Best Healthy Keto Croissant Recipe (Also Works for Vegans)
This buttery, flaky pastry from Austria stole the hearts of many. In my reality, croissant has always been associated with fancy European hotels and continental breakfast.
You can imagine yourself a royalty for a second as the view and the food are generally amazing. During those trips, you don’t really care if you gain a pound or two (or five). But is there a way to bring this atmosphere and related emotions to someone trying to eat clean? Is there such a thing as keto croissant?
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What to eat with croissants?
It’s not only the croissants itself is not keto, but also the things that accompany this bread.
The uncooked dough can be covering chocolate, praline, or almond paste and then bake into super sweat and super fat dessert. It can be mixed with raisins or dried apples. In the United States, we often use something sweet or savory as a topping or a filling: and it can be anything from jam to ham and cheese.
Croissant ingredients
While the recipe might differ from country to country and from cook to cook, the basics are sugar, salt, yeast, milk, eggs, flour, and butter (or even lard).
There is a lot of sugar in croissants. And also, fats play an especially important role in baking as they heavily contribute to the flavor, color, and texture.
You can find croissants that use less butter, but they tend to be specialty products (reduced calories for weight loss, etc.) So it’s not surprising that these rolls are delicious, but also extremely high in fat and calories.
Is croissant healthy?
Given that classic croissants may use different ingredients, the verdict is the same: it’s not healthy by all means. And was even included in the list of the worst breads you can eat (even for those who can’t care less about keto).
These are, in most cases, high in carbs, sugars, bad fats, and don’t really have much of the healthy nutrients and vitamins.
How many carbs in a croissant?
Let’s take this branded plain croissant from Nutrient Database by the United States Department of Agriculture. It’s made of wheat flour, water, eggs, vegetable shortening, sugar, milk, yeast. And some hardly pronounced ingredients, e.g., polyglycerol esters (that can’t be good!).
1 croissant like that (it’s small and weighs 50g) has 170 calories, 4g of proteins, 8g of fats (4.5g of “bad” saturated fats). There are also 21g of carbs in one croissant (1g is coming from fiber).
Is croissant keto-friendly?
No, the classic croissant is not keto. And you should forget about it while following a ketogenic diet (unless you are using my recipe, but more on that later). It’s high in carbs. It’s high in BAD fats and cholesterol (not all fats are created equally).
And it’s getting so popular that many fast-food chains and large manufacturers add croissants into their ranges. Those filled with super-processed and genetically modified ingredients, growing even more unhealthy and carby.
How to make a keto croissant?
The trick is to substitute all unhealthy ingredients with more keto-friendly ones.
E.g., instead of wheat flour, you can opt-in for super fine coconut or almond flour.
Instead of insulinogenic cow milk, you can turn to full-fat coconut milk, etc.
For starters, you can check my recipe below and see if you’ll find that kind of croissant tempting.
Keto croissant recipe
Almond flour croissant
These healthy vegan keto croissants are fluffy, satisfying, and absolutely gorgeous
Notes
1 keto croissant will have 3.4g of net carbs and 168 calories. Much better.
You can cut it and fill it with my favorite vegan cottage cheese (also keto, of course) or keto-friendly whipped cream.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups of fine almond flour (it has to be fine!)
- 4 tbsp of think refrigerated coconut cream
- 1 tsp of coconut/olive oil for greasing
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1/8 tsp of onion powder
- 1/8 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp of Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp of flax meal
- 4 tbsp of lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast for a cheesy taste
- pink Himalayan salt to taste
Instructions
- 1. Mix together the flax meal and 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl and put aside to set for a few minutes.
- 2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.
- 3. Add the flax egg from step one and keep squishing the batter together.
- 4. Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to lower the stickiness.
- 5. Get the dough out and roll it at about 1/8 of an inch thick between parchment paper. Then cut it into 5 triangles.
- 6. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and grease the baking sheet with your favorite oil (coconut or oil will do).
- 7. Start rolling the triangles up from the longer end, so shorter will end up on the top.
- 7. Bake your croissants for up to 15 minutes or until slightly golden!
Nutrition Facts
Almond flour croissant | Recipe card
Serves: 5
Amount Per Serving: 1 croissant
|
||
---|---|---|
Calories | 168 | |
% Daily Value* | ||
Total Fat 13.2g | 20% | |
Saturated Fat 1g | 5% | |
Trans Fat 0g | ||
Cholesterol 0mg | 0 | |
Sodium 11mg | 0.5% | |
Total Carbohydrate 6.7g | 2% | |
Dietary Fiber 3.3g | 12% | |
Sugars 0.1g | ||
Protein 6g |
Vitamin A 0mg | Vitamin C 0mg | |
Calcium 46mg | Iron 0mg |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Vegan Keto Diet Recipes and Tips
Thanks for the graphics: Canva.com
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