CarbQuick

[NulloModo]

Jen - Could you give some more info on this flour replacement you have? What all goes into it?

[Jen111]

Hi Nullomodo - Hey, I'm not such a bad saleswoman if I managed to get your interest piqued. I just noticed all your stats and who you are (moderator!) and everything and your weight loss success just blows me away. I'm so happy for you - you look very handsome. Congrats on you weight loss. Wow! You are 3 years older than my eldest son by the way. He is about your height too, which is amazing to me as I'm a real shortie at 5' 3". Not that I mind being short - it's fine.

Anyway, I digress. The vital oat ultimate bake mix contains ground almonds (or you can use ground hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts), oat flour or whole wheat pastry flour (or even spelt flour depending on the application - but should be used more rarely) and vital wheat gluten (1/4 cup = 6.1 g carbs and with spelt (8.4 g carbs)). The bake mix can be used cup-for-cup instead of white flour in your recipes, reducing carbs by about 60%. (the splendid low-carb bake mix (tm) reduces carbs by about 85%) The latest cookbook (Splendid Low-Carbing for Life, Vol. 2) has the oat pizza crust and the oat tortillas that are sooo good! By the way whole wheat pastry flour has fewer carbs than whole wheat flour. It also makes great crusty breads in the breadmaker.

I also have a nut-free ultimate bake mix that is a cup-for-cup substitute for white flour. It uses whole wheat pastry flour, vital wheat gluten, vanilla whey protein and ground flax seeds.

Thanks for your interest, NulloModo.

[NulloModo]

Oh, thank you for the compliment, the stuff you have worked out sounds interesting.

Unfortunately it wouldn't really work for me, I am very sensitive to real wheat flours, even straight VWG stalls me out, but so far WPI hasn't. Sounds like it could be fun stuff to play with for those who can endulge though.

[Jen111]

I totally understand and really admire your fortitude. I wonder how you manage with oat flour and if you do manage with that , then you could conceivably use the wheat protein isolate instead of the vital wheat gluten component of the bake mix, I think, although since I have never tested that theory, I cannot guarantee anything.

Still, since you are very sensitive to carbohydrate flours, it's probably best to just leave them all alone. Good that you are so dedicated.

[JoanOH]

It's been awhile since we've discussed CarbQuik, but I used it again this weekend with GREAT results and thought I'd share.

I modified their Muffin recipe that comes on the box. I was hoping for a Banana Nut bread substitute, but what I got was a very good banana flavored muffin. Here's what I did:

2 cups CarbQuik
2/3 cup Half & Half
1/3 cup Da Vinci's Banana-flavored SF syrup
2 tbsp Splenda
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 whole egg, beaten.
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Put cupcake liners in 12 muffins cups.

Stir all ingredients until just moistened. (This is the trick with CarbQuik, it seems to me. If you over-stir, the end result comes out tough and dry.) Add a bit of water to mixture if it's too thick. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on rack.

The texture of these muffins was quite good - right between biscuit and cupcake. They didn't have a strong "artificial" taste that I find in so many LC products, nor any bitter after taste that I associate with artificial sweeteners. I am going to try another batch using fresh strawberries and the Strawberry Da Vinci syrup.

Carb count is about 5 per muffin (after subtracting fiber).

Also worth noting, I found out on the CarbQuik web site that Sam's is carrying this product now!

Joan J