Ah, the beautiful smell of something baking. Isn’t it just the most magical thing in the world? The thing is, not everyone is good at baking and it can become just a lil’ more challenging if you are following a low-carb diet. Luckily, Banting Blvd has stepped in to save the day with their low-carb baking premixes.

Regular Baking Vs. Low-Carb Baking

With ‘normal’ baking, you need wheat flour and a few other things. Flour is relatively cheap, lasts for ages, and is easy to work with. But it’s not necessarily the best choice, especially if you’re gluten-intolerant, following a low-carb diet, or just want to make healthier choices overall.

So what you need are things like almond, coconut, and flaxseed flours, psyllium husk, etc. And, of course, you’d want to stay away from sugar and other assorted and commonly deemed less healthy items.

Low carb baking is a bit like reinventing the wheel. You can’t, for example, simply substitute wheat flour with coconut flour in a regular recipe. You would end up with a terribly dry, rather unappetising baking disaster. What you actually need is a special low carb recipe that combines various flours to make great-tasting low carb treats.

Successful low carb baking means that you need to have all of these different flours. Some of these, like almond flour, are not cheap. And some of them don’t have very long shelf lives either. In essence, unless you bake a hell of a lot, it’s just not feasible to keep them all.

Another issue is the fact that you have to find incredible recipes. I’ve just reached my sixth year of following a low carb diet, and I can tell you that there some pretty terrible recipes out there. The logical answer to this baking conundrum is Banting Blvd.

Banting Blvd Low Carb Premixes

Banting Blvd has a huge selection of low carb premixes to curb pretty much whatever craving you might have. Think everything from breads to cakes to muffins to rusks. And, most importantly, they are perfectly low carb and gluten-free with no added sugar or unnecessary additives.

All you need to do is pick your premix and add your own fresh ingredients like milk, eggs, etc. A win-win for anyone wanting some low carb goodness!

We Got Mail

Banting Blvd was kind enough to send us some of their premixes to try out. I suck at cooking but I love baking, so I was super eager to give Banting Blvd a whirl. Now, over the years, I figured out how to bake good low carb treats — but I really wanted to try some things I don’t usually make. Also, more than anything, I was in desperate need of finding a great new low carb bread.

Low Carb Bread: Seed & Almond Loaf

I’m going to start right off saying that the Banting Blvd seed and almond loaf surpassed every expectation I had. It is phenomenal. It is literally the best low carb bread I have ever tasted. Wow, just wow. And thank you, Banting Blvd.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The seed and almond loaf premix contains sunflower seeds, flaxseed, coconut flour, desiccated coconut, almonds, raising agent, psyllium husk, erythritol, and Himalayan salt. All you need to do is add eggs and buttermilk. And, of course, you’ll need a bread pan and an oven.

And, voila, soon you’ll be met with the incredible smell of baking bread, followed soon after with deliciously tasting bread.

Some low carb breads taste overly eggy. Others taste too much like one flour or the other. But this seed and almond loaf is the embodiment of the Goldilocks effect. It’s just perfect. A dense loaf with a great texture and a great neutral taste. Even Benike loved it, which is a great compliment indeed.

I also love the fact that this bread freezes beautifully. Like many low carbers, bread is not a part of my everyday diet. But it is a wonderful thing to pop a frozen slice in the toaster and enjoy a buttered toast whenever the need arises.

Oh, and at 1 g carb per slice, this bread is a low carb match made in heaven!

Savoury Muffin Premix

My mom often bakes savoury cheese muffins and I look at them longingly as my sis and dad devour them. But, no more. Banting Blvd offers a savoury muffin premix that you can flavour up any way you like. And I had a very cheesy plan.

The premix contains coconut flour, golden flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, baking powder, psyllium husk, Himalayan salt, smoked paprika, and xanthan gum. You have to add eggs and milk. I also added grated cheddar cheese and chopped onions to the mix.

The muffins came out incredible. With a dense texture and the most incredible taste, I loved these little blobs of goodness. I think Banting Blvd’s addition of smoked paprika to the mix is a great idea. It just adds that special oomph.

The savoury muffins are so simple to make and it just makes sense to keep a packet of the premix in the cupboard for when you want to add something special to a Sunday brunch. For my next batch, I’ll be adding some diced bacon.

Excluding your additional ingredients, you’re looking at less than 2 g of carbs per serving. Woohoo on great tasting low-carb goodness!

Poppy Seed Muffin Premix

I love being proven wrong. I’m not a fan of poppy seeds and probably wouldn’t have picked this premix off the shelf. But boy am I glad I got to try it!

The poppy seed muffin premix contains sunflower seeds, desiccated coconut, coconut flour, xylitol, poppy seeds, racing agent, xanthan gum, and Himalayan salt. You’ll need to add eggs, milk, vanilla, and some fresh lemon juice.

The resultant lemon poppy seed muffins are divine. With a delicate lemony flavour, they reminded me a bit of some lemon cheesecake cookies I made a while back.

