Good Bread Recipe

[BikerAng]

Originally Posted by shadowzip

I always make mine with my mixer.Just add dry ingredients to the mixer bowl, then add in wet ingredients. (only use one cup of water) and knead with dough hook. Put it in 2 smaller size loaf pans or one large loaf pan, Let rise for about 45-60 minutes then bake. It comes out wonderful. I would much rather use my mixer than a bread machine, Call me crazy but I think bread machines are more hassle than they are worth.

This is exactly what I do too. I gave away my bread machine when I got my Kitchenaid mixer.

[wuzupgirl]

Originally Posted by shadowzip

I always make mine with my mixer.Just add dry ingredients to the mixer bowl, then add in wet ingredients. (only use one cup of water) and knead with dough hook. Put it in 2 smaller size loaf pans or one large loaf pan, Let rise for about 45-60 minutes then bake. It comes out wonderful. I would much rather use my mixer than a bread machine, Call me crazy but I think bread machines are more hassle than they are worth.

i agree....they take up too much space. that's why i wanted to try to make this bread the old fashioned way

[vli1127]

Thanks shadowzip, those are the type of instructions I kneaded (pardon the pun LOL) HA. I do have a mixer with a dough hook. I almost bought a bread machine today at Goodwill but decided against it primarilly due to the amnt of space it would take up. I did buy a waffle maker at Target though, cheap. I am wanting to get a food processor next.

[shadowzip]

You are very welcome. Good Luck

[Bissonnettemi]

I my bread maker, but it's on its last leg... it almost 8 yrs old. It is true that they take up alot of space and those suckers are heavy!!! Now I have mine in cupboard-pantry with roll out shelves and when we put in the pantry, the carpenter pulled the electrical outlet through so I just leave it in the cabinet, open the doors, pull out the shelf & and plug that baby in. No muss, no fuss and easier on my back, too.

Kitchenaid will be my next appliance.

[missymagoo12]

bump

[mac24312]

Keep on Bumping cause I LOVE This!!

HUGS
Christina

[Jennifer Eloff]

Hi there - It's amazing how this thread is still going! Cool. I've had company and when they left, I was so exhausted, and did not have the energy to do much of anything for a few days.

Oliveoyl: Thank you, Oliveoyl, for starting this fun thread and reminding me of this bread recipe. I wanted to send you a cookbook to say thanks, but have no way of contacting you. What incredible variations on this bread you have come up with. Fancy using whey protein - and wow! - a rye bread! My husband loves rye bread and that is his first request for when I make this bread again. Thank you for that!

I think from now on I will defer to Oliveoyl and some of these ladies here such as Angie (BikerAng), Christina, Shadowzip, Leigh and more as the reigning experts on this bread thread. I have not made this bread as often as some of you have. At the moment I am following strict low-carbing and that means no grains for a while. I will try to answer some questions, but you guys are welcome to jump in there and correct me if necessary.

Leigh and Angie (love your photo, Angie - so glad you put one up!) - thanks for the high praise! Leigh, I think it is better to make fewer buns rather. If the body or amount of dough is not sufficient, it will just collapse - the high moisture content of the larger recipe could also be to blame. Low-carb bread dough is not the most predictable thing in the world. Also, don't do the foil thing and keep the oven door closed from rising to end of baking. Maybe Angie or Shadowzip have some pointers for us on the buns, or someone else who has made them recently. I have not made them in ages.

That said, I hear a lot of you are not going to use bread machines ever. Pity, as I think some of my low-carb breads may not be able to handle the mixer with dough hooks - I have no idea why my breads flopped sometimes doing it that way. That is why most of my breads are bread machine breads (but you could surprise me and make them work using a mixer). However, one of my favorite breads is an Oat Bran Bread from Splendid Low-Carbing - I can probably share it here. It uses the old fashioned way - heat water, dissolve sugar, sprinkle yeast over and allow to sit for 3 to 5 minutes to dissolve completely. It's then made using an electric mixer with dough blades. The loaf pan bread does double in size but that brings the loaf to just below the loaf pan ridge, but I love, love the taste of this bread (I used to use soy flour in it (eek), but one can replace that with oat flour)! It could be binge food for me too, Vicki - sorry you had that experience (maybe my one minute bread, next minute toast would be better for you - I don't think I myself could binge on that.)

Greenrn - what a great idea - croutons made from the stale bread! You could also toast it, then blend in a blender and make bread crumbs (add seasonings of choice). Place bread crumbs in a sealed baggie and put it in the freezer for breading eggplant, fish or whatever.

