What flours you can and cannot use on a keto, low-carb, way of eating can be a real mine-field. This article will take you through everything you need to know, what flours you can eat and the best value places to buy these. Read on for Keto Fours explained – finally!
When moving onto a keto or low-carb way of eating, knowing what you can and can not eat is one of the most difficult things to get your head around.
Keto flours are no different.
Nobody wants to miss out on their favourite sweet treats, bread or pastry whilst living a keto lifestyle. However, understanding what flours you can and cannot use can become confusing. Don’t worry though, this article will take you through which flours are and are not keto-friendly, as well as where to buy the best value products.
This will save you the money I have wasted trying out most that are on the market! Read on for everything you need to know!
How many carbs are there in ‘normal’ flour?
When you consider that 1 cup (95 grams) of all-purpose flour contains nearly 76 grams of carbs, it’s easy to see why you’d need to seek out lower-carb baking products. By using low-carb flours, you can get all the benefits of the ketogenic diet while occasionally indulging in your favourite keto dessert foods.
As discussed before in my beginner’s guide to keto foods such as flour are high in starch which is rapidly turned to glucose (sugar) in the blood, this leads to ‘sugar highs’ followed by ‘sugar crashes’.
It is this cycle that leads us to wanting more sugar in our diets. It is this cycle that keto tries to break, instead of encouraging our bodies to burn fats by reducing our sugar intake.
What are keto flours made of?
Most Keto-friendly flours are made from nuts. This is due to nuts being naturally low in carbs. This is good news for anybody following a keto lifestyle as you can still enjoy all of your favourite desserts whilst making them keto and low-carb friendly.
What are the best keto / low-carb flours?
Almond flour
The most popular and keto flour by far is almond flour. In a 100g of almond flour contains 14g of fat, 6g of protein and only 5g of carbs making it a good flour substitutes for a Keto lifestyle.
Almonds are rich in vitamin E, and I followed antioxidants as well as magnesium all of which are vital to many processes within your body including improved blood sugar control and lowering blood pressure.
Almond flour is made from finely ground the almond, with their skins removed. In the UK almond flour can be found in most supermarkets. However, I have found that it can be quite expensive within the supermarkets and it can be found cheaper online especially but when bought in bulk.
Where to buy almond flour in the UK?
If you are shopping in the supermarket I have found that Aldi sells a reasonably priced almond flour.
It is in the home baking section (normally near the eggs) and it is priced around £1.25 for 150g, this is one of the cheapest I have found on the high street.
Occasionally there will be offers on in the main supermarket chains on Whitworths ground almonds. At the normal price, these are normally quite expensive, however, occasionally they will go on offer at three for £3.00, this is the perfect time to clear out the shelves and stock up your store cupboard!
The cheapest places to buy almond flour online in the UK
If you don’t have time to wait for offers in the supermarket, these RealFoodSource almond flours are the best I have found on the Internet. They can be bought in 1, 2, 4 or 5 KG bags and are a lot cheaper than buying in the supermarket.
Nut-free flour = Coconut Flour!
If you are allergic to nuts, or just don’t like almond flour; coconut flour is for you!
Coconut flour is, in my opinion, the healthiest low-carb flour alternative and.
Coconut flour is made from the dehydrated coconut meat after most of its fat has been extracted to produce coconut oil. Each 1/4 cup of coconut flour contains 120 calories, 3g of fat, 4g of protein, 16g of carbohydrates, 10g of fibre, and 6g of net carbs.
Due to its high fibre content, this low-carb flour is perfect for anyone who needs a digestive health boost.
Just like in the case of almond flour and almond meal, coconut flour cannot be directly substituted in your old, pre keto recipes. In fact, coconut flour is a different beast altogether from nut flours because it soaks up liquids and moisture like a sponge.
Other Nut Flours
You can grind almost any nut to obtain a flour-like consistency and use it to reduce the carb content of your recipes. Walnut meal, for example, can be used in many recipes that call for almond flour. Other nut flours that you can experiment with are hazelnut meal, pecan meal, macadamia nut meal (I haven’t found this yet in the UK so blits up my own in the food processor), tiger nut meal and pistachio meal (again, not yet available in the UK as far as I can find, so I blitz up my own!). Each one will provide your baked goods with a unique flavour; so choose wisely.
‘Meal’ just means ‘ground’ – ‘meal’ is more of an American term and can be confusing if you’re looking for it in UK stores.
An important caveat, however, is that it is much harder to find recipes using these nut flours. For this reason, you’ll have to go through a lot of trial and error to find out which nut meal works best for the food that you are preparing.
Measuring your Keto Flours
A lot of keto or low-carb recipes are American in origin, as such a lot of their measurements are in cups as opposed to grams. Rather than spending hours converting cups into grams, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and error by buying a set of cups.
Seed Flours
An alternative to nut or coconut flours on a keto, low-carb way of living are seed flours.
Flaxseed Meal / Flaxseed / Linseed
Flax meal is also known as ground flax, ground flaxseeds, or linseed / milled linseed. In the UK, it will often be referred to as linseed. Flax/linseed is very nutritious, providing a good source of vitamin B1, Copper, ALA, amongst others!
In every two tablespoons, ground flaxseed you will find; 70 calories, 5.5 grams fat, 3.5 grams fibre, 2.5 grams protein, and 0.5 grams net carbs. Its low carb content makes it an excellent choice if you are living a keto lifestyle,
Flax meal is perfect for keto-friendly baking; making keto-friendly bread, cake, cookies, muffins and any other sweet or savoury treat you can think of! Flaxseed can also be used to replace eggs in keto baking, which is great if you are vegan, or if you’re like me and forget to buy eggs!!
How do I substitute wheat flour for keto flours?
Replacing high carb flours like all-purpose flour, wheat flour, cornflour, and rice flour with low-carb flour is not as simple as just using one for the other.
Due to the difference in composition between high-carb and low-carb flours, you will need to use different amounts of low-carb flour together with other essential ingredients that you don’t typically find in traditional baking recipes like psyllium husk, xanthan gum, and protein powder.
For this reason, it is best to learn how to use low-carb flours by following the recipes that you’ll find throughout this article. By doing so, you’ll be able to get a feel for how you can keto-fy your own high-carb favourites by using keto flours rather than carb-dense flours.
Storing your keto flour favourites
Storing your keto fours and baking ingredients is no different from any other flours, sugars etc. Ensure that your keto flours are stored in a cool dry cupboard in airtight containers. I love these Kilner jars; my cupboard is full of them in all different shapes and sizes – but each to their own!
?Let me see your keto kitchen cupboard organisation hacks below for inspiration. ?
What Four is Keto Friendly? Summary
Wow, we’ve been through a lot here, and if you are still reading, good on you! It shows you must be really dedicated to living a keto or low-carb lifestyle.
In summary, the most common keto flour substituations are;
Almond Flour
Coconut Flour
Walnut meal / Ground Walnuts / Walnut Flour
Hazelnut meal / Ground Hazlenuts / Hazlenut Flour
Pecan meal / Ground Pecans / Pecan Flour
Macadamia nut meal / Ground Macadamia / Macadamia Flour
Tiger nut meal / Ground Tiger Nut / Tiger Nut Flour
Pistachio meal / Ground Pistachio / Pistachio Flour
Flaxseed Meal / Flaxseed / Linseed
Conclusion
There you have it, our ultimate guide to flours on a keto diet. You know the best flours for nut lovers and those with allergies. Our best advice is to have a go and see which you like, just don’t buy in bulk until you know!