I decided to freeze the left-over muffins and defrost as needed. Turns out they were needed the day after freezing — and, yes, they defrost beautifully and taste just as good!

With around 1 g of carbs per serving, these poppy seed muffins are a perfect little low carb treat. As a side note, I also enjoyed that, even though they contain xylitol, they are not overly sweet, like many other low carb treats are.

Flapjack And Fritter Premix

This neutral premix lets you choose whether to go sweet or savoury. The basic premix contains coconut flour, golden flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, baking powder, psyllium husk, Himalayan salt, and xanthan gum. You’ll need to add milk, egg, and your chosen additional ingredients. I really wanted to make apple flapjacks. Benike had the great idea of using a cookie-cutter for heart-shaped apple slices, coz, you know, we are I Love Foodies after all …

Now, remember when I said I sucked at cooking? Well, I struggled here. The flapjacks are made in a frying pan. I just couldn’t get the temperature right and my poor flapjacks suffered as a result. I also realised in retrospect that I should have added just a bit of xylitol to sweeten. So I definitely need to attempt these again. For my next try, I will grate the apples instead and add xylitol and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Oh, and Benike will be operating the stove.

Nonetheless, we rescued my poor albeit pretty-looking flapjacks with some powdered xylitol sprinkled on top and a scoop of low carb Skinny Scoop ice cream.

The flapjack and fritter premix also contains less than 1 g carbs per serving.

Chocolate Brownie Premix

Ah, the magic of a chocolate brownie! When making these, I suggested we only bake half a batch but Benike luckily persuaded me to make all of it. The brownies did not survive the night …

The Banting Blvd chocolate brownie premix contains sunflower seeds, cocoa powder, xylitol, raising agent, and xanthan gum. You’ll have to add fresh cream, eggs, and a bit of vanilla to the mix. Pop it in the oven, and chocolatey goodness will be yours.

I loved that these brownies were not too sweet but had the most amazingly intense chocolate taste. The firm texture worked beautifully too. So, yes, I loved them. But Benike loved, loved, loved them! I think she still dreams about these brownies.

We enjoyed some of the brownies with the low carb Vanilla Camilla Skinny Scoop ice cream and munched on the rest throughout the day.

Again, with 1 g of carbs per serving, this is a fantastic treat to enjoy on just about any occasion!

Banting Blvd Low Carb Pizza Base Premix

The thing that makes regular wheat flour so popular — except for the fact that it’s so cheap — is that it is neutral in taste, light, and sticks well together (due to the gluten).

The moment you bake low carb, you lose all of those qualities. Getting a neutral taste is challenging, as is getting everything to stick together and still be light.

Making a pizza base truly low carb and still work well as a pizza base is hard as hell. That’s why you’ll often find that pizza bases that are marketed as low carb are actually just lower carb. In order to make the base work, they’ll often introduce ingredients that will push the carb count up — but still not as a high as with a regular pizza. If you’re as carb-conscious as I am, these pizza bases, although delicious, will kick you right out of ketosis.

The Banting Blvd pizza base premix comes as close as it gets to a true low carb pizza base. It contains coconut flour, golden flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, psyllium husk, baking powder, Himalayan salt, xanthan gum, and oregano. You’ll need to add milk, eggs, and olive oil to the mix. Of course, you’ll also need whatever you’d like to top your pizza with. We decided to go with bacon, feta, and avocado.

As for the pizza base itself: Yes, it wasn’t as neutral as regular pizza could be but it also wasn’t distracting in any way. Knowing that, at 8 g of carb per 100 g pizza base, I can stay in ketosis and still enjoy pizza sounds like a pretty good deal to me. So if you want to try an actual low carb pizza, the Banting Blvd pizza premix is a pretty good bet.

Low Carb Happiness With Banting Blvd

Prices, Where To Buy, And More

I feel like I have baked up a storm with Banting Blvd, and I truly enjoyed it. I’m beyond excited to have finally found a fantastic go-to bread, and this premix will now always be found in my cupboard. With some frozen slices in the freezer, of course.

Baking with Banting Blvd was super simple and easy. It literally involved mixing the premixes with whatever else was needed and popping it in the oven.

I also love that the premixes are truly low carb. And I love that the sweet goodies were not overly sweet. I also really love how affordable the range actually is. The seed and almond loaf premix costs R55, for example, and the brownies only R49.

Over the years, I have tried a few different premixes but not a single one has impressed me as much as Banting Blvd has. So, thank you, Banting Blvd, for great-tasting, super easy to make, low-carb premixes!

The Banting Blvd premixes can be found online at www.bantingblvd.co.za and select Food Lover’s Markets. Check out the brand on Instagram and Facebook for updates and more. 

Written by Sabine Palfi
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Article Date: September 2020

All information correct at time of publication. We do not accept any liability caused by errors, including, but not limited to, changes in price, menu, opening times, address, or other contact details. 

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