Bruce - pizza setting is the same as "dough only" setting - Thank you!!

ZomZom - THANK you for those kind words! Wow! I don't sometimes know how to respond - I like to give God credit - how's that? I bet you're not as cooking challenged as you think. I always say to my young sons, "If you can read English (as in read a recipe), then you can cook!" The youngest took me up on that and he is a great cook and baker. The eldest is not so fascinated with cooking and baking and does the barest minimum to keep himself fed when I'm not around.

Bissonnettemi - I love my bread machine too. I have one inexpensive BM I bought from London Drugs or was it Walmart? Anyway, I inherited two others (one from a lady who had adopted me as her daughter and when she moved to a nursing home, gave it to me, along with her Victorian tea set, which I absolutely love, and the other bread machine came from a lady who left the country - I bought it from her.) I have both the upright loaf pan and horizontal loaf pan varieties. The former sometimes makes a much bigger bread with the same recipe - strange!

I hope I caught up with everybody's comments.

NOTE: Keep an eye open for my Crunchy Nutty Crackers (2 similar recipes, but different) which I hope to post in the next day or two - they are soooo good and I'm very happy with these recipes. It is almost like having something carby, but it is not at 0.4 g carbs per cracker. I love them with Healthy Butter (recipe on this thread) and cheese - Yum! It totally satisfies my need for bread when I'm doing induction-like daily carb counts.

[mac24312]

Hi and Welcome Back Jen!!

I just wanted to tell you I am about living out of you cookbooks right now..lol!! I have made another round of this bread and dried it into stuffing cubes and froze to use around the holidays... I have made your salmon cakes, your meatballs into hamburgers, your Husband's Whey Pizza Crust, and the chocolate moose so far and I have only had the books a couple of weeks... I am also using the one minute toast off your site about everyday now!! I am getting ready to fix your pot roast today along with your broccoli casserole or broccoli salad..dont know which one yet. I dont know what I ever did without your cookbooks..lol

Sorry I have not got to e-mail you lately. Now that Brandon's Pink Eye is gone my DH has it now!! I am down in my back...I dont know what I did this weekend but something went pop in it... So..sitting at the computer is hard for me right now but I just had to pop in and tell you how much I love them..

As for my cheap bread machine from walmart my dough cycle does 2 kneads and 2 rises that is NOT good for LC Bread so I just watch it and just do the first dough cycle in mine...I LOVE my bread machine and will use it alot more now with your recipes...

Have a great week!! Cant wait for the crackers!!

HUGS
Christina

[BikerAng]

Glad to see you back Jennifer! Company can really be a lot of work! Mmm, your crackers sound wonderful! So does your Oat bread for that matter (I was eyeing that when I was thumbing through your cookbook!), I may need to make that very soon!

I know what you mean Christina, I've been making a bunch of recipes from Jennifer's cookbooks - everything is wonderful! Sorry to hear about the pink eye! Take care of your back - I know how debilitating it can be!

RE the rolls/buns - I just made up a batch of the 2 loaf version with oat flour and wheat bran. Split the dough in half and make a loaf with one half and hamburger buns with the other 1/2 of dough. I did weigh each ball of dough to make sure they were the same size and used the mini wilton pans to let them rise/cook in (I put the wilton pans on a cookie sheet). I let the hamburger buns (could make rolls this way too) rise the same amount of time as the bread (no foil tent, in a pre-warmed oven) and baked about 20 minutes or so (keep an eye on them, when they get brown and kind of crusty I took them out).

[Jennifer Eloff]

You guys have a way of making my day! Thank you for your kindness. I sure hope my recipes continue to meet with satisfaction (there are maybe a small handful that I wish were not in my cookbooks in hindsight). I don't claim to be the best cook in the world and my recipes are typically simple-simple. First of all, I don't like difficult, involved recipes and, second of all, I think I'm much too lazy to tackle them in the first place.

Two of you have sore backs now! I hope and pray that you both heal quickly and that you find ways to stay comfortable while you are healing. Try not to pick up anything heavy. My son had a sore back for a year and a new very firm mattress helped him greatly, when nothing else seemed to be helping. Within a couple of months he was fine again.

Angie, how many buns did you make with the other half of the bread dough - 6? I was wondering if Leigh was attempting to make too many? I read your instructions with interest. Sounds perfect! I think I should retype that recipe sometime for this thread and incorporate everyone's tips, so that everything is conveniently in in one place. That would make it so that new people don't need to read this whole long thread to get the most out of this bread recipe and people's firsthand experiences.

