De-Carbing Strategy #2 Part 3? Part 4?

Baking is one of the most complex forms of cooking. It’s not like making chili or soup, where a quarter cup of chopped onion more or less, or an extra few ounces of ground beef won’t make a big difference. Baking has to be reasonably precise to work.

Converting standard baking recipes into low carbohydrate recipes is more complicated than converting other sorts of recipes, requiring a variety of ingredients. It’s not as simple as saying, “Instead of a cup of flour, use a cup of X.” There is no one ingredient I’ve found that works well as a one-for-one substitution for flour, or for other starchy ingredients, like cornmeal.

But there’s a bonus: Added flavor. Starch is flavorless. If you doubt it, put a pinch of plain white flour on your tongue. See? Nuthin’. The ingredients we’re going to use instead all actually taste good! Trust me, this does not hurt the flavor of the finished product one bit.

So let’s talk a little about what flour does, and what ingredients can replace it. (Some baseline stats: One cup of all-purpose flour contains 95 grams of carbohydrate (starch), with 3 grams of fiber and 13 grams of protein. ) There are two main functions of flour in baked goods, volume and structure.

Volume: Quite a lot of what flour does in baked goods is very simply make up volume. Indeed, many recipes have been developed simply to turn cheap, flavorless, starchy, high carbohydrate flour into something palatable.

It’s best to make up the volume of baked goods with a combination of ingredients. The ones I use most often are:

Almond meal: You can buy almond meal pre-ground in the baking aisle of most big grocery stores. I make my own: I buy shelled almonds in bulk and run them through my food processor using the S-blade. All of my recipes that call for almond meal will work with either store bought or homemade almond meal. Store almond meal in a snap-top container. 1 ounce of almonds has 6 grams of carb, 3.5 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 2.5 grams.

Pumpkin seed meal: I started baking with pumpkin seed meal after readers with nut allergies asked what they could substitute for almond meal. I have yet to have a recipe using pumpkin seed meal not work out, and I’ve yet to hear of a pumpkin seed allergy. Furthermore, pumpkin seeds are cheaper than almonds, and more nutritious. You can buy shelled pumpkin seeds in bulk at health food stores. You can also find them at Latin American markets, where they will be labeled “pepitas.” 1 ounce of pumpkin seed kernels has 3 grams of carbohydrate with 1.7 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 1.3 grams.

Make pumpkin seed meal like almond meal. Store in a snap-top container.

Almond meal and pumpkin seed meal are generally interchangeable in my recipes.

Flax seed meal: Don’t bother making flax seed meal. The little suckers are just too tough for the average food processor to handle. It’s easier just to buy flax seed meal pre-ground. Around here I can find flax seed meal both at health food stores and in the baking aisle of big grocery stores. I use Bob’s Red Mill Golden Flax Seed Meal. 1 ounce of flax seed has 8.4 grams of carbohydrate with 7.9 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 0.5 grams.

While whole flax seeds keep a long time, they go rancid quite quickly after they’re ground. Buy your flax seed meal from a store with a high turnover, and store it in the freezer.

Flax meal is high in soluble fiber, so it holds moisture in baked goods. It will also lower cholesterol, and can help if you're irregular. It has a mild, pleasant, nutty flavor.

Wheat bran: One cup of wheat bran contains 37 grams of carbohydrate – of which 25 grams are fiber! That’s a lot of fiber. Wheat bran can be used to add bulk and volume to baked goods without a lot of usable carb. It also adds a wheaty taste. On the other hand, wheat bran is high in phytic acid, which can bind minerals.

Wheat germ: Wheat germ has more carb than bran, but far less than flour – 1 cup of wheat germ contains 60 grams of carbohydrate, with 15 grams of fiber. It also is a good source of protein – 27 grams in that cup -- valuable oils, and several B vitamins. Again, it adds a wheaty flavor to baked goods. I buy raw wheat germ at my health food store, or you can use the toasted wheat germ in the cereal aisle at the grocery store.

Oat bran: One cup has 62 grams of carbohydrate with 14 grams of fiber. In small quantities, oat bran adds a nice flavor to many baked goods, and helps hold moisture. Oat bran is also good as a binder in meat loaves, in place of bread crumbs or crushed cereal; I usually use about 1/4-13 as much as whatever starchy binder was called for in the original recipe.

Vanilla whey protein powder: Available at GNC, health food stores, or wherever body building supplements are sold, vanilla whey protein powder has a mild vanilla flavor that works well in many baked goods. It also supplies one of the best, most assimilable forms of protein available, making your baked goods nutritious and satisfying. Because vanilla whey protein is more powdery than nut or seed meals, and has a slightly sticky quality when wet, it helps your baked goods hold together. I often start with a combination of equal parts of vanilla whey and almond meal when substituting for flour in cookies or quick breads; this is a good combination for many things.

I like Designer Whey brand French Vanilla, which I get at GNC or through Vitacost.com, but have used several different brands of vanilla whey protein powder. So long as it has no added sugar – read the ingredient list – it should be fine.

Rice Protein Powder: Made by a company called Nutribiotic, and available through health food stores, rice protein is useful for savory recipes, where vanilla won’t fit. If your health food store doesn’t carry this, they can special order it for you. Substitute unflavored whey protein, if you prefer.

Coconut Flour: This is a recent addition to the low carb pantry, and I confess I have only started experimenting with it in the past year or so. Coconut flour is milled from what is left after the oil is pressed out of coconut. 2 tablespoons of coconut flour -- I couldn't find nutrition-by-weight -- contain 10 grams of carb, of which 6 are fiber, for a usable carb count of 4 grams. Coconut flour is tasty and nutritious, but it does not behave even a teeny bit like the flour you are used to in baking. It sucks up moisture like a truckload of Sham-Wows. For this girl, at least, there is a steep coconut flour learning curve. I haven't been working on it, because I've been a tad busy with 15 minute recipes, and now with slow cooker recipes, but I'll get to it when I'm done with slow cooking, since I've been asked to do coconut recipes for the next Low Carb Cruise. You are coming on the cruise, aren't you?

Structure: Along with starch, wheat flour (both whole wheat flour and white flour) contains a little protein, mostly in a form called gluten. It is gluten that makes bread other yeast doughs stretchy, so that they can blow up like a billion tiny balloons as the yeast multiplies and creates carbon dioxide. This is how yeast bread rises. In cookies, crackers, and quick breads, gluten helps keep them from being too delicate and crumbly.

It is difficult to make good yeast bread while eliminating gluten and starch both; I’m afraid I have no substitute for those of you who are gluten intolerant.

For yeast breads I use pure, separated wheat gluten, sometimes called “vital wheat gluten.” I buy Bob’s Red Mill brand, which I get in the baking aisle at my big grocery store, or at my health food store. One cup of vital wheat gluten has just 12 grams of carbohydrate and 1 gram of fiber, but 189 grams of protein!

More in future posts!