Low-Carb Bread (made with the bread machine) LC, SF

Low-carb bread is notoriously difficult to make. Even more so in the bread machine!

It has a tendency to not tolerate a second rise, which most older machines require. However, many machines now have gluten-free cycles and rapid rise cycles. Both can be suitable for low-carb bread making!

My bread machine has a rapid rise cycle, which makes the bread in 1 HR 20 Min. This may seem very short, but it works!

There are a couple of points to remember when making rapid rise/ low-carb bread in the machine:

1.) Use REALLY hot water and put it in the bottom, then the flours, yeast last. Since I use my yeast straight out of the freezer, that's usually a good idea anyway.
DON'T put the yeast into the boiling water though!! It needs to go last as the flours will have absorbed some of the heat before it hits the yeast!

2.) Babysit it for the first few minutes and use a spatula to incorporate all the flour in the corners. I just help it along while it's turning.

3.) The dough needs to be on the wet side. It seems that in the case of a LC dough the right consistency is that it seems wet, but it holds somewhat of a ball shape. A loose one. And when you stick your fingers in it it will seem really sticky, but when you pull your finger out not much to nothing will actually have stuck to your finger. Adjust your liquids as you need to.

Now it's DRY around here so I usually need more water than others, so my water measurements might be off for other climates.

Ingredients:

1 cup of HOT water (as in almost boiling) - I needed another 3.5 tbsp. later for mine to get the right consistency.

1/2 tsp bread salt
2 tsp honey (the sugar in the honey will be eaten by the yeast!)
2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or oil of choice)
1 1/4 cups Carbalose flour
1/2 + 1/8 cup Wheat protein isolate 5000
2.5 Tbsp. wheat protein isolate 8000
3.75 Tbsp. almond flour
3 Tbsp. wheat resistant starch (if you are baking this off in the oven, you get a better rise with resistant starch maize)
3 Tbsp. Oat fiber
2 tsp gluten-free cake enhancer (optional but really helps)
1 tsp Acacia gum (or guar gum, or xanthan or glucomanan powder)
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast granules (I use SAF)

Preparation:

Add the ingredients in the order listed and start the rapid or gluten free cycle.

Let it do it's thing, while helping it along with a spatula until a loose ball is formed. Add water if necessary, or a little more Wheat Protein isolate 5000 if too sticky. Wait to adjust your liquids you’re about 5 minutes into  the kneading cycle. It sometimes takes a while for the dough to really come together.

The machine will do the rest after that.

One thing though - DO NOT open the machine to take a peak until it's done. It sank almost 1.5 inches after I thought I'd have a look about 10 minutes into the baking process. I should know better, but I wanted to see how high it had gotten and my window wasn't showing me.


So far that's been the best tasting low-carb Bread I've made. It doesn't have quite as much of the tell-tale chewy sponginess either.

And beyond the first few minutes of effort, the machine did the rest. Which is great considering that my non-carb-counting family actually eats this bread too and I have to make a fair bit of it!

Oh and it actually has something resembling a crust. It's not as crispy as regular HC bread, but it is a bit more of a crust than I get baking it in the oven!
You can also bake this in the oven of course.