<Insert long winded food-porn addiction story here>
A NSFK (Not Safe For Keto) recipe. But certainly for CKD carb refeeds.
“Rich” or “Poor” – if you think cooking perfect rice is hard, brace yourself. This is by far the most difficult recipes as it took me almost four (4) whole weeks accounting for various tests & failures amidst refeed days. But after all that hair loss and cortisol spikes? This is something you’ll take home as real culinary skills.
Ingredients & Pricing
“Bread”; throughout history shared many fascinating parallels to Beer making. Hint: both relied on the concept of Fermentation. Fast forward today thankfully, we can subside the need for yeast. And save ourselves additional $2.5 for our humble eggs, or up to 4 sardines cans instead.
- Plain flour / Self-Raising Flour. 1$ AUD for 1KG. 2 cups required = 300 grams. (approx 33c used up). But put 280 grams into the measuring cup. Why 280 grams instead of full 2 cups? I’ll explain why later on.
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of sodium bicarb and 1 tsp of cream of tartar. $1.60 for 500g for the Baking soda and $3.50 for the cream of tartar. (approx $0.02 used up). Or you could buy the self raising flour instead.
- 150ML of water. You will be adding bit more water later.
- 10ML of oil or calorie equivalent source of fat. Liquid. (500ML EVOO as $4 or if you are okay with PUFA – table spread as $1.5 for 500g). Alternatively – generous spray of non-gmo canola suffice ($3).
You WILL need to use bit more (sprinkle/pinch amounts) flour as collateral for stabilising the dough. This is unavoidable. But each batch creates five servings.
Technically speaking, it costs $4 total as Initial Recipe Investment. But with at least a 1kg self raising flour alone at ONE $ – makes up to THREE batches of five. 15 breads total. Between 30 to 35 cents per batch.
Compare that to getting $1 for five premade flatbreads. Salt, fats for Keto days, baking soda should already be something everyone should have in their pantry, regardless.
Execution.
1/7. Combine the 150ML water, 10ml of olive oil, 1tsp of baking soda with 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar (if you have it), 1 tsp of himalayan salt and half of the amount of flour. If you’re using self raising flower, you may skip the baking soda and cream of tartar.
2/7. Use a fork or spatula to gently mix together the first 30 seconds of mixing. DO NOT USE YOUR HANDS at this point. I can almost guarantee stickiness galore. Expect to form nothing but “mud” at this stage.
3/7. Approx 1 minute later – start adding in more flour off the cup. Continue mixing. As the dough somewhat begins to take shape, you may now use your hands to work it further. “Pat, clump, massage, form a ball” – with as bit of extra flour on your hands and on the dough. Your hands MUST BE ONLY mildly dry. Never fully wet. If anything separates, add only a tiny bit of water. The key here is to work “fast”. That is – pat, clump, massage, pinch in bit of extra flour and repeat until you arrive to a more stable “motherdough”.
Imagine you are building “layers” of light coating of additional flours to stabilise the wet dough. That’s essentially what we’re doing. Your hands should always remain relatively dry with some flours embedded to keep things away from excess sticking.
4/7. Let everything sit for at least 30 minutes. The warmer the climate, the sooner you can proceed to the next step.
5/7. Split the mother dough into 5 smaller ones. And re-stabilise each of them. Once again via “pat, clump, and massage” with extra bit of flour on your hands.
6/7. Prepare a work area with small pinch of flour. Continue merging and rolling around the flour’ed area. Just before you get a rolling pin and roll – sprinkle a bit of extra flour on the dough to prevent sticking. Flip over and repeat on the other side. Technically speaking, you could use your own dry, floured fists/palms instead of the pin this will create more of a “bun” than a “wrap”. NOTE: the picture above is made at a much smaller size (1 cup of flour used for the Motherdough instead of 2); obviously yours will be much bigger.
7/7. Now, there are two methods for cooking this.
- At a preheated oven @ 200 degrees celcius (aka. burning hot). No additional oils required. No more than 9 minutes. No need to flip over.
- Or a preheated (VERY hot) frying pan. No additional oil required. No more than one minute each side. I recommend NEVER TO USE STAINLESS STEEL; as some charcoaling will surface, and it’s a **cking nightmare to clean.
Once you see browning. It’s ready to eat. I recommend to not store in the fridge. Just cover in cookie sheet.
World Peace.
Servings & Macros
100g of flour = equate to 69g of carbs. So having used 2 cups (300g), with 10ml worth oil amount we have:
Five breads as yield. 220 calories each. 41 grams of carbs. 2g of fat. 6g of protein.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 5.0 | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 221 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 3 g | 4 % |
| Saturated Fat 0 g | 2 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 1 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | 0 % |
| Sodium 448 mg | 19 % |
| Potassium 0 mg | 0 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 42 g | 14 % |
| Dietary Fiber 2 g | 7 % |
| Sugars 2 g | |
| Protein 6 g | 12 % |
1/5 “I am finding this very difficult!”
