Baking - substituting flours etc. Basic principles?

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Windy

Windy

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I'm trying to work out how to adapt recipes I already knew how to make with wheat flour to lower carb alternatives. I get that I'd swap sugar with sweetner, but the rest is less clear.
I realise I should buy a book on low carb baking, but they seem to have US cup measurements. I'd like to cook Staffordshire oatcakes and Welsh cakes, and they're unlikely to be in an American book. I'd have to be stingy with the sultanas in the Welsh cakes as they're sugary.

From googling, I've found out that:
  • one part coconut flour replaces 4 parts of wheat flour, but you need to add 1 egg for every 28g of coconut flour as it dries the food out.
  • the ratio of almond to coconut flour is 3:1 to make it comparable in texture to wheat flour
  • you can replace wheat flour with 1:1 ratio of almond flour
  • Use wheat gluten in lower carb bread so the dough is stretchy like wheat dough.
There's ingredients I don't own but I've seen in recipes (unsure to buy any of them):
  • flax seed meal (think these are linseeds)
  • arrowroot starch
  • tapioca flour
  • xantham gum
  • stevia (sweetner)
  • cream of tartar
  • psyllium husks - (can make you "go", as it's v fibrous)
The keto recipes I've looked at are exceptionally calorific; full of eggs, double cream and cheese. I'm trying to lose weight, and don't want to lead myself astray by baking something with a million calories in.

Am I about right with the ratios for almond/coconut flour?
Will everything I cook taste like a Bakewell tart or macaroon due to the substituted flours?
Wheat bread flour has 12-14% gluten, do I substitute some of the almond/coconut flour with that much wheat gluten?
Is oat bran swappable with porridge oats? It's got similar cals and carbs, but it's meant to be much slower to digest, so better for blood glucose (I'd need to test this, as I'm not sure how true it would be for me).
Are there any other flours I can consider? In addition to regular supermarkets, I can get to a huge Indian supermarket which sells gram/chickpea flour, sorghum, millet flour, and loads of others, but they all look quite carby.

Cheers, Sarah
PS sorry for the long post
 
Hi Windy
I'm a novice Baker, only baked 3 things up until now have a look at sugerfreelondoners website, loads of recipes etc on there.
These are what I made today
 

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They look beautiful @Martin62, I'll have a go at baking them first (as long as I have the ingredients). Cheers, Sarah
 
keto welsh cakes recipe HERE or on this site HERE
 
Cheers @janw they look lovely too, I'll save the links to have a go at making them. 🙂
 
@Windy I have only baked with almond flour not any of the other flours mentioned. It generally needs more moisture than ordinary flour and I have used Greek Yoghurt. I did post a recipe for Low carb cake here which uses the same amount of yoghurt as butter. It's very moist, very tasty and you can add different flavours.

I use arrowroot starch rather than flour to thicken sauces, you use it like cornflour rather than making a roux with butter. The advantage is that you can thicken clear sauces without making them cloudy. I believe Xantham gum is used for thickening too.

I understand @nonethewiser is compiling a keto cookbook. Have a search for her postings, (she's posted about a lovely looking apple pie on the "What did you eat yesterday" thread) or perhaps she will answer your queries?
 
Thanks Pattidevans, your recipe looks easy for me to follow. I'll give it a go. Cheers, Sarah
 
I lost 50lb eating high calorie foods - and I wasn't even trying - foods which are nutritious with vitamins, minerals, protein and fat mean that it is not just possible to eat less but make it almost inevitable as we are not prompted by hunger.
 
50lb is excellent weight loss.
If I manage to lose that much myself, I'll be really pleased!
 
Windy said:
50lb is excellent weight loss.
If I manage to lose that much myself, I'll be really pleased!
Click to expand...

I used to make muffins out of a combination of gram flour, almond flour and coconut flour.
Several eggs, baking powder, milk, cheddar cheese, bacon.
Very low carb, very high calorie, and I can assure you that I didn't eat less of them.
Be very careful, even Dr Moseley's new keto diet has severe calorie restrictions.
That's why I decided to go low fat and calorie count and do the Newcastle diet to lose 5 stone and reverse my diabetes.
I think the crux of the matter is that as Drummer says, she has actually lost her appetite, so eats a very small amount of food, despite the high calorie content of that small amount, it's still low calorie.
I'm not entirely sure any low carbers still eat the 3000+ calories a day I used to until I was diagnosed.
 
Cheers Travellor. I've got gram, almond and coconut flour, and all the other things except bacon (am vegetarian, have some bogus bacon from M and S in the freezer). I'll make something at the weekend when I have time.

I'm the human embodiment of a greedy labrador, so I'll need to restrict my calories forever, I fear.

I stared, longingly, at a block of delicious cheese in my fridge earlier, then got my phone out and looked at the unhealthy, fat, jowly photo of my face I took I was diagnosed, and closed the fridge. Old me would have sliced a chunk off and eaten it on a cracker. Hopefully it gets easier in time.
 
Windy said:
Cheers Travellor. I've got gram, almond and coconut flour, and all the other things except bacon (am vegetarian, have some bogus bacon from M and S in the freezer). I'll make something at the weekend when I have time.

I'm the human embodiment of a greedy labrador, so I'll need to restrict my calories forever, I fear.

I stared, longingly, at a block of delicious cheese in my fridge earlier, then got my phone out and looked at the unhealthy, fat, jowly photo of my face I took I was diagnosed, and closed the fridge. Old me would have sliced a chunk off and eaten it on a cracker. Hopefully it gets easier in time.
Click to expand...

It definitely does.
I enjoy food, I actually enjoy being hungry and looking forward to eating as well.
The problem I used to have was not stopping once I started.
I found the Newcastle diet reset that, so I eat a sensible amount now, and enjoy eating it.

