Tuesday, January 14, 2014

low carb baking mix


When we first started eating low carb and wheat free (2 + years ago)
to make the transition easier,
I made a lot of baked goods,
using almond and coconut flours.

Both flours are quite expensive, in my opinion.
Also, almond flour is kinda high in calories
and coconut flour just has a unique taste.
But mostly, they're expensive
so once the transition to a breadless life was over,
I just baked less.
~
Fast forward to THM. (Trim Healthy Mama, remember?)
There are quite a few recipes for muffins and cakes in mugs,
which are single serve muffins and cakes.
(I sometimes quadruple a recipe and bake it in an 8x8 pan and serve it to the whole family :-)
I'm really not sure what makes one a muffin and another a cake?
Anyways.
They usually call for ground flax or almond flour, or both.
Now, flax is not terribly expensive, and it is very good for you (although the calorie count is a bit high, too)
and we've been eating flax for over a dozen years,
but
 it has a certain mouth feel that isn't always desirable.

Conundrum.

Enter oat fiber.
Not to be confused with oat flour...
Now.
On its own, oat fiber pretty much tastes like cardboard.
But
 it has zero carbs, zero fat, and zero calories
(this would explain the cardboardiness ;-)
and if you mix it with ground  flax and almonds,
well,
you've got a winner!

 I have come up with a basic baking mix
that combines oat fiber, almond flour, and ground flax.
With it, I make rolls and biscuits, burger buns, chocolate cake, lemon cake, Italian cake, and my basic muffins.
The really cool thing,
beside the fact that the addition of the oat fiber to my baking mix
lowers the fat content and calorie counts significantly,
is that I use less of the baking mix with oat fiber.
So what used to require 4 TBS, before the addition of oat fiber to my baking mix,
now only requires 3.

I save money
and 
consume even fewer calories!
(Not that I am overly concerned about calories,
 but if I can eat a muffin that tastes just as good, but has fewer calories, and costs less, why would I not want to?!)

Enough blathering; here's the recipe:

Low Carb All-Purpose Baking Mix
(This fits really well in an emptied 54 oz coconut oil jar)

3 cups ground flax (I just use my spare coffee spice mill. I also have a strong preference for golden flax over the brown!)
1 1/2 c almond flour (either purchased or homamade)
1 1/2 c. oat fiber
5 1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 scant TBS sea salt

Mix well (I just shake it) and store in fridge
and use for all your THM-friendly MiMs (muffin in a mugs, for the non THMers)
just remember that you only need a total of 3 TBS dry ingredients where you once used 4 :-)


 I've not ever tried substituting this in recipes that call for regular flour
because I started with recipes that were already low carb.
(although I suspect it might work fairly well)

I'll try to get back here soon with a few recipes,
but here are a few to get you started
(just remember to reduce the flour by 3/4 - and you won't need to add any salt or baking powder)

~

P.S Friday is time for my 4 week progress report. I'm sure you've been waiting on pins and needles ;-)
I'm hoping for better results than last month to be sure!

EDITED TO ADD
I've crunched the numbers - using this baking mix reduces your calories and fat grams by almost one half!
This posts breaks it down

Here is a recipe for Italian Cream Cake, using the baking mix.

And here
 is a recipe for the most amazing grain free chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten.

And my version of The Primative Palate's bagel dogs
(buns made out of the dough are sooo delish,
especially toasted and slathered with butter!)

And a wrap / tortilla / flatbread recipe that is perfect for all sorts of toppings and fillings.

28 comments:

  1. you are so smart and so good to figure all this out!

    love
    mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just put together what other smart people figured out :-)
    I wanted to give you some mix at Christmas and it just never got made. But I'll get you some at some point!
    XO

    ReplyDelete
  3. So if I understand correctly, you would just add wet ingredients from a MIM recipe? Coconut oil and egg for example?

