Cup Ground Almonds
  • 1 Tbsp Unflavoured Whey Protein
  • 1 Tbsp Flax Meal
  • 1 Tbsp Truvia/Erythritol
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla extract
  • 3 Tbsp Unsweetened Almond Milk
Preheat the oven and muffin tray to 160 degrees C (320 F).
Whisk everything together except for the almond milk, adding it in slowly afterwards until a thick, yet flowing 'goop' is achieved (the kind that will run into a muffin pan, but needs some scooping to get the last out of the mixing bowl).
As with the xanthan gum, 3 tbsp of almond milk is a guide, and you may need slightly less/more.
Split the mixture evenly between the muffin tray holes (I made five).
Bake in the oven until the top is slightly browned and a knife can be stabbed through the middle of the biggest muffin and pulled out with no goop left on the blade. This took around 15 minutes in my oven.
Pull the tray out of the oven, cut into halves and leave to cool on a wire rack.

After about 10 minutes, you should be able sandwich a big lump of filling between the two muffin-halves. If the filling starts to run, scrape it back into the bowl and mix it again with a tiny(TINY) bit more xanthan gum to get it thicker.

And that's it. I personally think they're better after an hour sitting in the fridge.


Suggestions or stories all welcome in the comments section.
Ciao.