Can anyone tell me where to get Rice Protein Powder & Vital Wheat Gluten in the UK? (Is it the same as rice flour/gluten flour?)

If I can't get them what can I substitute?

Is flaxmeal the same as ground flax and Soy Powder the same as Soy Flour?

We have 3 types of cream in the UK, Single, Double and Whipping. I assume single is what you call 'cream' and Double is Heavy Cream?.

So many questions. I love my new recipe book (Dana Carpender) but so far there is nothing I can make!

I found the answer to the cream (below)

Any comments on the rest would be welcome. I think I have way more questions than answers

In the US, cream is usually sold as:

Half-and-half (12% fat)
Whipping cream and whipped cream (30%)
Heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream (36%)
Manufacturer's cream (40%), mostly available from food-services supply wholesalers rather than groceries
Also common in the US is sour cream, which is cream that has been subjected to a bacterial culture that produces lactic acid, producing a sour taste, and that thickens the cream as well.


In the UK, cream is usually sold as:

Half cream (12%)
Single cream or Light cream (18%)
Whipping cream (35%)
Double cream (48%)
In the UK, clotted cream is a very high fat (55%) product processed with heat.

1) Flaxmeal is the same as ground flax (as far as I know)
2) Soy Powder could be any powder obtained from soy. However, my guess is that they mean Soy PROTEIN powder, which is definitely NOT the same as soy flour. The protein powder should be over 90% protein (isolate), whereas the flour is roughly "ground soy beans" and is much higher in carb.
3) I do not believe there is in N.Am. an equivalent to UK single cream (or at least is not widely available). Half-and-half is NOT it, because it contains milk (which I think is one of the "half" that gives it its name). I think when people just use the word "cream" in N.Am. they most likely mean what in the UK is called double-cream.

Thanks

I think I'm getting there slowly but surely.

I found one place to get gluten flour on line but they are out of stock. I can't get rice protein anywhere!

Hi Gay,
There are some loverly recipes in the lowcarb and atkins monthly newsletter. It free from thier website at www.atkinsmonthly.com.
The recipes in that did'nt seen to need any special ingredients
Hope that helps.
NBT

Many thanks. I've signed up for it.

If you have the UK version of Dana Carpender's book (500 LC Recipes), be careful with any of the baked recipes as the Splenda amounts given are almost all incorrect, some massively so.
Instead of working out the volume to weight ratio, somebody in the publishing section must have arrived at the conclusion that Splenda weighed the same as sugar, with the result that it looks as if you would need a whole jar (or more) just for one recipe. If you don't adjust for this mistake, as you can imagine, you will have sickening results.
I'm not even sure that the weight for volume is correct with other ingredients and recipes in the book either - there is no standard way of equating one set of measures for another. Just be careful - LC ingredients are expensive enough without wasting them on disasters.
Babs

Many thanks for that. It has no doubt saved me a few disasters. Maybe it should be posted on a 'sticky' somewhere prominent?

Can you give me a couple of examples so I can see what sort of changes I ought to make?

So far I haven't used any of their recipes as it took me a while to track down the ingredients (still haven't found rice protein). My bread machine should arrive soon then I will try her bread recipes.

On the other hand, I could just throw the book in the bin I've tried a couple of recipes of this forum and they were great. Plenty on the net really, just easier with a book in your hand, especially a UK book so you don't have to keep converting, or so I thought!

Don't despair, Gay - I love the book, especially the recipe for Wonderful Wings (p.44). That was worth buying the book alone, as it is my most often used recipe and the one EVERYBODY loves (but I only use about 80g parmesan, not 150).
As for the Splenda recipes, anything that uses weighed Splenda as opposed to teaspoons or tablespoons is wrong - example Cinnamon Raisin Bread (p.129) or Kim's Dutch Baby (p. 134), but there are loads of others. I have the US book (got an exchange free by complaining) so if there's any particular recipe you want to check on, just PM me and I will send the right version in cups. Then you can weigh each ingredient as you go and have the UK version exactly right for yourself. That's what I do all the time now and it works fine.
Also, I use Splenda tabs to save on the carbs in the granular stuff - the conversion I use is as follows:
1 cup Splenda = 48 tabs
1/2 cup = 24 tabs
1 Tablespoon = 3 tabs
As far as I can determine, it takes about 11 tabs for 1 carb, as opposed to 2 teaspoons of Splenda for the same one carb - that represents quite a saving.
I hope this is helpful to you, but you're also right about the huge variety of recipes available on the net created by some brilliant people. I keep a folder on my desktop that is as good as any book.
Babs

That was very useful. I rang the publishers and they are sending me a US version. They said they didn't know about it and hadn't rec'd any complaints

I hesitate to use the tabs although it sounds a great idea. They seem so expensive compared with other tabs. I wonder what the difference is in the ingredients?

[QUOTE=GayClarke]That was very useful. I rang the publishers and they are sending me a US version. They said they didn't know about it and hadn't rec'd any complaints

I wonder how many people were told that one! I got the same response almost a year ago and I'm annoyed that the book is still on sale with the same mistakes. That is soooooooo shortsighted, as many people who might have bought Dana Carpender's other books will be put off by this, which is a shame, as her recipes are great.
FYI, the Low Carb Energy magazine also makes the same mistakes with recipes and they were absolutely impervious to customer complaints, indicating just how little they cared about their customers on this side of the world - I never buy it now as a result and it seems that many people are ignoring it now, too.
Don't be put off by the Splenda tabs - they work fine in virtually everything. Splenda granular, unlike sugar, adds no bulk to recipes, only sweetness, so you are only losing carbs by using tabs.
It would be great if we could get liquid Splenda and I'll never understand why the makers refuse to let us buy it.
Babs

Strange - It seemed quite expensive buying the tabs £3.46 for 300, but when I worked it out 1 cup (25g) is 55p (1US$) which is exactly the same as 48 tabs cost.

I've heard using two different sweeteners makes things sweeter so you can use less. Is there any sense to that?

Yes, there's a synergy effect that seems to work very well and is well documented. I usually use a mixture of Splenda tabs and Stevia, which I obtained from a supplier on Ebay. You can also use some liquid Hermesetas or Sionon, but I prefer the other 2, especially the Stevia as it is a herb.
I use a pestle and mortar to crush the tabs for recipes that have no option for dissolving in liquid - works great!
Babs

Thanks Babs

Silly question but how much less can you use, eg what would 48 tablets be if I split it over different sweetener and does it have to be 50-50 to get the best effect?

I'm afraid there's no easy answer to that one - you'll have to check for yourself and adjust to taste. It also depends on WHAT sweeteners you mix and what version you have. Stevia comes in a lot of different incarnations, with the pure form only needing a very small amount (too much is bitter).
Unfortunately, experimentation is the name of the game. Try using the tablets alone first and then mix the next time to compare.
Babs