From Pastry to Keto: Learning to Taste with My Eyes
In the height of the pandemic circa 2020 to early 2021, I became obsessed with baking and pastry. The precision and technical skills required became a powerful outlet that helped to ease my covid stress and restlessness. It also brought me closer to my French side, pâtisserie perhaps serving as a replacement to my dashed 2020 plans to travel to France. From making my own galette des rois to trying countless macarons recipes, I was determined to create that which had previously daunted me. Enter stage left the decision to go on a keto diet starting in April 2021…
Like many of us, I had put on some weight during quarantine, and the shift to working from home wasn’t helping. While I had lost weight in the past through exercise and a chickpea-rich diet, that didn’t seem to be cutting it this time, and I decided that something had to give. In April, I signed up for a weight-loss program that would help me to determine what my goal weight should be and give me the food parameters I needed to get there. Similar to keto, the diet is low -carb—goodbye starches, grains, and sugar, and with limited fruits and vegetables—and hello protein. Unlike keto, it’s also relatively low-fat. But hey, at least I can still eat butter.
The diet worked. It did however put a bit of a damper on baking. I made macarons and palets bretons a couple of times during the first few months, but not being able to taste as I went and not eating the final product made for a disappointing experience. I think my friends and family might be tired of me asking what the texture is like and whether they can tell the difference from the last batch I made…
On the savory side of things, this “clean keto” diet isn’t so bad. I’ve enjoyed learning to make fried cauliflower florets, cauliflower-crusted quiche, and well… cauliflower things. It’s also been interesting to expand my horizons when going out to eat, especially in Italian restaurants. Who knew they served things other than pasta.
But the desserts. I can deal with eating keto chocolate bars and keto ice cream and that’s about it. Something about the taste of sweeteners in other desserts makes my mouth cold, like drinking water after chewing spearmint gum. Not exactly the flavor profile I’m going for when baking. So I gave up making desserts and have been sticking to the keto chocolate and ice cream as my occasional pick-me-ups.
Six months into the diet and fresh from a trip to Paris and Rome, the pastry (and travel) bug is back. Seeing the beautifully presented cakes and entremets rekindled the pâtisserie obsession I’d repressed. But this time, with more of a focus on artistic skills and tasting with the eyes. Because eye candy is as close as I’m going to get to sweets for a while. And that’s ok.
