Why use Xanthan Gum in Ketogenic Cooking?
Why use xanthan gum? It’s a must have in a lot of low carb baked goods, especially breads. Xanthan gum helps hold all of the ingredients together, unlike some other gluten free breads that end up looking like a pile of crumbs. A small amount of xanthan gum can go a long way: You only need about a half a teaspoon for most recipes. For breads, you’ll usually use a full teaspoon.
What exactly does xanthan gum do? It binds the ingredients together and can act as a substitute for gluten. Gluten enables bread to rise because it traps air bubbles and allows them to grow. Xanthan gum can substitute by doing the same thing.
Xanthan gum doesn’t function as yeast/leavener; it mimics the function of gluten. Xanthan gum turns the dough gummy and sticky, which enables the dough to trap gas bubbles from the yeast (or other leavener like baking soda), which in turn allows the dough to rise. Imagine if you will a large piece of bubble gum. That’s the texture of a normal flour dough, and with Xanthan gum, that will also be the approximate texture of your gluten free, low carb dough.
Get It On Amazon
The Xanthan Gum I Use
Does Xanthan Gum Ferment?
Now onto the matter of Xanthan gum and fermentation. Xanthan gum is made by fermentation, it does not itself ferment. Many things are made by fermentation. In the case of Xanthan gum, sugars are digested by bacteria, and they excrete Xanthan gum. An example is vanilla. Vanilla flavor is created by the fermentation of vanilla bean pods. But it doesn’t itself ferment or create fermentation in cooking.
Possible substitutes for Xanthan gum are Guar gum and flaxseed. I have not tried these alternate methods, but from what I’ve heard, they do help hold things together. However, numerous people say that they don’t work quite as well as Xanthan gum does.
Make sure you use a gluten free version of Xanthan gum, as most that are not gluten free are made from wheat.
As Featured On
The math for keto is fiber minus carbs and then your output would be net carbs so 7 grams of carbs -7 grams of fiber = o net carbs. This is good to know because
you are probably shortchanging yourself.
Hi i remember Ive read on one of your post that gelatin may also be a substitute of xanthum gum. Is that right? Thanks in advance.
Guar gum is the best, but gelatine will also work yes 🙂 More of a cake style consistency with gelatine.
Hi, may i know if arabic gum can be used in place of xantham gum and the ratio differencevin measurements if it cam.
Hmm, I’ve never used Arabic gum before I’m sorry.
do the carbs from xanthan gum count on keto. i noticed it has 7 carbs but 7 grams of fiber. i started using it for my keto coffee smoothies in the morning and found it held it together quite well. but now im concerned about the carbs because im trying to stay around 20 carbs per day. please help
reciipe for coconut flour pasta please?
You can buy coconut flour. Much easier than making your own!