The ketogenic diet has surged in popularity, leading to a greater availability of keto-friendly products, including desserts. But eating out while maintaining a ketogenic lifestyle can present unique challenges, especially when it comes to desserts. This article provides a detailed guide on how to navigate restaurant menus and make informed choices to satisfy your sweet cravings without compromising your ketogenic goals.
Understanding Keto-Friendly Desserts
A ketogenic diet is characterized by high fat intake, moderate protein consumption, and very low carbohydrate intake. This metabolic shift forces the body to use fat as its primary fuel source, producing ketones. To maintain this state of ketosis, it's crucial to be mindful of carbohydrate content in all foods, including desserts. Keto-friendly desserts typically utilize alternative sweeteners and flours to minimize carbs.
General Tips for Eating Keto at Restaurants
Before diving into specific dessert options, it's essential to adopt some general strategies for eating keto at restaurants:
- Plan Ahead: Research the restaurant's menu online beforehand to identify potential keto-friendly options.
- Customize Your Order: Don't hesitate to ask for modifications to dishes. Request substitutions like extra vegetables instead of potatoes or salad instead of fries.
- Be Mindful of Sauces and Dressings: Many sauces and dressings are high in sugar and carbs. Ask for them on the side or opt for olive oil and lemon juice.
- Avoid Fried Foods: Fried foods often contain hidden carbs from batter or breading.
- Choose Your Drinks Wisely: Avoid sugary drinks like soda and juice. Opt for water, unsweetened tea, or a dry wine spritzer.
- Inquire About Ingredients: Don't be afraid to ask your server about the ingredients in a dish, especially sweeteners and thickeners.
Keto-Friendly Restaurant Dessert Options
While dedicated keto desserts may not always be readily available on restaurant menus, there are several ways to satisfy your sweet tooth while staying in ketosis.
Modifying Existing Desserts
One approach is to modify existing desserts to reduce their carb content. For example, you could order a dessert with fruit and cream but ask for the fruit portion to be reduced and ensure that the cream is unsweetened.
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
Strawberries and Cream
If you really want something “sweet” after dinner you could ask for strawberries and cream, make sure to ask if the cream has added sugar though!
Cheese and Berries
If you are a dessert kind of person and love enjoying something sweet after the main meal, skip the dessert and order a snack board that could consist of full-fat cheeses, and low-carb fruit i.e. berries and olives.
Sharing a Dessert
Here’s a great option…why not share a dessert with a friend?
Keto-Friendly Ingredients to Look For
When evaluating dessert options, keep an eye out for these keto-friendly ingredients:
- Alternative Sweeteners: Monk fruit, erythritol, stevia, and other low-carb sweeteners.
- Nut Flours: Almond flour and coconut flour are popular low-carb alternatives to wheat flour.
- Healthy Fats: Avocado, coconut oil, and nuts can add richness and flavor to keto desserts.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Provides a chocolatey flavor without added sugar.
- Berries: Low-carb fruits that can add sweetness and antioxidants.
What to Avoid
Navigating a keto diet at a restaurant requires knowing what to avoid:
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
- Sugar-laden Sauces: Be wary of sauces and dressings, as many are packed with sugars and carbohydrates.
- Starchy Thickeners: Some gravies contain starchy thickeners, so it's wise to inquire about ingredients.
- The Bread Basket: That oh-so-familiar bread basket that is complementary to most restaurant meals!
- Sugary Drinks: Cocktails and other sugary drinks that are high in sugar and carbs should be avoided completely.
- Most Desserts: Most desserts offered at restaurants will not be appropriate for your low-carb and keto goals.
Specific Restaurant Types and Keto Dessert Strategies
Pubs
Pub menus vary from place to place, but will usually contain at least some of these dishes:
*Chicken Wings - Another pub favourite, opt for the Spicy/Buffalo wings not the BBQ or you could ask for no sauce and add a little salt, delicious!
Indian Restaurants
Indian cuisine is based on a lot of meat dishes, which can be perfect for a keto diet. If you are having a takeaway you can cook up some cauliflower rice at home to serve instead of rice.
