Keto King bread recipe - shared tips

I know this isn't the first time this has been mentioned on here, but I've been cooking this for a while and doing a little bit of experimentation. Some things work and others don't. I thought it might be interesting to share, and learn from each other's successes and failures.

The recipe makes too large a loaf in my 2lb bread maker. It rises until it touches the glass lid, and then that bit shrinks and collapses later in baking. I've thought about reducing the ingredients, but what I've ended up doing is using the bread maker to make dough, transferring it to two lightly (butter) greased bread tins, giving it an hour to rise, and finishing it off (Gas Mark 6 - Google for degrees C or F) for 30 minutes in a pre-heated oven or 35 minutes from cold.

What I'm finding when doing that, though, is it doesn't seem to rise as much as it would in the bread maker. However the oven baked bread has a much nicer, browner crust, and doesn't have the big hole in the bottom from the kneading blade.

It isn't cheap. Ingredients are costing me £3.50 per dough batch, which is either one large loaf or two smaller ones, though still less than half the price of much the same recipe commercially pre-made. I'd ideally like a way to bulk it up a bit, without increasing the more expensive ingredients (the oat fibre, vital wheat gluten and flaxseed meal.) The obvious thing is to try to get some more activity out of the yeast, but adding 50% more yeast and doubling the honey doesn't seem to make any difference in the resulting loaf size. Neither does covering it with cling film and putting it in a pre-warmed (to about 40C) but turned off oven for the rise time.

Maybe there are some cheaper ingredient substitutions as well. I have discovered that flaxseed meal can be bought cheaper as linseed meal, for example. I've also got a big tub of psyllium husks here, that I bought for a different bread recipe, before discovering this one, that didn't need about 18 egg whites. Maybe I can partly or fully substitute that for one of the other ingredients.

One tip I'd highly recommend is to create several batches of dry bread mix (the oat fibre, flaxseed meal, vital wheat gluten, powdered sweetener and xantham gum) and store them in sealed bags or jars. This is by far the messiest part of the exercise, and whether you do it once or ten times, it results in much the same clean-up work. It also means that making the dough or bread is literally water and eggs into the bottom of the bread maker, dough mix on top, salt, honey and butter around the edges, and yeast in the middle. This is totally mess free, apart from the washing up.

ZedZeeZet said:

Been playing with this recipe for nearly a year. I don't use flax/ linseed as I prefer white chia seeds, no idea if its cheaper or not. The oat fibre isn't really essential can use any old 'flour' (coconut/ almond /protein powder) in its place if you need to, Think he uses oat fibre as it has zero carbs but even with something with a few carbs spread over the whole loaf it doesn't come to much per slice. You can ditch it all together and add another 10 grams of WG and 10 grams of butter and it still rises nicely. Never used the xantham gum or anything else doesn't seem to need it. iherb had oat fibre on a discount a little while ago with free postage so bought 7 bags of the stuff. I currently only use 20 grams of it and a bit of extra butter as it seems to help with the texture.
As for the loaf rising too much, If I use the quick two hour mode in the bread machine it does the same as yours rises way too high but doesn't on a standard four hour mix and bake. Maybe it has something to do with not being knocked back as much on the two hour setting. Having said that I don't bake it the bread machine anymore just use the machine to knead the dough and proof it. I bake it at 190 c for 35 to 40 minutes as I find it makes the crust crisper and less chewy.
If you want to make rolls let the bread machine knead and proof then follow this technique https://youtu.be/jWWg8iJKbCQ?t=256 Works a treat. I make 6 to 8 rolls depending on how large and hence carby I want them and sprinkle sesame seeds on them before they are baked.
You can also use this dough to make pizza bases but I must say its a bit of a game rolling it as it is so 'stretchy' before it's cooked.

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Wow! That was more than I'd hoped for. Thank you.

Rolls are definitely on the agenda. Having had proper bacon butties with the stuff, I want a proper burger on a bun, next.

I've only used the Dough and Basic White settings on mine. The latter being a 3 hour cycle. The machine does have French and Wholemeal cycles which I think add another 30 to 40 minutes to this, so maybe I should give one of those a go. If I can figure out when it stops using the kneading blade, I may fish it out before the baking cycle starts, and try another loaf done completely in the machine. I've seen a few people say the xantham gum isn't really necessary, but as one of the cheapest ingredients, I've kept putting it in, for now.