[BikerAng]

Hi Jennifer - yes I think it was 6, but we scarfed them down to quick and I don't remember now! I think its about time to make another batch. I'll make these again within the next day or so (1 loaf bread, rest buns) and will let you know how much each bun weighed and will give more detailed weights/times.

Back problems are the worst, they just take so long to heal. I just got a new firm mattress, I think it will help (along with physical therapy, I should be good to go soon!).

[Jennifer Eloff]

No rush, but that would be really great, Angie! Thank you.

[RealFoodLiving]

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for all your time, effort and wonderful recipes.

I have not been able to use the recipes that contain gluten or grains so I am looking forward to your crackers and any other grain-free induction-type recipes that you have.

Thank you SO much!

[Jennifer Eloff]

Realfoodliving, my heart goes out to you with all the health challenges you have had. Gluten-free is not easy, however, I'm sure you know about Lauren and Jamie (Cleochatra) van Eaton and their low-carb, gluten-free web sites.

[Dixie Barkley]

Originally Posted by BikerAng

Did you use new yeast? Or was your water too hot/cold? Both of those can affect the rise. If the yeast isn't new, you can "proof" it in some warm water with a bit of sugar to make sure it's still active.

Greenrn - I really like BettyR's waffles. The cheese sounds very weird, but you can't even tell it's in there. They taste just like regular waffles to me, but they are SUPER filling (I can only eat 1 and a 1/2).

I don't have a waffle iron, do you think the batter would do okay as pancakes?

[Jennifer Eloff]

I think Angie will say yes, Dixie.

[mac24312]

How do we go about asking the mods to make this thread a sticky???

HUGS!
Christina

[Charski]

Originally Posted by mac24312

How do we go about asking the mods to make this thread a sticky???

HUGS!
Christina

Just click on the "report this to mods" thingie (lower left corner, red triangle thingie) and put a note saying, "Please, purty please, would you lovely and wonderful Mods make this a STICKY?"

And they will! (They're magic.)

[mac24312]

TY!!

Just did..

HUGS!

[Jennifer Eloff]

Thanks so much for this honor - all of you who participated in this fun bread thread and the Administrators who agreed to make it a sticky. Wow!

Perhaps in time, we can make it an even more useful thread for low-carbers to reference. That would be cool. Thanks again for all the experimenting and amazing, innovative input and even spin-offs of the original recipe!

[Charski]

I just asked to have this thread moved into the Stickies subforum at the top of this page. Then we'll always know right where it is - with the OTHER "famous" recipes!

[BikerAng]

Originally Posted by Dixie Barkley

I don't have a waffle iron, do you think the batter would do okay as pancakes?

The batter is super thick, I don't think these would work very well as pancakes (you have to use your finger to scoop the batter off the spoon onto the waffle iron).

Jennifer - I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to make the bread and buns yet, but will try to get to that today or tomorrow and will post up about the buns.

[oliveoyl]

Jen: you are so sweet! Actually, I have all of your cookbooks and I use them constantly --- AND I consider myself in YOUR debt for making low-carb possible for my family. They devour your cookie recipes in no time. Unlike me, they can eat whatever they want and not gain weight, but I don't think all those carbs are healthy for anybody. Your recipes are such good substitutes for my family's carb-laden favorites (some are even better!) that they'll happily eat low-carb. Thanks again for all your hard work and your inspired recipes!

[Jennifer Eloff]

Wowzers! What an honor for this recipe! Thank you Christina for suggesting it be made a sticky and thank you Charski for the even bigger honor. Cool. to you both!

Bread is one of the things low-carbers probably miss the most. It is also very difficult to make our breads taste half decent - i.e. not low-carb.

I will try and contribute a bit more to this thread in time. Right now, I know the main reason it became a sticky is because you guys all worked so hard with this recipe, because let's face it, it is exciting to find a bread recipe that is half decent and low-carb. I didn't even realize the full potential of this recipe. Oliveoyl was the first to do that. Kudos, Oliveoyl!! Kudos to all of you!! Thanks!

Thanks also, Oliveoyl, for your incredibly kind words. I was tickled pink to hear that the non low-carbers in your family are not complaining about your low-carb baking out of my cookbooks. I am also so in awe of how well you have done with low-carbing and how much you care about the health of the rest of your family.

Angie - no problem - I can relate. Whenever you have time to bake is fine.

