Low-carb wheat bread!
 

I’ve tried Final Bread, I’ve tried Gabi’s bread, and I’ve tried others. They just didn't taste enough like bread to me, so I set out to create my own low-bread carb. 6 experimental loaves later, this is what I came up with. It looks and tastes very much like wheat bread. Hope you like it!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar (for the yeast)
1 egg

3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup miller's wheat bran
1/2 cup oat flour
1 tablespoon Splenda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package rapid-rise yeast

Measure out the water (COLD) in a glass measuring cup, and then add the butter and sugar. Microwave until the water/butter/sugar reaches 110 degrees F. That takes ~30 seconds with my microwave. Slightly beat the egg and add it to the water. Make sure the mixture is still between 100 and 110 degrees F. Why? Because yeast can be very finicky. While the yeast is “testing”, mix the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Verify that the yeast is bubbling/frothing, and put the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients in your bread machine. Start your bread machine using the white-bread cycle.

Notes: I use a cheap Oster bread machine which does not allow me to control the number of times the bread kneads/rises. My bread turns out just fine anyway. The amount of sugar used plays a critical role in how much the yeast rises. The Splenda and salt make the bread taste more like the mass-produced bread we are all accustomed to. I use Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten and unprocessed wheat bran, but I’m sure other brands will work just as well with little or no fine-tuning.

Carbs: wheat gluten: 18 grams; wheat bran: 28 grams; oat flour: 32 grams, Splenda: 1 gram; sugar: eaten by yeast
Fiber: wheat bran: 24 grams; oat flour 5 grams
Net carbs for loaf: 49 grams. 15 slices = 3.3 carbs/slice

Thanks
 

Thanks for this post. I've been trying to find a recipe that I like. Final & Gabi's were down right awful. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've tried a couple of recipes that were not the best looking (ugliest!) I've ever seen :p . Gabi's pushed the top of my breadmaker up and inch!! Therefore, I must be doing something wrong. It's obvious that LC bread is just not the same in a bread machine as the "taboo" stuff. So, my question is regarding the kneading and rise periods. Do you just knead, let rise in a bowl and bake in the oven? Or is the two rise periods in a BM too much? How many times does your machine knead and rise? I'd really like to find a reasonably good recipe that I can make "hamburger" buns out of along with a good loaf of bread.

Thanks.

Making one's bread rise just the right amount is a tricky business. In the experimental loaves I got everything form a two-inch loaf to an eight-inch blowout. Here are some of the factors:

Sugar: A little more sugar gives the yeast more food, and more rising power. In this recipe, going from 1 teaspoon to 1 1/2 teaspoons made all the difference between a short loaf and a perfect loaf.

Water temperature: Make sure it is between 100 and 110 degrees F. I use a thermometer to check the temperature. That's the temperature the yeast likes. Use rapid-rise yeast.

Kneading/rising. My bread machine appears to knead the bread twice. For one of the experimental loaves, I tried turning off the machine before the second kneading and baking it later, but I ended up with a short-loaf. There were other factors at play here, however, so it may be worth trying again. I only used 1 teaspoon of sugar in that loaf, and I believe the bread machine keeps the dough slightly warm during the rising cycle, so turning it off may have slowed the rising considerably. Maybe I should have let it sit longer.

I haven't tried the recipe without a bread machine, but I imagine it could be modified to work with traditional baking methods. traditional baking is too much trouble for me however. I like the concept of dumping ingredients in a bread machine and getting hot bread three hours later :) .

I should have warned everyone that I live in the Mile High city (5280 feet), so altitude is a factor. At sea-level the recipe may need a little tweaking.

Woowho!
 

After reading a lot of posts regarding bread made with vital wheat flour, I decided to give this a try. I just let my bread maker go through the knead process once. I think my machine was over-working the gluten. Took the dough out and gently shaped it and put in an oiled pan to rise. After doubled, baked in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. This made a beautiful shaped, browned loaf. And the taste is marvelous. Just like a good wheat bread.

I think the keys were not overworking the dough and only one rise. I use SAF instant yeast and I cut it back to one teaspoon.

Finally! Thanks :D

Question
 

mhampton,

How big do your loaves get? I tried yesterday and got about a 4" loaf. I'm trying again today changing the order around a bit. It doesn't look like it's going to rise. Any ideas?

