As promised, I baked the second version of keto "baguettes." In terms of texture, this was a lot closer to the sort of bread eaten by normies, but once again, these were not true baguettes by any means. A good baguette is a lovely contrast between a shattering, crusty exterior and a smooth, soft, stretchy, gossamer interior. Not so with this batch. There was a bit of browning across the top mainly thanks to the egg wash, but no real crustiness to speak of.
The recipe I used supposedly made four loaves. I divided the dough into three since I have a threefer baguette tray. One loaf ended up with a big fold across the top that looked like the bread version of an ass crack, and that crack only became more pronounced as the bread baked. The bread did have a nice, yeasty smell to it, which was nice.
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| ass crack on the right |
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| a closer look |
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| after baking—puffed up and creeping over the side of the baguette tray |
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| three in a row |
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| three in a row, up close |
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| the neatest-looking loaf of the bunch |
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| a closeup of the ass crack |
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| what the bread looked like when taken out of the baguette tray |
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| The bread's crumb was okay. Dense-looking but light thanks to the yeast. |
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| I did get that baguette-tray effect along the bottom of the loaf. |
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| split and ready for sandwiches |
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| with mayo, salami, and Gouda cheese |
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| sammiches |
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| These sandwiches could've used something. Cornichons, maybe. |
But how did the bread taste? It was the taste that let me know this was a Keto King-derived recipe. When I first bit into the bread and started chewing, the texture was validly bready if not baguette-y, but as I continued chewing, the bread's initial sweet taste disappeared, and an unpleasant, bitter aftertaste appeared, as if I were using lupin flour (infamous for its bitter taste). I assume the inclusion of keto sweetener in the recipe was meant to counteract the bitterness. All it did was hide it for a few seconds.
This bread has a combination of almond flour, oat fiber, and flaxseed meal in it, along with vital wheat gluten. I want to try making the bread again without the flaxseed, which is my current suspect when it comes to that bitter taste. I'm going to increase the amount of almond flour and oat fiber to make up for the missing flaxseed; I don't think the problem was the vital wheat gluten. If oat-heavy bread turns out to be bitter (and too oat-y), then I'll try again but with an increased amount of flaxseed meal instead of oat fiber. If that produces a bitter taste as well, then I guess that's it for this recipe.
As things stand, I much prefer last week's soda-bread "baguette" recipe. That bread is quick and easy to make; it looks very versatile, fries up nicely, and there's no weird aftertaste. Today's bread looked and felt good, but it fell down where it counted: it didn't taste good.
Good effort anyway; nothing to be bitter about. (sorry)
ReplyDeleteThey do look good, so hopefully, you can get the taste to match the visual in the next batch.
I have to say that you are like a mad scientist in the kitchen conducting experiments to make the perfect keto recipe. I'm in awe.
If you get a big crack like that in your loaf, turn it over so that it's on the bottom--it shouldn't spread quite as much if you do that. Then again, you are making Satan's bread, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteThanks. The experiments will continue until morale improves.
Charles,
Yeah, the thought did occur to me that turning it over or pinching it shut or further rolling it out* might have been the way to go. The dough, after its first rise, was remarkably rollable (the instructions say to avoid degassing it).
The bread has so much going for it: the smell when baking, the vigorous oven spring, the authentically bready texture (bready, not baguette-y), etc. But it falls down on taste in the same way that previous Keto King and Keto King-adjacent rolls did. One or more of those alternative flours could be the problem, but I think you need something other than almond flour + vital wheat gluten to ensure the yeast can give the dough a rise.
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*I may be misusing the phrasal verb here. I don't mean "roll out" in the usual sense of "to roll flat as a preface to doing other things." I mean taking a cylinder of dough and literally rolling it gently across the work surface—not flattening it—as a way to get the dough into the proper baguette size and shape. It's like when you make gnocchi and have to "roll out" the flour/potato noodles before cutting them into tiny pillows.
Hmm. Yeah, "roll out" usually means to roll flat. I dunno. Maybe just "roll"? Usually I just call this "shaping" the loaf.
ReplyDeleteBut in general, the crack always goes on the bottom. Pinching it together can help, but if you leave the crack on top, it will probably come open again, at least at points. After all, the crack goes a long way into the bread, and pinching it together only deals with the surface.
As for finding a keto dough that will rise properly and still taste good... are you sure you've got the proper geometry for the summoning circle before you call on the dark forces for aid? Beelzebub can be finicky when it comes to things like that, so you may just be getting cursed loaves out of the oven. That would explain the bitterness, at least.
I think the dark powers prefer the soda bread from before.
ReplyDeleteThat would explain why Satan always wants scones when I invite him 'round for tea.
ReplyDeleteOl' Scratch knows what he likes.
ReplyDeleteKevin, I think you would enjoy taking some food science classes. I have a friend who was a food science major at Univ of IL. Not that I had any desire to study that, but it was quite interesting the stuff she did.
ReplyDeleteBrian