Newest Update - please see my newest Gluten-Free Low-Carb Bake Mix options:
Here and here.
Blurb about the Gluten-free Low-Carb Bake Mix (a little more than 1/3 the carbs of white flour): Since oat flour has been approved for folks with Celiac disease (see my earlier post this month), this has opened up a whole new opportunity to make a palatable low-carb bake mix that can also be used in my recipe books. My bake mix worked first time for cookies as well as for muffins when I used it in place of the white flour. Always add liquid ingredients cautiously, withholding at least 1/2 cup and add gradually, until the correct batter consistency for muffins, loaves or cookies is achieved. I made scones yesterday and they were really nice, however, I left out 1/2 the liquid requirements. The same would be true of proceeding cautiously with pancake and crepe batters. If too much liquid is added, stir in a little extra bake mix to the right consistency. Although not perfect, I think this bake mix has potential. It could be a little more difficult for novice bakers, but with practice it will become easier. The trick is to know more or less the consistency of the various batters. For instance, cookie dough is stiffer or thicker, if you will, than muffin or loaf batters.
Alternatives to oat flour: It is possible to use another gluten-free flour to dilute the amount of oat flour or to substitute completely (unless it is soy or millet flour, the carbs will be higher), but I would tend to keep the other ingredients in the same amounts more or less. Xanthan gum has properties that bind the other ingredients together nicely (prevents crumbling), although it does cut sweetness slightly. It is possible to use soy (5.0 g carbs) or millet flour (9 g carbs) in place of oat flour and golden flax meal in place of the coconut flour (6.7 g carbs). It is possible to replace almond flour with hazelnut flour or walnut flour. Hazelnut flour is available through Netrition.com and is made by Bob's Red Mill: Hazelnut Flour
I will attach the Chocolate Cheesecake Muffin recipe (from my first book, Splendid Desserts - regular low-fat sugar free desserts - not low-carb) now and hopefully tomorrow I will have a photo for the blog of those muffins. They were excellent with a tender cake-like crumb, just as if they had been made with white flour.
Click here for New Information about my Gluten-free Low-Carb Bake Mix. I'm working on a new formulation without coconut flour. So far so good, it works wonderfully in muffins and loaves and seems to be almost a cup-for-cup substitution for white flour in recipes. Good news is that it is also quite low-carb at 5 g carbs per 1/4 cup. Anyway, I need to do much more testing. Apparently millet flour has low carbs like oat flour, but it can be quite grassy-tasting, so maybe using a little of it in combination with oat flour would work better?
GLUTEN-FREE LOW-CARB BAKE MIX
1 1/2 cups oat flour (certified gluten-free), OR soy flour (slightly lower carb), OR millet flour (maybe!)
1 cup ground almonds, OR almond flour, OR Hazelnut flour
1/2 cup sifted coconut flour (available from Netrition) OR golden flax meal
1 tsp Xanthan gum (available from Netrition)
Yield: 3 cups, 12 servings of 1/4 cup each
100.7 calories; 4.2 g protein; 5.3 g fat; 7.0 g net carbs
Here is the nutritional breakdown of Coconut Flour:
Per 2 tbsp (14 g):
26 calories; 1.5 g fat; 2.0 g protein; 10 g carbs subtract 9 g fiber = 1 g net carb or 8 grams of carbohydrate per cup
Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins
These muffins are so good - no butter or fruit spread required. Granted these muffins are higher carb than the muffins in my low-carb cookbooks. The highest I ever went was 8 grams with most of the muffins being around 3 or 4 grams of carbs each. Nevertheless these muffins are less than half the carbs of the original Splenda recipe from my diabetic cookbook, Splendid Desserts. I think this bake mix gives people with gluten intolerance some other options.
Cream Cheese Mixture
3 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp Splenda Granular
Chocolate Batter
1 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Bake Mix
3/4 cup Splenda Granular
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp powdered Erythritol (optional)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup of a mixture of half cream and half water
1/4 cup light-tasting olive oil
Cream Cheese Mixture: Beat the cream cheese and 2 tbsp Splenda Granular until smooth and light. Set aside.
Chocolate Batter: Place dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
Beat the egg very well. Stir in the cream mixture and olive oil.
Add the liquid ingredients to the well in center of dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened.
Spoon a little chocolate batter into bottom of 8 greased muffin cups. Place a generous teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture on top of the batter in each muffin cup and top with chocolate batter, to 3/4 cup full.
Bake in a 375°F oven 15 to 20 minutes.
Yield: 8 muffins
204.5 calories; 5.6 g protein, 15.6 g fat, 9.2 g net carbs
Have fun with this bake mix and feel free to give me feedback. I have not tested it extensively.
Helpful Hints: This chocolate muffin is not overly sweet (nor was the original recipe), but sweet enough. Splenda Granular does not sweeten chocolate optimally and that is why I sometimes use a little erythritol or the Splenda packets. The bake mix contains some fiber due to the almonds, but especially due to the coconut flour. This might be a little rough for some people, so I advise caution until one knows how one tolerates the extra fiber. In my experience with low-carbing, added fiber in the diet is a good thing.
Certified Gluten-Free Oat Flour is now readily available from many sources: