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  #1   ^
Old Tue, Oct-12-04, 19:06
ItsTheWooo's Avatar
ItsTheWooo ItsTheWooo is offline
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Plan: My Own
Stats: 280/118/117.5 Female 5ft 5.25 in
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Progress: 100%
Default Need help - brownies

Hi Karen
Well, my mom started Atkins again and I'd like to make this as enjoyable for her as possible. Unlike me she is a sweets craver, and her favorite thing in the world is brownies. I know there are lots of brownie recipes floating around, but all of them don't really seem like they'll supply the quality we are looking for. We are looking for a deep rich chewy, fudgy brownie, you know what I mean? The kind where you bite into it and it's gooey and chewy, and the chocolate is deep and rich.

Is there anyway to replicate those properties while still keeping the carb count reasonably low? What products would we need to accomplish this goal?

Oh and one more thing, what books would you recommend to help a novice better understand the chemical properties of foods, flavors, textures, and teach you how to replicate them in a low carb lifestyle? I'm totally new when it comes to making LC imitation foods. I know staples like cauliflower=rice/taters, turnips = homefries, etc... but I'm ready to learn how to make really good muffins, cakes, and cookies too. I don't know what products to buy, or any good recipes unfortunately . So, the question I'm asking here is what's a good cookbook with amazing LC sweets/baking recipes? Is there a book that can help you learn what products produce what affect and how to stock your kitchen?

Thanks
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Oct-13-04, 13:13
Karen's Avatar
Karen Karen is offline
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Plan: Ketogenic
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Quote:
We are looking for a deep rich chewy, fudgy brownie, you know what I mean? The kind where you bite into it and it's gooey and chewy, and the chocolate is deep and rich.
I wish such a beast existed. There is a recipe in the Low Carb Comfort Foods cookbook by the Eades that uses pureed black soy beans for the "fudgy quality", but I've never been able to create - or seen any other recipe - that can replicate the qualities in baked goods that sugar does. You may want to fool around with maltitol sweetened chocolate - you can get a lot of mileage out of it - but then again, maybe you don't want to go there.

Some people have recommended these books by Jennifer Eloff and Dana Carpenders 500 Low Carb Recipes has some good baking recipes.

What I've found that works the best for me is to start with a recipe and tweak it until I like it. The most success I've had is with creamy desserts - no brainer there! - and sweet breads/muffin type things. You need fat - in the form of butter/cream cheese/sour cream - to reproduce the smooth mouth feel of sugar, gluten to form structure, and fiber - nut meals/flax meal, whey and soy isolates, bran - to mimic the bulk of flour.

I've tried to create a baking mix with oat fiber, inulin, soy isolate, flax meal, stabilized wheat bran and a bunch of other stuff. I worked well for some things - like the breads above - but not with thing like pastry or cookies.

There is not one book that I've seen that has what you're looking for to explain the properties/reactions etc, but if you want to make yourself crazy here's a link to books on food chemistry

http://www.preparedfoods.com/FILES/...1,7095,,00.html

Sorry I couldn't help you much, but I hope I helped you some!

Karen
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Oct-13-04, 13:33
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Karin289 Karin289 is offline
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Plan: Atkins
Stats: 135/129.5/120 Female 5'7"
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Default

Well, technically my name is Karin too, so I'll feel free to chime in!

I'm not sure if you really want to go there, but there's a new product out called CarbQuik -- sold at Netrition and some Krogers in the Midwest. Apparently it has only 2 carbs per 20g (not that I have any idea how much that is), and retains most/all of the properties of Bisquick. I bet it would go a long ways to making a real brownie.


Anyways, it seems that the people over at www.lowcarbfriends.com have been doing some experimenting. Here's a thread about it:
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/s...threadid=255923

HTH!
Karin
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Oct-13-04, 13:39
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Karin289 Karin289 is offline
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Plan: Atkins
Stats: 135/129.5/120 Female 5'7"
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Both of these recipes have potential for conversion to a LC brownie recipe.

From http://www.aliciasrecipes.com/impossible_pies.htm


IMPOSSIBLE CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/4 c butter, softened
2 sq. (1 oz. each) melted unsweetened chocolate (cool)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Bisquick baking mix

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches. Place all ingredients except sweetened whipped cream in blender container. Cover and blend on high 1 minute. Pour into plate. Bake until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center, about 30 minutes. Cool completely. Top with sweetened whipped cream.


IMPOSSIBLE BROWNIE PIE
4 eggs
1/2 c. Bisquick
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 bar (4 oz.) sweet cooking chocolate, melted & cooled
1/2 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inch. Beat all ingredients except nuts until smooth (approximately 2 minutes with hand mixer). Pour into plate; sprinkle with nuts. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Serve with ice cream, if desired.
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  #5   ^
Old Sun, Oct-17-04, 20:54
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lynnp lynnp is offline
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Plan: My Version of M/E
Stats: 284/000/140 Female 65 inches
BF:54%/49.5%/25%
Progress: 197%
Location: Rhode Island
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Carbquik is amazing and there is a brownie recipe on their website. I think it's www.cabalose.com It is a bisquik substitute and is made from an enzyme modified wheat so it tastes like wheat. There are tons of recipes on other sites, but I have only made the waffles, pancakes and a biscuit like pizza crust. It is reall good. Even my non-LC husband was impressed and loved it. I had no problems with staling or cravings from it either. You can get it at netrition.com. The biscuits have 1 carb each and the waffles had 2 carbs each. I will definitely always have this product around. I use it like other LC foods, on occassion, usually after a long bike ride or other weekend activity.

Hope this helps. (I don't have any affiliation with the product or company)
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Dec-06-04, 11:56
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nikkil nikkil is offline
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Plan: vegan low-carb
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try the 2 minute chocolate cake?? There's a devil's food cake alternative to it that's quite fudgy and chocolaty. It satisifies my chocolate cravings and I need CHOCOLATE not just a mild chocolate flavour but the overloaded kind Unsweetened cocoa powder is manna
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  #7   ^
Old Sun, Mar-20-05, 18:05
binki binki is offline
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Plan: Atkins
Stats: 190/159/140 Female 67 inches
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Oh, gosh, you guys have got to get your hands on some polydextrose. It's an artificial sweetener, but it's not really all that sweet. Its major function is to add the other properties of sugar to your baked desserts, i.e. gooey chewy caramelization. There's an extensive thread at another low-carb board about it, and a recipe at that same board which will just knock your socks off if you're looking for a good fudgy brownie.

Not sure if I can/should mention the other website specifically, but by all means get your hands on some polydextrose if you enjoy sugarfree baking. You can get five pounds for $9 at one site in particular. A Google search will reveal all, or I can post more specific links if it's okay with the mods.

- -
on edit: I see people have already posted links in this thread so I will too:
you can get PD at Honeyville and the brownie thread is here. There's also an extensive discussion of polydextrose, in human terms, here.

I especially hope Karen Barnaby gets into polydextrose...her next cookbook will be staggering.

Last edited by binki : Sun, Mar-20-05 at 18:11.
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