Cookbook for Starting 2023 the Keto Way

I am not a keto fan. I have never had a keto chocolate or chocolate related item that was good. They've all just wasted perfectly good cocoa powder or chocolate by overpowering them with alternative sweeteners or even artificial ones. I've made a decision that I will no longer be accepting such products to review here on The Chocolate Cult. I still have to get the products I was sent to review out of the way, so let's begin with one that those of you who want to try a keto lifestyle as 2023 begins may find useful. Lolita Carrico's Keto Carbs Cookbook for Beginners has not only recipes but a 21-day plan that you could use to help you keep things interesting. You don't have to follow that meal plan, but you may find inspiration from it. Unlike other keto cookbooks and their plans, this was more interesting and varied in the types of recipes. But that isn't all we want to know about cookbooks around here, so let's get the legal out of the way so I can share it with you. I received this cookbook from the publisher in the hopes that I would review it. This article is a bonus review for which no other form of compensation was received.

I think the meal plan is the highlight of this cookbook, but it also has a wide range of recipes in seven chapters. That's a total of 100 recipes. For the meal-plan example and that impressive amount of recipes alone, if you are looking for a keto cookbook, I must recommend this one. Of those 100 recipes, how many use cocoa or chocolate in some form? Two are in the Breakfast Pastries chapter. Five are in the Desserts and Sweet Treats chapter. That's 7 recipes in all; not great for chocolate lovers. But the quality of the recipes offers you, the baker or cook, choices about your low carb sweetener for them. This is a big deal because some of us may have problems with one or two alternatives but not other. Some of us may tolerate the taste of some alt sweeteners better than others. Choices are not allowed for most flours in these recipes because they have a greater impact on texture, moisture, and flavor than sweetener substitutions, in my experience.

All the non-traditional ingredients that claim to be lower in carbs and thus keto friendly are not cheap. This means that this cookbooks suffers from the class problem most keto products have: if you have the money, you can afford to be keto. At least you don't need a lot of fancy equipment or a lot of kitchen counter space which are also signs of classism in cookbooks. The directions do require a bit of experience to use. This may be beginner for keto, but not for cooking or baking. In that regard, consider this if you have moderate kitchen skills.