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Baking bread

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To be honest bread recipes don't generally require much sugar (well not the ones I've seen that require sugar at all) and as its carbs that we struggle to deal with the flour would be the most concerning part of the recipe xx
 
Thank you for your reply. Have got my bread maker out after a long time, and tend to make wholemeal and rye bread. The recipes usually are for a teaspoon of sugar and was wondering if there was a substitute for the sugar.
 
There's no substitute for the sugar as it activates the yeast. One teaspoon of sugar (4 carbs) is not going to make any difference to your carb count over a whole loaf of bread. So enjoy 🙂
 
there are recipes that don't use sugar but 1 teaspoon is nothing compared to the carbohydrates in the flour so its not worth worrying about just the sugar xx
 
I quite often use the Wright's oat and linseed bread mix which has minimal effect on my blood sugars as long as I weigh it out and take the correct amount of insulin for it.
 
I agree with the others - one teaspoon of sugar in a loaf is not going to make the slightest difference.

I think this is one of the perils of the Government etc focussing so much attention on sucrose. A bowl of cornflakes is going to have pretty much exactly the same (disastrous in my case) effect on your blood glucose whether you sprinkle a spoon of sugar on it or not.

The body doesn’t differentiate all that much between table sugar and many other forms of carbohydrate. It breaks them all down into glucose just the same.
 
The sugar will may no difference what so ever. Sugar is made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the yeast converts this into carbon dioxide gas and water. The gas is what makes the bread rise. Without the sugar (substitutes will not work) the bread will be like a house brick!

You leave the dough in a warm place and the yeast goes to work. This is called "proving". Then some of the gas is knocked out "knocking back", before it is baked.

American style bread often has more sugar than the yeast uses and may be sweet.

The flour contains starch and although starch is also carbon, hydrogen and oxygen the proportions are different and yeast will not change the starch. Our own bodies will add hydrogen and oxygen (water) to the starch to make glucose - This is the problem.

Type 1 can use extra insulin; type 11 probably can not! A little might be fine a lot - not.
 
I don't use sugar in my bread. I simply use water, flour (75% wholemeal with 25% white), sunflower oil, a small amount of salt (less than suggested) and yeast as specified. I don't add the skimmed milk powder or sugar as stated in my breadmaker book and the bread is fine. Yeast doesn't need sugar to activate. My book also suggests adding a crushed vitamin C tablet to increase the rise in the bread, but I haven't tried that, I don't think I need to.
 
The problem with home made bread is that it doesn't keep that well and it tastes and smells delicious and it is not possible to cut it thinly so consequently for all those reasons you end up eating far more of it than you should and in my case, even 3/4 wholemeal would put my BG levels higher than Everest! I guess I really need to find a new home for my bread maker and free up some cupboard space!
 
rebrascora said:
The problem with home made bread is that it doesn't keep that well and it tastes and smells delicious and it is not possible to cut it thinly so consequently for all those reasons you end up eating far more of it than you should and in my case, even 3/4 wholemeal would put my BG levels higher than Everest! I guess I really need to find a new home for my bread maker and free up some cupboard space!
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The bread freezes very well and if you make a small loaf it's a lot easier to cut 🙂
 
Pumper_Sue said:
The bread freezes very well and if you make a small loaf it's a lot easier to cut 🙂
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Yes I am sure you are right.... but I just don't have the willpower to limit my intake when it tastes so good. I guess I am an all or nothing girl!
 
I have bought some wheat gluten so that I can make 'normal' yeast risen bread using the alternative powders I have been experimenting with, coconut flour, psyllium flour ground almonds milled seeds - all added to my normal bread recipe, but they expand it to several times the size. I make rolls and freeze them.
I will probably try out different quantities over Christmas.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
There's no substitute for the sugar as it activates the yeast. One teaspoon of sugar (4 carbs) is not going to make any difference to your carb count over a whole loaf of bread. So enjoy 🙂
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I suppose that if you use fresh yeast and a bit of barley malt you get the same effect. Any way the carbs level of a teaspoon is neglegible.
 
rebrascora said:
Yes I am sure you are right.... but I just don't have the willpower to limit my intake when it tastes so good. I guess I am an all or nothing girl!
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I know that feeling well hence the freezer solution. As soon as it's cool half goes in the freezer already sliced so temptation is removed 🙂
 
I have just realised that baking bread is an anagram of breaking bad! Although, I assume this was already known to most people familiar with that TV series. 🙂

Meanwhile, back on subject. I often make spelt loaves in my breadmaker and they use honey instead of sugar.
 
Honey, sugar, no difference. Honey is a mix of fructose and glucose. Yeast isn’t fussy. It’s used in spelt loaves because they are historically made that way.

Sourdough bread doesn’t use sugar at all.
 
A bread roll with 30 gm of carb (and wholemeal flour and seeds etc) put my blood glucose into double figures.
The same amount of carbs from other sources and I would not even hit 8mmol/l.
If you are eating bread, in any form (or other grains) you really need to test carefully or you could be doing yourself no favour.
 
harrydocuk said:
What is the best substitute for sugar for making bread.
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I think inulin is sweet but the obvious one is Stevia.

However in bread baking the amount of sugar is so small I personally wouldn't worry too much. Bread itself is high in carbs but then the amount depends of what flours you are using. You should be able to check the carb amount on the back of the flour packets. They say wholemeal is better because it converts to glucose much slower than white for instance. I can't eat wholemeal I find it far too heavy, but I do love tescos baked corn bread and rye bread, one slice at a time is manageable for me.
 
IMG_9199.jpg I've been doing without 'real' bread for almost a year now.
Instead I make various keto versions using psyllium husk and almond flour, butter and eggs and baking powder.
I recently found a gluten free bread in Waitrose called BFree brown seeded loaf which is made with a mix of starchy flours, seeds and psyllium husk and oil. It has 12.3g carb per slice and 6.1g fibre per slice and to my delight I discovered it doesn't spike my blood sugar levels one little bit!!

I'm so happy. My Christmas treat will be a soft boiled egg with real buttery toast for breakfast.
Every so often something like this happens and I get so excited.
 
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