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, the core bread texture is basically the eggs, water and wheat gluten, with the yeast and honey as the rising agent. Most of the other ingredients are basically flavour/colour. That leaves plenty of room to experiment. Back when I used to make regular bread with it, I tended to do fruity ones. I suppose that's also an option as long as I don't go for overly sugary fruit.

Resurgam said:

You don't need honey or eggs as far as I can see.
Psyllium husk is fibre, so that can sub for the oat fibre. It might need grinding if it is the husk rather than flour.
Yeast can become less effective with age - do you keep it in the top part of the fridge (so there is no danger of it freezing) and just how old is it?
I used to work for Allied Lyons and they did various bread mixes, I did a bit of work on them but all they wanted to know was is it cheaper to produce than the original.
Yeast to use in bread machines is not the same as the everyday sort, Lyons used STIM yeast, which had all sorts added to it for a fast rise. It did not need sugar as it had an enzyme to break down the starch.
You might need a small amount of sugar in the mix, but ordinary sucrose is just fine.

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The yeast was bought about a month ago. I haven't been keeping it in the fridge up to now, since the packet just says to keep it below 25C. It's now inside the fridge door, so that's another handy tip learned here. Thanks. It is the exact yeast from the bread maker version of this recipe, though I do wonder whether that's the right yeast for a bread where I'm mixing the dough in the bread maker but baking in the oven.

The honey is the sugar in this particular recipe. I'm not sure why they don't just put sugar in. Perhaps it's purely because it seems counter-intuitive to put actual powered sugar into a low carb recipe.

I'll open the psyllium husk and see what consistency it is. I might just give it a go anyway. Though I have 5 bread mixes to bake yet before I need to make more.

pdmjoker said:

This bread recipe looks v interesting, and appeals to me far more than the Keto King one:

Ingredients:

1 Cup Almond Flour
2 TBSP Psyllium Husk Powder
⅓ Cup Coconut Flour
¼ Cup Golden Flax Meal
1 TSP Cream Of Tartar
1 TSP Baking Soda
½ TSP Salt
1 TSP Dry Active Yeast (for flavor)
1 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Egg Whites
1 Egg
1 Cup Warm Water
1 TSP Olive Oil

Servings: 5
Macros Per Serving (about 2 slices):
Calories: 263
Fat: 18g
Protein: 12g
Net Carbs: 4g
Total Carbs: 14g
Fiber: 10g
​

Anyone tried it?

Edit: The simplicity of ingredients is why it appeals to me, although it might not be as nice...

​

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It's the egg whites in most keto bread recipes that spoil them for me. I don't like waste, so what am I supposed to do with the yolks?

Then again if, even discarding the yolks, I can come up with a decent bread on a lighter budget, it might be worth a shot. Lots of keto bread recipes seem to use a ridiculous number of egg whites. At least this one only uses 3.

I'm guessing this uses the baking soda rather than the yeast and honey/sugar to achieve the aeration and 'rise.'

@ZedZeeZet I tried a full baking cycle in the machine last night, but on Wholemeal rather than Basic White. It adds 40 or 50 minutes to the cycle time, but it produced a perfectly proportioned loaf. I'm having a slice with some Marmite peanut butter on it, right now.

I just need to find the right timing to take the kneading blade out, and I think it'll be the perfect method for me. Obviously I can still make dough and use the oven when I want different shapes.

ZedZeeZet said:

If your machine is anything like mine, Panasonic something, the baking time is 30 or 35 minutes depending on the crust setting and the last gentle knead is about 15 minutes before that so you could probably take the paddle out then. Must admit it doesn't bother me about the hole left because of the paddle though it did slightly when I first started baking. One of the reasons I now bake it in the oven is I can get a longer loaf and thus able to cut it into more slices.

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It's a bit hit and miss with the blade. I've had times where it's come away with the loaf, so it's a matter of delicately cutting a small circle in the bottom of the loaf and then gently prizing out the blade, causing minimal damage. I've had other times where it's stuck to the spindle, and I've had to bang away at the baking tin, until most of the loaf has finally come free, but with a clump still stuck to the paddle. It's that second scenario that I'm really trying to avoid. Maybe I just need to remember to grease the spindle.