You are making bread as authentic you can without handicaps, risers, baking aids, etc. Of course it’s hard. Don’t expect things to “fluff” or rise. Try the alternative “soda bread” below.
- 150g of flour (put in only 125g in the measuring cup, use the 25g as collateral).
- 75ML of milk (light or full fat). I have done this also with just plain water = and it does work.
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of baking soda
This recipe do not need any waiting periods. Mix, clump, pat with bit of extra flour on your hands and roll once it’s reasonably stable. Use the hot pan method. No extra oil required. Less than one minute then flip over.
Makes 4 serves. 139 calories each (28 carbs, 1g fat). My experience tells me that the milk helps curdle and stabilise the dough, but still you still need to practise the “clump, pat, and massage” with a bit of extra collateral flour on your hands. Taste wise? Still okay. It may take several experiments however, with the various baking soda amount. As it may seep into the bread easily. Another way/s to experiment is to combine with ACV or with bit of oil to help “even” the palate out.
2/5 “Why should I put in only 80-90% of the flour recipe in the cup?”
One reason – to strictly minimise waste of additional flours as collateral. In order for you to witness the savings, you MUST be precise. I believe 90% of all recipes’ flour requirements are flawed. They don’t take into account the numerous additional flours needed to keep the dough stable. To prepare the work “surface”. Not to mention also, for any “finishing touches” – a “pinch” could be interpreted anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon more required.
Someone who lives on <$30 per week CKD+IF budget paints a very different picture against someone whose job is breadmaking next to 20kg+ barrels of flour to use.
Everytime you wash your hands off all sticked mud – well done. You’ve just wasted up to 10 to 20% more flours down the drain. A solution to all this? Use a spatula in the beginning stages of mixing.
3/5 “I still cannot **cking get the dough together.”
Let the early dough (done on step #4) on its own for at least 20 minutes. Also, before you’re about to roll with the pin, pinch in bit of extra flour on the dough to minimise chance of sticking.
If the “pat, clump, massage” with flour’ed hands technique does not work consider the “slap” and “fold” technique. Get a board, sprinkle just a small pinch of flour. Take the dough out, slam it on the work surface while patting in with bit of extra flour. Fold, grab then “slap” again onto the surface. Repeat about a dozen times.
The aim here is to trap the air inside the dough. The additional pinch of flour is there to further helps a more stable dough.
4/5 “How long should I actually wait for the dough to settle?”
30 minutes. Although One hour+ would be ideal for a more firm dough.
To give you peace of mind, I’ve patiently let one dough sitting at three (3) time points. See images above. The dough is sitting ontop of lightly sprayed cookie tray. One at 30 minutes. Then four & half hours. Then overnight totalling to 16+ hours. Result? The stickiness pretty much stays constant from 1 hour onwards. There is no need to wait any further than this.
Sadly, there was no rise whatsoever. This is perhaps due to not using yeast at all. A separate experiment with yoghurt and bit of sauerkraut juice for acidity likewise – didn’t rise the dough at all.
How sticky / elastic should it be? See shots below. No change to elasticity or stickiness what so ever whether waiting 4 hours or 16+ hours. This is as stable as it gets. Once achieved, proceed to the rest of the steps (split into 5 smaller doughs, prep another work surface with bit more flour, roll, and cook).
5/5 “I don’t believe you. You’re a bot. Show me your failures!”
Below is one “example” (of many failed attempts on refeed days) – using half yoghurt’s whey liquids + two month+ old sauerkraut juice, and 9g of cheap PUFA based spread. I’m using 145-150g flour, cream of tartar + baking soda, 1 tsp him salt, 75-100ML of liquids (including water). It remains so sticky during the doughing process. Despite waiting anywhere between two to five hours for “proofing” – it did not rise at all. Though it does very well at raising my ACTH.
Baked in the oven 200 degrees for about 10-12 minutes “bricked” it enough. Interestingly nonetheless it’s somewhere between a “compressed” loaf and a brick. Feast your eyes on nihilism porn.
Love of labour….and deserved results.
You might think all this is a “waste” then. It doesn’t rise. It doesn’t fluff. Not entirely. The two images below showed my early attempts using 2.5 (yes two and half) years expired wholemeal flour. As proof – image on bottom right showed my Pentax® K-01 sitting next to the packaging. With this bread I used the Oven method @ 200 degrees. Turned out to be a hybrid of “biscuit-bread” variety. Crispy and still edible.
Nevertheless, the anxiety and struggle to just keep the dough stable is a real grind in the back. Makes you think twice how much effort done behind each loaf…..And how easy it is to gorge during your refeed hours before another 5 days of hypocaloric fasting begin. Failures will haunt you. But this presents yet another opportunity of turning waste into soil. Bury it in the backyard. Then let Ecological Martyrdom do the rest.
Regardless it’s an experience worth learning. This is after all, a bread Authentically made without any handicaps.
Humility and Authenticity is never easy. It “is”; only if one has become hardened through practise.