Gee, I wish we could come up with a sourdough version of this bread. Kevin's cake and cookie mix had a slight sourdough twang to it in the Cheese Biscuits, that made me wonder if it was the WPI 5000, and if one could use that in the recipe somehow. I will be trying the rye bread version sometime, plus I think I can share another bread recipe or two here as well. Right now though, I need to take it easy where bread is concerned. I'm really determined to drop a few pounds gained over the holidays and with the almost non-stop company we've had since November, so I'm doing closer to induction level carbs, which is not a hardship with my nutty crackers and cheese on hand.

[Grandma27]

Hi, Jennifer - I just tried your bread (2 loaves) and it baked up beautifully and smells wonderful. I have not cut it yet but I substituted the oat flour with Carbalose flour so I will let you know how the texture is. I don't think you've posted this in the recipes but I can with your permission and I will add my substitution as an option. I can also include pics.This reduced the carb count to 27.5 per loaf (including the sugar) or 21 per loaf (w/o sugar) I also tried both a 5" x 9" pan and 4" x 8" and I think I will use two of the 4" x 8" next time.

[Jennifer Eloff]

Grandma, that sounds really fantastic! I would not have thought to do that -subbing carbalose flour for the oat flour (that sure would cut carbs). We'd love to see pics, if you have them. Super!

[BikerAng]

I made the bread and hamburger buns again last night (yummy!) and below is the recipe I used (there are many variations, but this is the one I used last night). I love how you can really change this bread up with all the different variations!

1 cup water + 3 TBS (295 mL) (I used 97 degree filtered water)
3 tbsp olive oil (45 mL)
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (300 mL)
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour (150 mL)
1/2 cup wheat bran (125 mL)
1/4 cup oat flour (50 mL)
4 tsp bread machine yeast (20 mL) (I used rapid rise)
1/4 tsp Stevia
1 tbsp granulated sugar (15 mL)
1 tsp salt (5 mL)
1 tsp vanilla extract (5 mL)
2 tsp baking powder (10 mL)
1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses

The first picture is the dough after kneading it for almost 20 minutes in my kitchenaid (this dough needs a bit more kneading than conventional high carb bread because of all the gluten I think). It feels pretty wet, but should be very stretchy and hold together.

The second picture is called the Window Pane Test. After kneading, grab a chunck of dough and stretch it. This picture doesn't show it very well because of the flash, but when you stretch the dough it shouldn't tear and you should be able to see light though it (it should be very thin). If it does tear, then the dough needs to be kneaded a little longer.

The third picture is forming the hamburger buns. I weighed each piece of dough at 2 oz and made 7 buns. To form the buns make a circle with your index finger and thumb and push the dough with your other hand through the "finger circle". Hope that makes sense! The dough should move easily through your fingers, but should also squeeze just a tiny bit to make a smooth top. I usually try to pinch the bottom of the dough, but didn't this time and they turned out fine. The pan is a muffin top pan and the 7th bun is in a mini Wilton cake pan.

The 4th & 5th pictures are the dough prepped and ready to rise (the loaf weighed 13 oz).

The 6th picture is the dough in the oven before the rise (please excuse my dirty oven!!). I just turned my oven on to warm for about 1 minute then turned it off (I did this when I just started making my dough so it wouldn't be too hot).

The 7th picture is after 35 minutes of rising (that's all I let the dough rise).

The last pictures are the buns and bread after they cooked. I cooked the buns for 20 minutes and the bread for 30 (at 350 degrees). I forgot to spray my bread pan, and the bread stuck and looks awful so I don't want to post that picture! I used a 8X4" bread pan. The bread and buns will sink a bit after they cool (see last picture) but the texture is great. The last picture is the buns this morning after they cooled all night.

Love this bread recipe!!!

[BikerAng]

And here is a picture of a bun cut and buttered.

[Jennifer Eloff]

Wow! I am so impressed, Angie! You did a fabulous job!! Thanks so much for your hard work and for the incredible step-by-step instructions and super photos. Amazing! You have so much talent! I am also intrigued with your addition of the molasses, since it will probably make it taste even nicer and improve the browning and maybe even crust texture? 7 buns and a loaf (8 x 4") - incredible! I wonder how many buns would be possible with this recipe - in total, I mean? Going back and looking at the weight of the dough for the loaf - probably 12 or 13, which puts them at about 7 grams of carbs each. Considering a regular hamburger bun is about 30 grams of carbs or more, depending on the size, that's not bad. The bread is around 2.0 grams of carbs per slice, which is not bad either.

It's really nice to be able to make buns and a loaf out of the one recipe. I wonder if one can freeze the bread or buns successfully. I would imagine though that any stale bread could be made into toast and then blended for bread crumbs or baked in cubes for croutons as someone suggested, or used in meat loaf or hamburgers.

Thanks again, Angie!