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Re: sweeteners

Mike Avery <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com>
Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:23:14 -0500
v111.n026.5
michael arnoldi<michaelarnoldi@gmail.com>  wrote:
>I was diagnosed with high blood sugar&  would like to bake now 
>either *100% whole wheat bread* or*a blend of flours*  ( *not using 
>bread or regular flour* ) and*without any sweetening*  ingredient. 
>Has someone got a recipe for me to try?

Sweeteners really aren't needed to make breads.  Some people add 
sugar to "help the yeast', but the yeast are completely capable of 
breaking starch into sugars and digesting them.  Adding sugar can 
make dough rise more quickly, but that isn't an advantage.  Haste is 
the enemy of good bread.  If the amount of sugar is small - a 
tablespoon or so - it's there to make the yeast happy.  If it's a 
larger amount, then it's there to flavor the bread and you need to 
consider whether this is a bread worth working with.  If you take the 
sweetener out of a cinnamon roll, the result probably won't be 
pleasing, even if it is low in sugar.

100% whole wheat takes some work to get right.  When you get more 
than about 50% whole grain flour, the dough handles differently.  The 
key issues are that whole grain flours absorb more water than refined 
flours, but they do it much more slowly.

Many beginners think their dough is too wet and add flour and more 
flour.  Then the flour starts absorbing water and WHAM the dough is 
too dry.  So they add more water, and then it's too wet.  They rock 
back and forth.  Eventually the beginning baker either gets it right 
by accident or just goes ahead and bakes it anyway.   The big issue 
is that now the ratios of riser and salt to flour are off.

The trick is to weigh your ingredients, and trust the recipe.  Knead 
for 5 minutes or so, then let the dough rest for 5 minutes.  And then 
knead some more, feel the dough, and adjust it very gradually.

A good starting point is the 100% whole wheat sourdough bread on my 
site at http://www.sourdoughhome.com/100percentwholewheat.html  It 
has some sweetener in it, but that can be omitted.  For people who 
want sweetener, you may want to try honey rather than molasses - the 
molasses gives the bread a rather salty taste.  I suggest this recipe 
because it has a great overview of using whole grains.  That page was 
written before I got into stretch and fold, but the recipe works well 
with stretch and fold.

Good luck,
Mike
*Bake With Mike <http://www.bakewithmike.com>*
Mike Avery