Most bookmarked

Hi,
I made a phone application wich is a tool on the design of breads, leavens and pizzas totally free and without ads. I do not want anything in return, just if you find an interest in using it or talking about it on your blog or forum. It is available at the following address:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_anon5561891870815.make_your_bread_Pains_et_pizzas_

it's in french but very easy to undestand and translate.

Thank you

I have many french friends here in Mexico. Some of them are bakers. So talking about bread and fermentation is what we usually do. One of the things we talked in our last meeting was Levain pateaux. What's that? Let's say it's a levain with the consistency or the texture of a pâte fermentée. But it doesn't include salt. So it's a stiffer levain. Ok. Which benefits? Adds more strenght to the dough. More You prepare it from the liquid levain starter you have. Less lactic acidity. I have made it several times and it works fantastic, specially for loaves and all kind of bread you require a good structure. This is how I made this avocado bread. This is a very usual system in french bakeries. Liquid levain for baguettes, small pieces of bread, pain viennoise (any kind of bread you require elasticity and thin crust) and levain pateaux made from the same liquid starter for big sized bread with thick crust (loaves, boules, batards, etc).

Levain pateaux: 100 gr liquid levain (mature) + 200 gr strong flour + 100 ml water. Mix until you get a nice dough. Temperature of the levain, around 26-28ºC. Let rest one hour and store in fridge until next day.

Final dough: 1 kilo of flours + 650 ml water + 400 gr levain pateaux + 22 gr salt. This time, the weather is hot in Mexico so I use the levain pateaux direct from the fridge. Anyway, the temperature of the dough after mixing around 26-28ºC, the temperature when natural yeast and bacterias are happy. Bulk rise around 2 hours aprox, maybe you can make 1 fold to give more strenght to the dough. Then divide, put the the avocado cubes inside every ball, and shape like batard. Final fermentation around 1h to 1h30m, and then bake. So as you can see it's a very quick method to bake, if you levain pateaux is powerful.

I've seen several photos like these before, mainly on Instagram. This one came from a post by trianglebakehouse:

I can't say I ever get bubbles like that in my spiral mixer, but then it's a lot smaller and never as fully loaded.

I'm just wondering if these are air bubbles or CO2?

Any thoughts? Has anyone else ever experienced them?

Lance

Special Needs Bread- low carb recipe - needs help. 

No real bread for us because of the amount of carbs, so I gave up on sourdough bread.  I am working on a Keto bread for sandwiches and buns, but the outside crust on the buns is a little tough to bite into. The sandwich loaf is not that big of a problem since the surface crust is less, but I would like to use 1 recipe for both. I have tried many different low carb bread recipes,  and this is the closest to real bread that I have found, but I still need to adjust the recipe.

Here is MY understanding of the ingredients I am using and how they act in baking bread. (Ingredients I am currently using)

1. Vital Wheat Gluten- adds protein, strength, and structure, but very expensive if using large amounts. High protein.

2. Flaxseed Meal- thickener, makes a gel which helps with bubbles/rise, needs warm water. More carbs than fiber but close to the same amount, high protein. Mix with dry ingredients.

3. Oat Fiber- (not bran) high in fiber, binds up to 7x water, adds bulk, more carbs than fiber, but not too much, zero protein. Mix with dry ingredients.

4. Psyllium Husk Powder- less is better because it can make bread rubbery/spongy, it thickens/binds, mix with dry ingredients before adding liquids, needs about 10 minutes to absorb liquids, more carbs than fiber but they are almost the same. Zero protein.

5. Xanthan Gum- thickening/binding agent, helps elasticity,  use a very small amount, add with dry ingredients, gels in liquids, absorbs.

6. Wheat Protein Isolate- (wheat flour with starch removed), helps with rise/strength/chewiness. Has more carbs than whey protein isolate, has small amount of fiber, high protein.

7. Whey Protein Isolate- high protein, zero carbs, zero fiber. 

Cost wise and carb wise: most expensive/most carbs = vital wheat gluten. Then oat fiber and flaxseed meal. Plus the gluten has a lot of protein.

Current recipe: makes 704 g of dough (Baked= 629 g) 32g slice = 81 calories, 3.5 g fat, 0.9 sat fat, 22g cholesterol, 27.4 g sodium, 5.5 g carbs, 2.5 g fiber, 0.6 g sugars, 8.4 g protein. Net carbs= 3 g.

Vital wheat gluten   192 g = 38.4g carbs, 0 fiber, 134.4 g protein

Flaxseed Meal (ground)   84 g  = 25.8 g carbs, 19.4 g fiber, 19.4 protein

Oat Fiber    38 g = 38 g carbs, 28,5 g fiber, 0 g protein

Erythritol   27 g   4 g carbs (4 erythritol zeroes out carbs)

Yeast   11 g   

Sea salt   1 tsp   

Xanthan Gum  1/2 tsp = 7 g carbs, 7 g fiber

Butter  30 g  

Honey  7 g   = 5.6 g carbs, 0 fiber, 0 protein (for yeast)

Warm water  250 g

2 large eggs

All ingredients at room temperature.  All dry ingredients whisked together. All liquids whisked together. Then combine the two. All ingredients at room temperature Knead 15 min with Ankarsrum dough hook. Let rise 2-3 hours at 78-80°F. Bake 20 minutes at 350°F. (Preheated oven on middle rack in a metal pan.)

My goals:

1. Lowest carb possible without being rubbery, gummy, eggy, or spongy.

2. Strong enough for a burger bun.

3. Lower the protein and calories, if possible.

4. No almond flour or cheese. 

My questions:

1. What can I do to make the buns' crust easier to bite into? They are very soft, but tough. The buns remind me of milk bread rolls...they spring back up when you squash them. A little difficult to slice because of that.

2. What would you suggest I do to use less vital wheat gluten?  That is a huge amount of gluten to use. We don't have a problem with eating gluten, but I have no idea what that amount of gluten does to our bodies. Harmful? 

2. Should I add whey protein isolate or wheat protein isolate? Whey has less carbs than wheat protein isolate, but only a small amount.

3. Should I add Psyllium husk powder? Will that make it tougher?

4. For percentages, since there is no flour, should I consider the oat fiber, Xanthan gum, flaxseed, and wheat gluten as 100% like flour. Or does baker's percentage no longer apply? 

5. What caused it to collapse after it had cooled for a half hour? 

6. Do I need to reduce the amount of butter? 

With the current recipe, it is not sticky and is easy to work with even though it is very elastic. Eventually, the dough fills the pan when rising. 

It rises well. After cooling in the pan for 10-15 minutes, I removed the bread loaf to a rack to cool. The top collapsed slightly after it had cooled for about 20 minutes. It had a nice, high dome until the collapse. The loaf is currently about 4 " tall, but it was 6 or 7" tall when it first came out of the oven. The buns collapsed slightly, but were still 1.5-2" tall, and they held up well for a burger.

Texture is good. Not eggy or spongy. I put it in a paper bag, and you can see the greasy bag from the butter and seeds. 

I tried to write all the details down, but I am sure there is something I forgot about. I would like to change one ingredient at a time until I get it right. Or as right as it can be considering it is not real bread.

Any advice on using less gluten and having less carbs? 

Thanks for your time.