De-Carbing Strategy #2, Part Whatever

Low carb yeast bread. Oy. It can be done, but it's fluky, and while it won't jack your blood sugar around, I'm not sure it's good for you. More and more, I'm of the opinion that gluten isn't great for anyone, and wheat isn't really food, at least not for human beings. That said...

I have several good low carb yeast bread recipes; I've included them in several books, starting with 500 Low-Carb Recipes. Those recipes have been the source of more trouble than any other recipes I have published. I've gotten lots of email about them, and it falls into one of two categories: "Omigosh! This bread is awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" or "I can't get this stupid bread to rise for love nor money. Do you know how expensive these ingredients are? How do I fix this?"

Boy, I wish I knew. The problem is, bread baking has so many variables, it's really hard to know what's wrong. All of my recipes worked wonderfully for me, of course, or I wouldn't have put them in the books -- indeed, I've had some of 'em rise so well the lifted the top of my bread machine. But still, here is a not-necessarily-exhaustive list of things that can influence bread's rising:

* Yeast is too old
* Yeast is newer than mine -- your bread rose too quickly, then fell!
* Water is too hard
* The weather is too nasty -- bread rises better on sunny days, don't ask me why
* The order you put things into your bread machine
* Your gluten flour isn't the same as my gluten flour
* You got a little too much salt.

I'm sure there are things I'm missing. Bread baking is complex even with the usual ingredients.

That said, let me give you an idea of how I have created the bread recipes I have:

First of all, yeast bread generally needs gluten. Yes, there are gluten-free breads on the market, but they aren't low carb. I'm unsure you can cut out both the carbs and the gluten and still get anything resembling bread.

To keep the bread seriously low carb you'll want "vital wheat gluten." I usually buy Bob's Red Mill brand, which is widely distributed. This is the protein fraction of wheat flour, separated from the starch. It is gluten that makes yeast dough stretchy. This is what allows the dough to blow up, like a billion tiny balloons, as the yeast creates carbon dioxide. Most of my low carb bread recipes call for somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 cup of gluten for a 1 1/2 pound loaf -- or rather, a loaf made in a 1 1/2 pound-sized bread machine.

Along with the gluten, yeast bread must contain some carbohydrate. Why? Because carbohydrate is what yeast eats. Without some carb, the yeast won't grow, and the bread won't rise. With low carb yeast bread we're always walking a line between just enough carbohydrate/too little carbohydrate/too much carbohydrate. Carbohydrates can be in the form of starch or sugar; the yeasts don't much care. Starches I have used include oatmeal or oat flour, small quantities of whole wheat flour, low carb instant "mashed potato" mix (which includes some dehydrated potato), and whole grain rye flour. Sweet carbs I have used include molasses, sugar-free pancake syrup, low sugar orange marmalade, and sucanat.

Then we're looking at stuff to make up the rest of the volume of the bread. I have used almond meal and vanilla whey protein (or rice protein for breads where I want absolutely no sweetness), just like I do for cookies and quick breads, but often also add various forms of fiber -- oat bran, wheat bran, rice bran, flax meal, even psyllium husk. (Psyllium husk is the fiber found in Metamucil. You can buy plain psyllium husk in bulk at many health food stores.) I most commonly use about as much almond meal and protein powder -- mixed, 50/50 -- as gluten, and about half that of some form of protein -- so the ratio looks like this: 4 parts gluten/2 parts almond meal/2 parts protein powder/1 part fiber.

I also sometimes add wheat germ, which isn't exactly a concentrated carb, nor a concentrated fiber. 1/4 cup wheat germ has 15 grams of carb with 4 grams of fiber, but also 7 grams of protein, and some B vitamins, zinc, iron, and potassium to boot. Compared to 24 grams of carb, 1 gram of fiber, and 3 grams of protein in 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour, that's pretty good, and wheat germ lends a whole-grain-wheat flavor to your low carb baked goods.

I'm tired. It's 8 pm on Saturday, and we haven't had supper yet. I'm going to post this as-is, and I'll continue tomorrow.