Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Can I Talk Again About My Lovely Loaf?

Back on March 18th I posted the bread recipe that I had been using - and actually I've used that recipe for quite a while since then. The last couple of loaves, however, I have further tweaked it. Now instead of 2T heavy cream I use 3T plain full-fat yogurt. And I add 2T wheat bran (because I ran out of oat). And I'm using CarbQuick as the baking mix. And I'm only use 3/4c of the vital wheat gluten, and 1/2c of the wheat protein isolate. This last tweak has removed the gumminess from the texture, and it is light and slightly chewy just like "real" carby bread! It is so amazing, I'm betting that non-low-carbers wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Seriously! It is so good that I'm going to re-write the recipe and brag it all over the map!

Hmmm...as long as I'm going to re-write it, I will go ahead do so here:

- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tsp yeast
- 3/4c hot water

I sprinkle the first 2 ingredients across the bottom of my pan, then add the water fairly slowly, all around, so that it mixes as it lands, then close the lid. As the yeast is getting happy, I prepare the remaining ingredients.

Into a medium mixing bowl I whisk together

- 3/4c vital wheat gluten
- 1/2c wheat protein Isolate
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/3c CarbQuik*
- 1/2c ground flax
- 2T oat or wheat bran

Into a smaller dish I whip together until well-combined:
- 2 eggs
- 3T full fat plain yogurt
- 10 drops liquid sucralose

In another small dish I melt
- 2T real butter

By this time, my yeast is mixture is foamed up. I gently stir in the egg mixture with a spatula, then the butter. Then I add the dry ingredients. I set the machine to 1.5# loaf, light color, basic cycle (3 hours), and start it. Then I wash up the dishes I'd used, except the spatula, and by that time it is mixed pretty well, except for a fair amount of dry ingredients around the sides. I scrape that back into the dough, then I close the lid and leave it alone to consummate the loaf.

I don't touch it again until it beeps that the mixing/rising is done, when I wash my hands and lift out the dough to remove the paddle. I pat the dough back into the pan so that it's even all around, and let it finish.

NOTE: The dough will continue to rise as it bakes and doesn't reach full height until 1/2 hour before it's done.

Once the bread is done, I remove the pan and let it cool for about 15-20 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a plate, where I leave it, uncovered, overnight. This isn't an essential step, but it lets the crust dry out a bit and makes it easier to cut in the morning. I get 14 slices, about 1/4-3/8" each, out of each loaf, and that lasts us about 4 days. This bread is divine either plain with butter, for sandwiches, or toasted. It doesn't have the gummy-ness that so many lowcarb loaves have, it is light and slightly chewy, as any bread should be!

*I have also used Bob's Red Mill Low Carb Baking Mix, and it worked about the same; I'm hazarding a guess here that most such mixes would be fine.

I can't imagine that any more tweaks would improve this bread at ALL!

2 comments:

  1. what is the purpose of taking the bread out and removing the paddle?

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  2. So that there isn't a big hole in the bottom of the loaf; those slices allow sandwich fixin's to make a big mess in my husband's lunches :).

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