    ReplyDelete
  4. For a bread or bun ~ yep :-)
    But for sweet goodies, you'll of course also add your sweetener and whatever specific-to-your-muffin ingredients.
    For example, for a chocolate MiM, you would do your 1 TBS oil, 1 egg, sweetener, 1 TBS cocoa powder and 2 TBS baking mix (for a total of 3 TBS 'flour-like' substances, rather than the 4 TBS flour per TBS oil + egg formula)

    This mix will take the place of the salt, baking powder, and any flax/coconut/almond, etc flours in a recipe

    ReplyDelete
  5. I make my MIM's with oat fiber in it also! It makes the texture so much better, IMO. Pinning this!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm delighted I found this! I thought it'd be just another of those so-called gluten free flours full of starchy kinds thrown together...will def use this! Esther

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks so much for sharing this. I can't wait to see some of your posts on how you use this mix. Do you mind if I share this post on my blog sometime? I would, of course, credit you. I've been neglegent there lately, but my daughters are bugging me to start posting about healthy food.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Does this have any, even slight fishy taste from the flax? That is my biggest fear. I can smell a fish a hundred miles away!

    ReplyDelete
  9. None that I have ever noticed, and I have a pretty good sniffer ;-) I would definitely use golden flax, as it is milder than the brown, and also, make sure that it is fresh. I didn't note it in the post (I need to add it) but I store my mix in the fridge.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Becky - yes, feel free to share it! I WANT it to be shared, because I am just so tickled with how well it works & how much more like 'regular flour' it tastes over pretty much every other low-carb flour I've tried :-)
    I DO need to get some posts up about how I use it. I've been slow on that because I am SO not a food photographer (and frankly, I'm not usually going for pretty food - I'm going for YUM ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks so much! I completely understand about not being a food photographer, and being more worried about taste than appearance. But I am looking forward to any new posts you have about it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I really love my oat fiber, looking forward to lots of recipes from you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm confused by something. Someone told me oat fiber has carbs. I was thinking it was carb free. Fiber not flour. Any insight?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tia ~ You are correct, oat fiber IS carb free (whoever told you it wasn't is the confused one ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I used this flour for chocolate chip cookies. They tasted great but were crumbly. What would you recommend to help them stay together better?

    ReplyDelete
  16. hmmm. I'm not sure, Julie; maybe add an extra egg??

    ReplyDelete
  17. This makes amazing waffles! I add enough water to get my mix wet, then add eggs, (I totally forgot to add any oil)! They come out crisp and even my picky kids doesn't know the difference. (Add PB and sf syrup, yum!)

    ReplyDelete
  18. We can't do almond flour because of a nut allergy. I've been successful in subbing flax for the almond in most recipes. Do you think it would work here?

    ReplyDelete
  19. yes, Amber, I think it would work just fine :-)
    ~ Tracy

    ReplyDelete
  20. This baking mix rocks!!! I have used it for several things already, love it. I just add extra water to my recipes that don't already call for the oat fiber. Thanks so much for this!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Patti ~ you are so sweet to let me know you are enjoying this mix - thank-you!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  22. In the US.... where pray tell would I find Oat Fiber???thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oat bran wouldn't be a good sub because of the carbs.
    I order this: http://www6.netrition.com/lifesource_oat_fiber_page.html

    ~Tracy

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hey you! It's so good to "check in" with you and see your kids. My how the girls have grown! And that star quilt you made. Uh-may-zeeng! Made my jaw hit the floor! I recently started THM and clicked on this link looking for recipes and found an old online friend! Thanks for sharing this baking mix!
    L. Swinborne

    ReplyDelete
  25. LINDSEY!!! Hi! :-) How are you?? Are you still blogging? I lost you when you took the summer off a couple of years ago :-( so it is especially nice to see you here! My e-mail address is in my profile, if you want to write me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  26. hi,
    Just found this recipe and plan to make it......is the golden flax in the form of flax meal? just a little new to this.....

    ReplyDelete
  27. I am so sorry I missed this, Summer!
    yes, flax meal is just flax, ground up :-) Flavor wise, I prefer the lighter golden flax over the brown flax, but either works fine.

    ReplyDelete

You're leaving me a comment?? Oh goody! I love comments :-)