Lowcarbezine!

What Ingredients Do I Use?

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions I get:

1) What brand of soy milk powder do you use, and where can I get it?

I use Fearn brand soy milk powder, aka soy powder. I buy it at my health food store, Bloomingfoods, where they carry it in bulk. However, Fearn is a nationally distributed brand, and they do sell the soy powder in a box, as well as in bulk. Any good health food store should be able to order it for you.

2) What brand of vanilla whey protein powder do you use?

I have used two brands of vanilla whey protein powder in baking, and both have worked equally well - "Show Me The Whey" brand (ain't it adorable?), which is packaged as the "house brand" for various health food stores, including the afore-mentioned Bloomingfoods (and also Henry's, a west coast chain, as I happen to know, because I have family in San Diego), and Designer Whey French Vanilla, which is available in GNC stores coast-to-coast.

3) Where do you get sugar free chocolate chips?

Actually, I don't. As described in 500 Low-Carb Recipes, I generally chop up sugar free dark chocolate bars in my food processor to make my own chips. I like Pure De-Lite brand chocolate bars best. However, sugar free chocolate chips are becoming more widely available - I believe I saw them at Sahara Mart here in Bloomington the last time I was there. Furthermore, a quick Google search on "sugar free chocolate chips" (include the quotation marks) turns up legions of low carb etailers just dying to send you sugar free chocolate chips. So if you have a US shipping address, you can get sugar free chocolate chips.

4) I'm allergic to nuts. What can I use in place of almond or hazelnut meal?

I confess I haven't tried it, but I would try ground sunflower seeds first - just take raw, hulled sunflower seeds and grind them to a cornmeal consistency in your food processor. I don't know exactly how this will work out, but have a hard time believing it would bomb entirely.

If, as one reader was, you are also allergic to sunflower seeds, I'd try pumpkin seeds. Beyond that, I'm afraid I'm stumped.

5) I'm gluten intolerant. What can I substitute in your bread recipes?

I'm sorry, but I know of no substitute for gluten in bread; it's what makes the dough stretchy, so it holds in the gas from the yeast. Furthermore, those darned bread recipes have turned out to be problematic for so many people that I'm reluctant to suggest anything!

6) Can I use psyllium powder instead of psyllium husks in your bread recipes?

I don't know why not, but keep in mind that being far finer in texture than the whole hulls, the powder will measure quite differently, since it packs tighter in the measuring cup, so I don't have a clue as to how much to tell you to use. I'm afraid experimenting is the only solution, and it can get pricey. I will tell you that if your bread comes out in weird lumps, stuck together, with stringy bits between - a look I call "alien dung" - you're using too much psyllium! The voice of experience. I fed a few batches of alien dung to my dogs.

Posted by HoldTheToast at September 18, 2003 04:07 PM