Elless Em - Low-carb gluten-free yeast bread recipes to slim by

Beginning

Suppose you want tobuild a better, stronger house but for a number of important reasons you cannotuse most of the standard construction materialsno wood of any variety,no wood byproducts, no nails, no staples, no starch adhesives, no drywall, noStyrofoamnone of the commonplace products used for centuries to buildhouses. This means all standard blueprints are off the table as well. What youhave in mind changes the very foundation of what many believe is the only rightway to build a house.

The good news is,several new products have come on the market that are promoted as wonderfulsubstitutes. The bad news is, after examining what they are made of, you learnthat many of them create a more vulnerable house than the materials you aretrying to avoid.

You gather togetherthe few remaining products you can use: stone, cement, metal and steel, adobe,bamboo (which is a grass), nuts and bolts. Your house is going to cost more tobuild but it will be much more energy efficient. You will recover your money ina short time in lower utility billsand you wont have the expense of ongoingrepairs. You will have a strong house that will help protect you and yourfamily for decades.

Creating lowcarbglutenfree yeast bread is an entirely different and challenging concept.It goes against everything we ever knew and been told we must to do to create agood loaf of bread. There is no gluten for yeast to feast on; no wonderful puffymound of dough to punch down to rise again, tastier and chewier; no cups ofsugar, tenderizing and caramelizing.

Instead of kneadingwe must whip.

Instead of rollingout, we spoon or pour.

Instead of watchingdough rise two or three times, it is the nature of lowcarb bread to riseonce, and then bake.

Instead of fivepound bags of inexpensive flour, we must use one pound bags of unconventionalingredients that are healthful and delicious, but definitely pricier: finely groundnuts, beans and seeds; powdered coconut; whey or other protein powders.

But they work, andcombined in the right way with the right ingredients they create deliciousbreads that not only rival their carbohydraterich counterparts in flavor, theyfarandaway surpass them in protein, fiber and nutrientsand low carbs! Thefollowing recipes cost more to prepare, but the payoff in our health, wellbeingand quality of life is much more valuable.

The phrase lowcarbglutenfree has been an oxymoron because most glutenfree products used inbreadmaking are very high in refined carbohydrates (starches and sugars), manyof them much worse than the wheat flours they are replacing. Sorghum flour,potato flour, brown and white rice flours, etc. and all the starchesspike blood sugar levels to diabetic or prediabetic levels, can escalatehypertension, inflammation and heart disease and pile on the pounds.

When I gatheredtogether the primary products that are lowest in carbs and highest innutrients, I had a total of five to work with: almond flour; coconut flour;ground flaxseed; white bean flour (the highest carbs but also high in fiber andprotein), and; natural whey protein powder. Hemp (I didnt know how green breadand ham would go over), sunflower and hazelnut flours are also good productsbut harder to find, so I included them as substitute options.

Most of my earlyexperiments were bombs, literally. Many loaves ended with a thud into thewastebasket, too hard even for the birds to eat (they wouldnt I tried it). Loavesthat werent quite right but still eatable began to fill the freezer. When it couldnthold any more I ate bread for breakfast, lunch and dinnerbread too damp orcrumbly or flavorless, but okay with lots of butter and a glass of wine. I wentthrough more than 5 pounds of yeast and untold pounds of flour searching forsolutions.

More than once Iconsidered abandoning glutenfree and using just enough vital wheat gluten toat least get the loaves in the ballpark of yeast breads. I tried variations ofXanthan gum, unflavored gelatin and egg whites to replace the gluten (necessaryto bind the ingredients and create stretchy pockets for yeast to expand) andfinally determined that egg whiteslots of themwere the key.

Back in the daywhen most angel food cakes were made from scratch, it was a delicate jobcarefully cracking and separating yolk from white into two bowls. If a sliverof gold escaped into the whites it had to be fished out, the slippery thingdarting away from the spoon (whites wont whip well with even a trace of yolkor oil).

But now, thanks topasteurized liquids and powders that are economical and easy to use, we canquickly create voluminous clouds with the help of a little cream of tartar. Ipurchase powdered egg whites in a 36 ounce container, the equivalent of 255 eggwhites, using just 2 teaspoons of powder for each white. It is also nice havingthem on hand as a backup food supply.

I also buy cartonsof liquid egg whites at Costco that have a fairly long refrigeration life, andmost local groceries sell liquid egg whites in 1 quart containers (compareprices!).

Frothed or whipped,when combined with fragrant flours, wonderful loaves of rich dark pumpernickelor featherlight rolls are created. I served several recipes incognito tofamily and friends and all received great complimentsfollowed by shockwhen I revealed they werent made with wheat flour.

After Muffins toSlim By was published I received several questions asking how to make therecipes adaptable for nut and dairy allergies. I kept these concerns in mind asI developed the yeast bread recipes and provided some substitutes, but couldnot test every possible alternative.

All products can be problematic for some people. Somewill have a blood sugar spike eating caraway seed, others cant toleratecertain sugarfree sweeteners. Where possible I have added the option to useyour preferred ingredients and the choice to use or not use others. Exchangingseed for nut flours may affect the texture, depending how fine the seed isground, but you should still achieve a wonderful loaf of bread.

Dairy substitutespresented a much bigger challenge. I concluded there was no easy exchangewithout reworking the recipes, which I may do in another book. My goal for thisbook was to stay within the limited ingredients chosen for their low carbs andhigh nutrients. If you want to substitute ingredients already in your pantrypotatostarch for whey protein or sorghum flour for coconut flourkeep in mind thatthis will dramatically increase carbohydrates and keep you on the sameoldsameoldunhealthy treadmill. I encourage you to experiment and discover wonderful newrecipes perfect for your body and situation, but do the math. Breads andmuffins to slim by only help with weight loss when part of a complete lowcarb diet.