Chain Restaurants
Even if a restaurant doesn’t mention being keto-friendly, there is likely to be something to suit your dietary needs, especially at restaurants that have a decently sized menu, providing you with a larger range of options.
- McDonald’s bunless burger.
- Wendy’s low-carb burger - you don’t even need to ask for any substitutions!
- Chipotle burrito bowl without the rice and beans.
- Buffalo Wild Wings where you can enjoy the buffalo wings (watch the added sauces). Make sure to skip the french fries.
Keto-Friendly Dessert Recipes to Make At Home
For those times when restaurant options are limited, preparing keto-friendly desserts at home is a great way to satisfy your sweet cravings. Here are a few popular recipes:
Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto
Keto Samoa Bars
Let's be honest, Samoas are the best Girl Scout cookies. The glorious combination of toasted coconut, caramel, chocolate, and shortbread is a true dream. The best news of all is that these Samoa bars are keto-approved!
Keto Chocolate Cake
With a few simple swaps, you'll be on your way to the keto cake of your dreams.
Gluten-Free Pop-Tarts
Pop-Tarts are essentially just adorable mini hand pies. And though their sweetness aligns more with the dessert category, we don’t judge anyone who prefers to eat them for breakfast.
Keto Tiramisu Chaffle Cake
Keto Red Velvet Cake
When it comes to birthday cakes, you’re either on Team Funfetti, Team Chocolate, or Team Red Velvet. We’re not saying any one of these options is better than the others…but we do get slightly more excited when the results of the latter are at a party.
Keto Cinnamon Rolls
We know, cheese in a should-be sweet morning bun sounds wrong. But trust us, it really works. And no, you cannot taste the cheese! Stretchy mozzarella helps add some of the fluffy chew so that they're not totally crumbly. The end result is a sinfully delicious and cinnamon-y roll that has no business being keto.
Keto Copycat Snickers Bar
We’re going to tell it to you straight: Homemade candy takes time and patience, especially when you’re making chewy caramel and nougat. But it’s worth it 1,000 times over when you take a bite and realize that it’s even better than your favorite store-bought packaged treat.
Keto Pecan Crescents
These pecan cookies are about to become your family’s favorite. It's easy to see why-crumbly pecan cookies meet a simple glaze, making them completely irresistible.
Keto Chocolate Glazed Donuts
Didn't think you could eat donuts on keto? Think again! These almond flour based donuts are so light and fluffy, and the addition of a smooth chocolate glaze really puts them over the top. Even non-keto people were going crazy for these as soon as we finished shooting them. Cake donut lovers, this one's for you.
Keto Fudge
Fudge never gets enough credit around the holidays. Everyone is fixated on the dang cookies. We love cookies, please don’t get us wrong, but come December, we’re already a little tired of baking. Fudge is simpler, chocolatey-er, and just as festive. Plus, it makes a better DIY food gift.
Magic Keto Cookies
These cookies are seriously magical. Super easy to make and without any flour, you can feel good about eating way more than just one. Make sure neither your coconut oil or butter is melted. You want them both at room temperature (but still solid) or the cookies will spread too much while baking.
Keto Chocolate Mousse
This keto mousse gets its rich, creamy texture from avocados. If you're a little wary of using them in desserts, we promise it's amazing. We have used it as the star of some of our favorite dishes like avocado ice cream and Vietnamese Sinh Tố Bơ. But in this case, the mild flavor of avocado gets masked instantly by the cocoa powder and the creamy texture weirdly works.
Keto Sugar-Free Cheesecake
There’s a whole world of delicious keto sweets out there. Since we tend to turn to cream cheese for our fat bombs, creating a classic keto cheesecake recipe just made sense. Our version is creamy, rich, and tangy, just like the cheesecakes you know and love.
Keto Chocolate Mug Cake
Keto Ice Cream
This keto-friendly ice cream is creamy, rich, and just barely sweet. Feel free to up the sweetener a little, but in our opinion, the coconut milk makes is decadent enough. If you're dying to add mix-ins, there are a ton of options, but one of our favorites is to add some cookie dough keto fat bombs.
Keto Hot Chocolate
Keto Peanut Butter Cup Fat Bombs
If you love chocolate + peanut butter (and who doesn't?!), then these fat bombs are for you! They're a great on-the-go snack for those pesky sweet cravings.
