Low Carbohydrate Bread §
One thing I miss on my lower G. I. diet is bread. I find that there are very few, if any, really lower G. I. breads sold in my nearby supermarkets, but I can find many online. Those found online are of unknown quality before you try them, and they tend to be more expensive than regular bread due to being specialty items and due to the postage that must be applied. Commercial bread sources also sometimes suffer from other problems, such as nutritional information being in error and the bread being actually high in carbohydrates, and the bread being neither tasty nor bread-like in texture.
These are not problems easily averted in home preparations, either, I found. I am still experimenting with recipes. The one given here makes use of Carbalose® flour, which some claim leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. It produces a bread that is certainly low in net carbohydrate as compared to regular breads, and is quite edible, but it can still be improved upon, I think. It is a work in progress that I have recorded here foe further improvement.
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1¼ cup water
- 1½ tbsp dry active yeast
- 1 tsp <sugar>
- 2¼ cup Carbalose® flour
- ¼ cup wheat gluten
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup golden flaxseed meal
- 1 tsp <salt>
- ¼ tsp guar gum
- ¼ tsp xanthan gum
- 3 tbsp <butter>
- butter-flavored spray
Dissolve the (real) sugar into 1 cup of warm water (100–115°F), add the active yeast, stir until the yeast is wet, and let it “bloom” in a warm place for 10 minutes. At that time the cup should appear tan-ish and bubbly; if not, the yeast is not active—buy some more and try again. When successfully bloomed, proceed.
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Put all of the dry ingredients into the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook and turn it on just long enough to blend the ingredients. Heat the <butter> just enough to melt it, add this to the bowl, and turn it on again long enough to blend well.
With the mixer running, add the bloomed yeast to the dry ingredients. Run the mixer at least a minute, and longer if needed, while adding any additional water that may seem necessary, maybe up to about ¼ cup. The dough at this point should have a loose consistency and not be sticky on your hands. If you have ever made bread from scratch before, the dough should have about the same look and feel as that of regular bread dough at this stage.
Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, form it into a ball, and put it in a butter-sprayed bowl. Cover this with plastic wrap and place it in a warm (100°F) place for about 30 minutes until it has doubled in size. Then take the dough out of the bowl and gently knead it until all of the little gas pockets have been eliminated.
Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Grease a loaf pan with the butter-flavored spray, form the dough into a loaf, and put it into the pan. Loosely cover this again with plastic wrap and let it rise again in the warm place for 25–30 minutes. Be careful not let it over-rise, as it will continue to rise while baking in the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, and let the bread rest in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, put it on a wire rack, and let it cool completely.
Slice bread using an electric knife having a bread-slicing blade into widths the same as normal bread, about ½”.
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