Tag Archives: low carb bread

Breads, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Recipes

Rene’s Corn and Flax Tortillas

Corn is a high carbohydrate food and there is just no way to use masa to make a low carb corn tortilla for this reason. Still, I can do something similar by using a little bit of corn meal, flax meal, ground up baby corn (which is surprisingly low carb) and almond flour. It isn’t the same as a corn tortilla, but it does have some of the flavor. I plan to keep experimenting to try to get closer to the flavor, but in the meantime, this one is a pretty good substitute.

2 tblsp Corn Meal
1/4 cup Almond Meal
1/4 cup Flax Meal
1/4 cup ground Baby Corn
1 tblsp Shortening
2 tblsp Water
Pinch of Salt

Grind the baby corn up in the food processor until it is the texture of meal. (I used canned Dynasty baby corn, which is low in carbohydrates.) Mix the corn meal, almond meal, flax meal and salt together, then add the ground corn. Stir in the shortening and water and mix well until the grains are moist and they pull together into a dough. Add a bit more water if needed.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Heat a griddle to medium heat in preparation.

Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll each into individual balls. Spray a quart sized plastic bag with cooking spray inside, put dough in it and roll with a rolling pin or glass until it is about 4 inches in diameter. Don’t press too hard. The tortilla should be about 1/8″ thick. Very carefully remove the tortilla from the plastic bag by sliding your fingers gently between the bag and the dough. Slide your hand in to support the dough, then flip the bag and work the bag away from the other side. Continue to support the tortilla with your hand until you get it on the griddle.

Place tortilla on the griddle and cook until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip over and cook the back side another 2 to 3 minutes. Let cool. The tortillas will be delicate so handle them carefully. When cooled, they will break if you try to fold them.

I cook one tortilla before rolling out the next one to minimize the time the dough has to stick to whatever surface it is waiting on. Once the tortilla is on the griddle, you can repair any breaks by pressing lightly with a wet fingertip. Resist the urge to press down on it with the back of a spatula as it will likely stick to it. Once the tortilla is flipped, you can press on it.

As someone once said, uneven sizes and edges are a sure indicator that it’s homemade.

To reheat them, bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or fry them, one at a time, in a little oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and use to make tostadas or tacos. Or fry them until crisp, salt and cut into wedges for chips.

Makes about six 4″ tortillas

Nutrition Information for 1 tortilla:
Calories: 85.7 Fat: 6.1 g Net carbs:2.9 g Protein: 2.4 g

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 5/4/2013 3:02 PM

Breads, Recipes

Savory Flax Yeast Sandwich Roll

It’s taken me a while to actually begin trying to make yeast breads with low carb flours. They don’t react the same as wheat flour, so it takes a bit of experimenting to get the recipes to work. My first success with low carb English Muffins worked out very well, so I thought I’d try a little experiment with flax muffin bread and see if I could make a crumpet. I actually got something that resembles a roll more than a crumpet. And the taste is wonderful.

I would recommend actually getting a low carb flour, such as CarbQuick baking mix, Bob’s Red Mill low carb baking mix or LC Foods English Muffin and Bagel flour, which I only used a small amount of in combination with other flours. I don’t think the yeast would work well with almond, peanut or coconut flour alone. Most of the flours are available from Amazon.com or Netrition.com or at some health food stores. Bob’s Red Mill might be in your grocery store.

So, on to the bread! By the way, you can add 1 tablespoon of wheat bran to give this more of a wheat taste. Remove 1 tablespoon of the flax meal.

Savory Flax Yeast Sandwich Roll

1 2/3 cups Carbquick
1/4 cup Flax Meal
1.5 teaspoons Baking Powder
3 tablespoons Oat Fiber (0 carb, 0 calorie)
1 teaspoon Sugar Substitute
1 teaspoon Salt
1 packet Active Dry Yeast
1/3 cup Buttermilk, warmed
1 tablespoon Dried Onion Flakes
1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 Eggs, large

In a small glass bowl or cup, add 1/4 cup hot (not boiling) water and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Stir in  sugar substitute. Set aside for about 30 minutes to let the yeast activate. They will get bubbly.

In a bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder and oat fiber, onion flakes and salt. In a large bowl beat the eggs, then add olive oil and buttermilk. Lastly, add the yeast mixture to this and mix it all in.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to mix or use the paddle blade on your mixer or food processor. (I prefer mixing by hand.) When the flour is incorporated, add another third of the flour and mix it in, then the final third. The batter should be thick enough to drop from a spoon but not stiff.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

When the dough has doubled, prepare your baking pan. Use a baking paper (like parchment paper) or silicone mat on the bottom. I use eight English muffin rings — 3 inches in diameter– for containing the rolls. ( You can make your own from empty tuna cans or pet food cans by cutting out the bottoms.) Place the rings on the baking tray and spray the insides and bottom mat or paper with baking spray.

Sir the dough down, then spoon it into the muffin rings. It should take about two tablespoons in each ring. The dough will rise to fill the ring. Cover the rings with the plastic wrap or kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place rolls, which should be just about doubled in size, in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are lightly browned. If so, remove from the oven. If you are going to heat these again, either in the toaster or a sandwich maker or toaster oven, then you want them slightly undercooked.

Makes 8 sandwich rolls

Nutrition Info per roll:
Calories 170   Fat: 13.6 g   Net Carbs: 2.9 g   Protein: 7.6 g

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 4/19/2013 11:45 AM

Breads, Recipes

Low Carb English Muffin


I’ve always loved a good English muffin and it is a “must have” in making Classic Eggs Benedict, but like all regular wheat breads, it isn’t low carb. After three years of doing without, I finally decided to try to adapt Alton Brown’s English Muffin recipe to low carb flours. They cooked up surprisingly easily and the taste is pretty darn good. Maybe not quite the standard English muffin, but very close and very much a yeast bread.

