Making bread rise - help!

[hamlet_cat]

I didn't know whether I should post this here or in special diets. I am on a special diet but it doesn't really fit in any of the other sections.

Anyways, I have been trying to make sandwich bread for a year that is based on flours that I can eat. I can only eat a couple of flours. One being flaxseed meal and the other being low fat soy flour. My diet has to be low carb but also low calorie, which is the reason I can't use nut flours. I also can't eat eggs. My main problem is that I can't get the bread to rise enough to be able to make a sandwich bread. It always turns out too dense. I can have gluten so I have been experimenting with soy flour, vital wheat gluten and active yeast but have failed miserably to make a bread that rises. I have been able to make loaf bread but it is too dense to make a sandwich with. I also can't use egg whites which is great for getting the airy shape but I react to eggs so I can't use them. I can't eat sugar so using that to activate the yeast is an issue as well. I don't know if part of the problem is that.

I will take any suggestions. Recently I have been using baking powder and club soda but it doesn't give a sandwich bread, more of a loaf. I am not gluten free, so the wheat gluten is fine for me to use at this point.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Yeast require a carbohydrate as their food source. If you don't use sugar, you must have a starch, which they digest. The by-product of them feeding is growth, and expulsion of Carbon Dioxide which is what is captured by the gluten membranes and causes the bread to rise. Without some starch, be it potato, rice, or wheat, the yeast will have nothing to feed on, and remain dormant.

You can still have high protein, but need to satisfy the yeast requirements, or rely on chemical leavening, such as baking powder, or baking soda and an acid. And I have had fry-breads made with baking powder that had, as far as I could tell, the same texture as fry bread made with yeast.

My recommendation would be to add a bit of cornstarch, or maybe tapioca starch to your dry ingredients.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[joesfolk]

Just wondering if you could use one of your current recipes to make a flat bread shaped loaf. If you split it horizontally and the cut it into sandwich sized pieces it might work.

 

[Zereh]

Post your recipe, it'll help folks troubleshoot.

I can only guess that the problem is you're trying to use soy flour as a 1:1 substitution for wheat flour. ~.~ They're different creatures entirely, soy flour will never mimic wheat flour in your bread making process.

Most non-wheat "bread flours" are a mix of various flours such as brown rice, white rice, sorghum, millet, chickpea and teff and a starch (potato, corn, tapioca, arrowroot). There are also faux grain flours such as buckwheat and quinoa, which are nutty tasting protein rich flours.

Spelt & Eikorn are wheat flours, but not like the wheat we know because they've not been hybridized as relentlessly and both are supposed to be great for cooking.

Not sure why you've decided on soy flour as your go-to, but maybe you could mix it up with another type or two of flour to come up with a bread you like.

 

[hamlet_cat]

I don't really have a recipe. I just keep trying different things. I think it is because I don't understand enough of the theory behind how to make sandwich bread. I'm assuming I can't get enough rise from the yeast because I am not using sugar.

 

[GotGarlic]

Baking is a precise science, unlike cooking. You'll have much better success if you use a tried and true recipe. Here's one that may meet your needs, or at least give you some guidance: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/02/delicious-gluten-free-bread.html

Hope this helps.