Cookie Dough Keto Fat Bombs
Fat bombs alone make us want to go try more keto treats, but we'll take any excuse to eat cookie dough. These are perfect to keep stored in the freezer for whenever the craving hits.
Keto Almond Brittle
Keto almond brittle is perfect to make-ahead and keep around for when you have those late night sweets cravings.
Keto Desserts to Buy
- Lily's Sweets has been around since 2010 and has several chocolate bar varieties to choose from. These keto desserts to buy come in flavors like creamy milk chocolate, salted caramel, hazelnut milk chocolate, and salted almond chocolate.
- ChocZero makes some of the best keto desserts to buy on the market. Not only is this company dedicated to producing ethically sourced products, but it is also exclusively sweetened using monk fruit. A pack has 10 individually wrapped squares, with each piece containing just 1 gram of net carbs.
- These keto-friendly desserts to buy by SlimFast are reminiscent of York peppermint patties but without the high sugar content! There are other variants available as well, but chocolate mint cups and the caramel nut clusters are the fan favorites.
- Russell Stover's Sugar-Free Pecan Delights is a top contender when it comes to fat content and accessibility. It does taste "lighter" compared to traditional non-sugar-free chocolates.
- If you're after a candy bar that brings you the perfect ratio of chocolate, peanut, and caramel, then you should definitely try an Atkins Caramel Chocolate Nut Roll snack bar. Honestly, these keto desserts to buy don’t taste any different from normal candy bars.
- think! This chocolate bar tastes just like a Reese's egg if you can believe it! Each of these keto desserts to buy contain 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of sugar, and just 4 grams of net carbs. Don't wait too long to pick a box of these up because these think!
- Rebel ice cream is probably the lowest glycemic index ice cream available in stores, but it's hard to tell it apart from homemade ice cream because of its fantastic taste and texture. The mint flavor of their Mint Chip is just right and the chocolate chips are equally satisfying. If you're looking for keto-friendly desserts to buy for your family without needing to explain what's in them, then give this pint a try! Our other flavor recommendations: Butter Pecan, Cookie Dough, Triple Chocolate, and Peanut Butter Fudge.
- It's decadent and the Chocolate Cheesecake flavor is everything you can expect a chocolate cheesecake-themed ice cream should be.
- Making the best keto butter pecan ice cream is no ordinary feat, but we have got to hand it to Enlightened for creating a line of keto desserts to buy that people just LOVE!
- This chocolate chip cookie dough by Bhu Foods is a tasty treat for all you cookie dough lovers out there! It's not overly sweet and has a wonderful chewiness to it. So, if you're ready to try out new keto-friendly desserts to buy at the store, make it a point to add these bars onto your list.
- A good chocolate chip cookie may be one of the things that you sincerely miss while following a low-carb, ketogenic diet. These cookies have a crunch and crumbly texture that's similar to a shortbread cookie but have the enticing flavors of vanilla, butter, and almonds. They actually taste like mini Chips Ahoy, except these ones won't spike your blood sugar level or kick you out of ketosis.
- Each serving of these keto-friendly desserts to buy only has 4 grams of net carbs, which is a fair deal if you factor in just how soft and chewy these keto-compliant cookies are.
- Up next on our list of keto desserts to buy at your local Whole Foods, are these keto double chocolate chip cookies by Fat Snax. We would highly suggest the double chocolate chip flavor, for a number of reasons: it's gluten-free, grain-free, and it tastes like a brownie. Doesn't get much better than that, right?!
- When you hear Duncan Hines, the first thought you have is probably cake mixes and pie fillings. There are 3 flavors available: Walnut Fudge Brownie, Double Chocolate Cake, and Birthday Cake. Among the 3 keto desserts to buy, Walnut Fudge Brownie is typically considered to have the best flavor and texture. It's moist, rich, and contains just the right amount of walnuts! Our suggestion?
- SmartCakes are about as big as a small muffin and taste like a not-too-sweet cake. If you want to add something salty along with your sweet, check out our favorite keto snack. Chomps meat sticks are the perfect pick me up for anyone in search of keto-friendly jerky. Loved our keto desserts to buy?
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