Alton’s English Muffins

Adapted for low carb by Rene
Yields: 8 muffins

Ingredients
1/3 cup Heavy Cream plus hot water to make one cup
1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Shortening
1 envelope Active Dry Yeast
1/8 th teaspoon Sugar or Sugar Substitute
1/3 cup warm Water
1 1/2 cup Carbquick baking mix or your favorite low carb baking mix
1/4 cup LC Foods pizza & bagel flour or other fine low carb flour
2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
2 tablespoons Oat Fiber (optional) – use more CarbQuick if you don’t use
Non-stick Vegetable Spray

Special equipment: electric griddle, 3-inch metal rings * See my note

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.

Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops (not quite two tablespoons) into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.

English muffins rise in their rings on the griddle.

Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve.

Remove to cooling rack and remove rings.

* The electric griddle isn’t required, but it sure makes these easier to make. You can use a cast iron skillet or griddle on the stove, but it isn’t as easy to control the heat. Cook them about medium hot heat, but keep a close eye to make sure they don’t burn or cook too fast. You need at least 5 minutes per side to get them cooked all the way through.
Nutrition Info in one English Muffin
Calories: 130   Fat: 10.7 g   Net Carbs: 2.5 g   Protein: 5 g

With a decent muffin recipe in hand, it’s on to the Classic Eggs Benedict!

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 4/6/2013 10:00 AM

Breads, Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes

New Year Starts With A Favorite Breakfast

We are a few days into the New Year — Happy 2013! Let’s hope that it is a really great year for everyone and you enjoy good health, happiness and a bit of prosperity in the next 12 months. I am certainly hoping to have that continue for me.

A tradition for some of us from the south is to have Biscuits and Sausage Gravy for the first breakfast, but it doesn’t exactly scream low carb!  But it can be. This is a recipe that is adapted with just a few changes from the chef for Tova foods, the company that makes CarbQuick. It uses CarbQuick, but it can be made with other low carb flours. You may need to add egg to get the biscuit to rise if you use a flour like almond flour or coconut flour. Ideally, you could mix one of those with another low carb flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill baking mix, to balance it out. Of course, any changes you make in the recipe may change the carb and calorie count for this.

Sausage Gravy with Biscuits

Biscuits:
1 cup Carbquick or other low carb flour
1 tablespoons *Shortening
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 tablespoon Heavy Whipping Cream

Gravy:
1/2 pound Pork Sausage
2 tablespoons Carbquick or other low carb flour (you can also use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, will change the carb count a little)
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup Coconut Milk (or unsweetened Almond milk)
1/4 cup Water
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
Salt to your preference (I use a dash since I don’t like things too salty)
1/2 teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce (optional)

Biscuits:

Preheat oven to 365 degrees F.

Mix flour and baking powder together and add a dash of salt. Cut shortening into flour until it is mixed into pea-sized clumps. Add whipping cream and a little water to make a thick dough that barely clings together.

Divide dough into quarters and shape into rounds, patting the tops down. Use just a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky to handle. Placed on a greased pan and bake for 6 to 8 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

Gravy:

In large skillet, over medium-high heat, cook and crumble sausage to lightly brown. Pour off fat from pan.

Sprinkle flour over sausage in skillet, stir to blend, add cream, milk. Worcestershire sauce and water to pan all at once.

Cook, stirring constantly over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. This may take up to 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over hot baked biscuits. 1 biscuit and 1/4 of gravy is one serving.

Nutrition info: Calories: 458.6 Net Carbs: 3.8 g Protein: 12.4 g
POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 1/5/2013 1:44 PM

Breads, Recipes

Easy Low Carb Stuffing Bread

Thanksgiving a year ago, I tried a bread mix from LC Foods for my stuffing. It was good, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for in the flavor. So this year, I decided to try a variation based on one posted by Laura Dolson on About.com. I changed a few things and spread it out to bake and was thrilled with the result. Poultry seasoning in the batter added a great flavor. It would be fantastic as croutons or crumbled on top of a casserole in addition to making a delicious stuffing.

Easy Low-Carb Stuffing Bread

1 cup CarbQuick
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 cup LC Flour (LC Flour or other low carb flour)
1/2 cup Flax Meal
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Poultry Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted Butter
3 Eggs
1/3 cup Water
1/4 cup Buttermilk
2 teaspoons Sugar Substitute

Heat oven to 350 F.

Spray a jelly roll pan or use a silicone mat and spray that or use a rectangular baking stone with a light coating of baking spray.

Mix dry ingredient together. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon or a whisk. The batter will be thick. If it is too thick to spread, add a little water.

Spread over the pan or stone so that you have a flat rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. It may not completely fill the pan. Use the back of a large spoon to smooth and shape the batter. Wet the spoon back to help smooth it.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until top is lightly browned or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. This time may vary with ovens, so add an additional 5 minutes if it is browned how you would like it.

To use in a dressing, cut the bread into 1/2 cubes. When completely cool, spread the cubes out on a baking pan and put them in a 300 degree oven to dry more and toast a little around the edges. Remove and store in a paper bag until ready to use.

Nutrition Info (just bread) makes about 12-1/2 cup servings when used for stuffing:
Calories: 120 Net Carbs: 5.2 g Protein: 6.9 g


Stuffing bread with broth added and sauteed vegetables about to be mixed in. (I used onions, celery, small sweet peppers and baby spinach. This will work with any ingredients you prefer.)

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 11/30/2012 9:12 PM