I still use gram flour, it has a different, stronger taste.
I use to experiment a bit, make a note of what I put into each batch, expect a few mistakes, and alter the recipe next time.
 
Windy said:
I'm trying to work out how to adapt recipes I already knew how to make with wheat flour to lower carb alternatives. I get that I'd swap sugar with sweetner, but the rest is less clear.
I realise I should buy a book on low carb baking, but they seem to have US cup measurements. I'd like to cook Staffordshire oatcakes and Welsh cakes, and they're unlikely to be in an American book. I'd have to be stingy with the sultanas in the Welsh cakes as they're sugary.

From googling, I've found out that:
  • one part coconut flour replaces 4 parts of wheat flour, but you need to add 1 egg for every 28g of coconut flour as it dries the food out.
  • the ratio of almond to coconut flour is 3:1 to make it comparable in texture to wheat flour
  • you can replace wheat flour with 1:1 ratio of almond flour
  • Use wheat gluten in lower carb bread so the dough is stretchy like wheat dough.
There's ingredients I don't own but I've seen in recipes (unsure to buy any of them):
  • flax seed meal (think these are linseeds)
  • arrowroot starch
  • tapioca flour
  • xantham gum
  • stevia (sweetner)
  • cream of tartar
  • psyllium husks - (can make you "go", as it's v fibrous)
The keto recipes I've looked at are exceptionally calorific; full of eggs, double cream and cheese. I'm trying to lose weight, and don't want to lead myself astray by baking something with a million calories in.

Am I about right with the ratios for almond/coconut flour?
Will everything I cook taste like a Bakewell tart or macaroon due to the substituted flours?
Wheat bread flour has 12-14% gluten, do I substitute some of the almond/coconut flour with that much wheat gluten?
Is oat bran swappable with porridge oats? It's got similar cals and carbs, but it's meant to be much slower to digest, so better for blood glucose (I'd need to test this, as I'm not sure how true it would be for me).
Are there any other flours I can consider? In addition to regular supermarkets, I can get to a huge Indian supermarket which sells gram/chickpea flour, sorghum, millet flour, and loads of others, but they all look quite carby.

Cheers, Sarah
PS sorry for the long post
Click to expand...
Hello.
I have a page on Facebook - see my signature at the bottom of the post. I have been using keto as a way of keeping my diabetes under control for nearly three years now.
I am indeed the one compiling my second recipe book at the moment.
I had butterfly cakes for breakfast this morning made with a mix of almond flour, coconut flour and some psyllium husk and oat fibre - yum
Screen Shot 2022-01-07 at 4.20.45 PM.png

Basically - almond flour/ground almond is great and makes moist cakes and bread but it won't hold together without something to help it - such as eggs or xanthan gum or psyllium husk or a mix of those. Coconut flour makes things more dry so I use it to increase lightness or to counteract the density of almond flour. I use oat fibre or bamboo fibre to add lightness and reduce the carb content even further - they have next to no taste. Almond flour does not make an almond taste. I make keto marzipan with it and need a lot of almond extract to get the marzipan taste.

If you want a yeasty type risen result - you can use vital wheat gluten along with yeast and a small amount of sugar which gets 'eaten' by the yeast to produce gas that rises the dough. The vital wheat gluten forms the elastic structure characteristic of bread but it has almost no carb content.

There is a thread on this forum called Let's learn how to bake/cook keto which has a few recipes up already.
 
Thanks @NotWorriedAtAll that's really kind of you.
I'm a reasonably confident cook, but with wheatflour, potatoes etc, so was boggled by the new ingredients. I've got another month of 800 cals a day, then I'll have a go at baking. It'll give me a chance to order in psyllium husks etc. and start small with simpler recipes.
I'll have a look in Facebook next time I sign in 🙂.
Thanks again, Sarah
 
Windy said:
Thanks @NotWorriedAtAll that's really kind of you.
I'm a reasonably confident cook, but with wheatflour, potatoes etc, so was boggled by the new ingredients. I've got another month of 800 cals a day, then I'll have a go at baking. It'll give me a chance to order in psyllium husks etc. and start small with simpler recipes.
I'll have a look in Facebook next time I sign in 🙂.
Thanks again, Sarah
Click to expand...
Be careful when ordering psyllium husk. Make sure you order blond psyllium husk. The other sort turns your food an unappetising dark blue/purple colour. I made that mistake recently when I got psyllium husk powder as a promotional item and didn't check and my lovely shortbread biscuits were all dark and purple!!
They tasted the same really but I didn't enjoy them as much as if they'd been nice and golden.
 
I personally choose to avoid them where possible. Old ones are being reevaluated on safety. For the new ones ... where is the long term data?
But that's me. As a pre-diabetic I have more options and can choose something naturally sweetened, eg with fruit, or use minimal sugar.
I'm thinking of trying some muffins .. technically the recipe does not need sugar (you can make savoury muffins). As sugar is optional then it can be reduced quite severely even in a sweet muffin.
 
s'nic said:
I personally choose to avoid them where possible. Old ones are being reevaluated on safety. For the new ones ... where is the long term data?
But that's me. As a pre-diabetic I have more options and can choose something naturally sweetened, eg with fruit, or use minimal sugar.
I'm thinking of trying some muffins .. technically the recipe does not need sugar (you can make savoury muffins). As sugar is optional then it can be reduced quite severely even in a sweet muffin.
Click to expand...
I find if I use almond flour/ground almonds it has plenty natural sweetness and I don't need to add any other sweetener.
For example I make a fruit crumble topping with ground almonds, keto granola , seeds and butter.
 
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