Low FODMAP breadmaking
Just when you thought dietary preferences couldn't get any more high-maintenance . . . My husband started a low-FODMAP diet a few months ago. It is sort of the latest dietary crazy BUT he has suffered from IBS all his life and had terrible cramps and he feels 100 percent better following this. FODMAPS are a group of carbohydrates some people have difficulty digesting . . . they are not proteins or oils . . . so gluten is NOT a FODMAP but wheat, spelt, barley, rye, kamut are. Oats and amaranth have moderate amounts. There are a whole bunch of other foods that are high in FODMAPS that need to be avoided--many of them find their way into GF FOODS (bean flours, dry milk, agave, chicory, garlic, etc).
So this is my question: I want to add gluten to a GF flour but I am not entirely sure how to substitute or what to expect. I was watching the Breadtopia sourdough starter video earlier and he mentioned rice flour not being as absorbent. Any idea what would be the best flour to do this with? Also, I found David's reply on a different thread and that is exactly what I was thinking but I am still unsure and wondering if anyone has tried this or what other modifications I should probably make.
Well, you could use some wheat free/ gluten free flour, and add the gluten back in with Vital Wheat Gluten. Technically, you'd be getting a tiny amount of wheat. But you'd be getting a large amount of gluten highly concentrated, so it wouldn't take much added to the recipe to do the trick. The VWG I have is 8g protein in every 12g of the powder. If you mixed 25g of that VWG for every 100g GF flour, you'd have about as much gluten as a decent white bread flour. A good loaf could possibly be made of maybe 400g GF flour, 300g water, 100g VWG, and half a packet of yeast. You could do the same with any flour you want to try to use, I guess. It stands to reason you may have to knead a little more to make sure all the gluten is well distributed and well developed throughout the loaf, since it isn't an integral part of the flour. Bake at maybe 350F to 375F for about 35 to 40 minutes for a soft pan loaf. Higher temp and steam for a crusty boule. If you really want a crusty boule, batard, or baguette, you should also use more water to make up for the higher heat.
Any help or suggestions would be very helpful .
BTW, the low FODMAP diet sounds weird and very draconian but after a while you are supposed to start to try out different foods to see which ones are tolerable and which ones really cause problems. Spelt sourdough is supposedly low FODMAP and tolderable (because of the fermentation) but that is a couple of weeks away.