VITAL ULTIMATE BAKE MIX
Substitute cup-for-cup for all-purpose flour. Regular sugar and white flour recipes will have carbs reduced by about 60 % to 70% if a low-carb sweetener is also used. These Bake Mixes are not gluten-free, but I do have other bake mixes that are gluten-free for Atkins low-carbing and also for Keto low-carbing.
My latest Discovery: By substituting half of any of my bake mixes (and especially the Vital Ultimate Bake Mixes) with Carbalose flour from www.netrition.com one gets superior results than simply using my bake mix. In fact, the results are so similar to baking with white flour that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference. Experiment and let me know how it turns out for you. Any feedback would be helpful to others too. I will continue to explore this avenue as time goes by. The thing is many people were put off by Carbalose flour or Carbquik, in particular, because of a strange taste or smell that some people could detect too strongly. However, that problem is solved when doing the former bake mix combo. I have not worked with Carbquik and most likely will not in the future either, however, I love Carbalose flour used in this manner. The carb count in the recipes will not change. There is no carb savings.
NOTE: One cup of white flour is about 91.5 g carbs and 1 cup of Vital Ultimate Bake Mix (the highest carb option with spelt flour, say) is 33.6 g carb, for a savings of 57.9 g carbs. Now that is the worst case scenario. Most people would use oat or whole wheat pastry flour options and then the numbers look like this: 24.4 g carbs vs 91.5 g carbs per cup for a savings of 67.1 g carbs. Actually, in the grand scheme of things not huge differences - surprisingly! For those of you who cannot have any grains at this point in time, choose to use my really low-carb bake mix called Splendid Low-Carb Bake Mix.
Vital Ultimate Bake Mix
1 1/2 cups almond flour, ground almonds, OR (375 mL)
ground hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts
1 cup spelt, OR all-purpose, (250 mL)
whole wheat pastry flour, OR
oat flour* (last two have fewer carbs)
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (125 mL)
In medium bowl, combine ground almonds (hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts), spelt flour (all-purpose, whole wheat pastry or oat flour) and vital wheat gluten; stir well. Substitute cup-for-cup for all-purpose flour. With all bake mixes, add liquid in your own recipes very cautiously, withholding about 1/4 cup (50 mL) to 1/2 cup (125 mL) and adding it as necessary. Usually recipes require the former amount.
Nutritional Analysis: Yield: 3 cups (750 mL)
1/4 cup (50 mL)/serv. (spelt)
139.5 calories; 8.2 g protein, 8.0 g fat; 8.4 g carbs
Variations: *Vital Whole Wheat Ultimate Bake Mix: (using the same formulation in main recipe, only with whole wheat pastry flour):
131.4 calories, 7.8 g protein, 7.9 g fat, 6.9 g carbs.
*Vital Oat Ultimate Bake Mix: (using the same formulation in main recipe, only with oat flour): 136.5 calories, 8.1 g protein, 8.3 g fat, 6.1 g carbs.
Vital Ultimate Bake Mix (with all-purpose flour): I very rarely use this combination, but will choose to make the bake mix with spelt flour instead as in main recipe with nutritional analysis shown. It is useful for a very special occasion, delicate-textured cake or loaf or muffins, etc.
144.1 calories, 7.9 g protein, 7.9 g fat, 9.7 g carbs.
Helpful Hints: The ground almonds, all-purpose flour and vital wheat gluten combination in Vital Ultimate Bake Mix is very similar to regular baking and often better, producing lovely, moist, delicate-textured baked goods and is particularly useful for cakes that require a tender crumb texture. Spelt flour (a complex carbohydrate flour, not biologically related to wheat flour, but with about the same carbohydrate content) will be almost as good in such instances.
If you are using ground almonds instead of almond flour, please add an extra 1/2 cup (125 mL). This will give the correct yield, however, if you forget, it will not harm the recipe results. Even although I mentioned ground almonds in my recipe books, I actually used almond flour at the time. These days I cannot get almond flour where I live and because I use so much of it, I have to grind my own from sliced almonds that I buy. It is coarsely ground compared to almond flour. Almond flour, of course, is more superior in baking. Store.honeyvillegrain.com on the internet sells practically the best almond flour anywhere.
Vital Ultimate Bake Mix may replace Low-Carb Bake Mix, page 64 in recipes. Just use 2 tbsp (25 mL) less Vital Ultimate Bake Mix per cup of Low-Carb Bake Mix. It may also replace cup-for-cup any of the other Ultimate Bake Mixes in my other cookbooks. However, do not substitute the Splendid Low-Carb Bake Mix for the Vital Ultimate Bake Mix - for one, you'd need to use more of it (maybe 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup) and for two, I cannot guarantee the result.
Substituting this for my Gluten-Free Bake Mixes...you will need 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup less depending on the amount of bake mix you are needing to use.