Thanks

Hmm.
 

Where I live (Denver), breads tend to rise somewhat quicker than at sea level due to the higher altitude, so some adjustments may be in order. Every bread machine is a littel different too.

Here are some things you can try. I wouldn't try them all at once, however:

1) Use a little more sugar. I got short loaves with 1 teaspoon, and perfect loaves with 1 1/2 teaspoons. You might try 2 teaspoons. From what I understand about yeast consuming the sugar in bread, I believe this should not affect the carb-count too much, but I could be wrong about that.

2) Make sure the water/butter/sugar/egg mixture is closer to 110 than 100.

3) Use only a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

4) Try a bread-machine cycle that allows more rising time. Maybe a wheat-bread cycle?

Good luck. 4 inches isn't all that bad for a first attempt. It sounds like you only need a small adjustment. Good luck!

It Worked
 

mhampton,

I got a real nice loaf this try. I increased the sugar to 2 teaspoons, reduced the yeast to 1 teaspoon, the wheat gluten to 1 cup and the bran to 3/4. Apparently my bread machine dosen't like mixing all the wet ingredients together. I put a room tempature egg in first, dry stuff, and then the water with proofed sugar and yeast in last. Very nice loaf. It's still hot so haven't tasted it yet. Thank you very much for your help.

Fantastic! Glad it worked for you. The texture of the bread isn't exactly equivalent to wheat bread, but it tastes pretty good and has none of those funky soy or whey flavors.

I even used it for French toast over the weekend. (Freedom toast for the less tolerant among us)

I tried the recipe here in Edmonton (elevation 2200) and did it the old fashion way. I don't own a bread machine so I did all the work by hand.

I did a double batch with the following changes from the original recipe -
- added 1/2 cup ground flax seed instead of doubling the oat flour (which I ground myself from oatmeal - seemed to work great!)
- I also finely ground my bran as well.
- and I used Stevia instead of Splenda.

The bread raised perfectly (I only let it rise once) and the texture was wonderful. It has a taste that is very close to whole wheat bread.

I would recommend mhampton's recipe for others to try!!

I also used this recipe for making hamburger buns. They turned out beautifully. They are light and large enough for a patty and they toast well too.

Thank You for sharing your recipe.
I presume this creates a so-called "1-lb loaf". Has anyone tried it as a 1-1/2 lb loaf (with suitable increases in ingredients)?

Please help..low carb bread???
 

Hi all,
I was just wondering if someone could please help me on the amount of carbs in Gluten Flour because I have read on one of the recipes that 1 and 1/4 cups has 30 g of carbs....yet on the packet of Soland gluten flour I bought it said that 100g = 72 grams of carbs.
From what I could work out 1 cup = 4 0z = 125 grams which would make the bread along with the soy flour, flaxmeal etc so very much higher in carbs, am I reading it wrong or are we eating high carb bread???

TARA'S BROWN BREAD
(based on Gabi's Bread)

1 pkg dry yeast (or 2 teaspoons)
½ t sugar (gets totally eated by the yeast)
1 C warm water
3 T olive oil
1 ½ t baking powder (1.65)
1 t salt
1 ¼ C gluten flour (30)
¾ C soy flour (15.3)
¼ C flaxmeal (2.46)
¼ C wheat bran (3.15)

Place yeast, sugar and water in bottom of breadmaker pan, and check that the yeast is active. Then add all other ingredients, and run through usual 4 hour cycle in breadmaker. I cut this into 19 slices, which is 2.77g carbs per slice. (Total 52.56g after fibre subtracted)

or

Run through dough cycle of breadmaker (or mix by hand), then divide into 2 loaves, place in loaf pans, and let rise in a slightly warm oven for 40 mins. Cook in oven at 190 C for 40 minutes. Makes two small loaves of 19 slices each, 1.39 g carbs each slice.


:)

There's a big, big difference (carb-count wise) between "vital wheat gluten" and "gluten flour." Vital wheat gluten is ~75% protein, while gluten flour typically contains < 15% protein. Here's a link which will give you more information:

http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/gluten.html

Thankyou so much mhampton,
I will read that now....I havent got the package information here as it is at a friends but I swear I read under the ingredient that it said Vital wheat gluten flour...will double check...again thankyou... :wave: