Culinary scientists, HELP (please)

Cafe Society
1

At my behest, my daughter is undertaking to transition our family to a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet. I don’t wish to discourage her, at least while she’s in the enthusiastic stage of the project, so this morning on my way home from work, I went searching for the ingredients for her to make cranberry-orange muffins for breakfast.

The ingredient list:

2⅓ cups almond flour
⅓ cup coconut flour
½ tsp baking soda
2 eggs
½ tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup honey
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 cup cranberries
½ cup pecans, chopped

(Astonishingly, I was able to find everything except coconut flour, and she’s substituting another ⅓ cup of the almond flour today.)

The recipe gives the “virtues” of the muffin as follows: Low Carbohydrate, Grain/Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free, Paleo. I don’t really give a rip about dairy-, grain-, or gluten-free (and I’m passive-aggressively hostile to the concept of “Paleo”).

Sticker shock is turning out to be an issue (for me, anyway. I found that a single pound of almond flour set me back ten dollars, which I don’t really think is sustainable in the long run).

I did a little googling around and found that while almond flour has about 1/4 the carbohydrates of wheat flour, it also has 40% more calories (160 kcal per 1/4 cup v. 114 kcal per 1/4 cup). I’m thinking of slowly persuading her into accepting some trade-offs in the carb - calorie balance, but I’m not sure about the practical aspects of accomplishing the substitutions.

When converting a gluten-free recipe to a regular flour recipe, what kind of adjustments need to be made wrt leavening, flavoring, added moisture/fats, and baking time?

Is there a handy-dandy utility anywhere that can be used as a template for converting gluten-free recipes to regular food recipes?

Thanks so much for any input.

Well, any input that isn’t based on trying to make me accept that gluten-free, paleo-veganism is the only legitimate way for a human being to eat. :slight_smile:

2

I wouldn’t try to convert a gluten-free recipe to regular food. Most gluten-free recipes are things that have been converted and adjusted from regular ones. In the case of the muffins, I would try to find low calorie or low carb or whatever you want.

Maybe this:

Cooking Light recipes tend to be short on fake food, relying more on moderate substitutions and appropriate serving sizes.

3

I eat low carb and have for better than a decade. That list of ingredients seems to not be so low carb. Orange juice and honey don’t really qualify as low carb, and cranberries are pretty high in carbs as well.

I make an all purpose mixture out of equal volumes of ground flax seed, wheat bran, unsweetened finely milled coconut, and protein powder. I take two cups of this mixture with 4 eggs, six tablespoons of coconut oil, and two teaspoons of baking powder and enough water to mix and I make half a dozen muffins.

The mix also makes pretty good pancakes as well.

Low carb is really a misnomer, I eat a high fat diet, with 65% of my calories coming from fat. That’s kind of a shock to some people, but my lipids are better than 98% of the world. I guess I’m gluten free, but that’s mainly a side effect of not eating wheat, more of an accident. I don’t think it’s the gluten that’s a problem.

Here’s a thread with low carb breakfasts.

4

Converting that particular recipe from gluten-free to wheat flour has the problem of going for some darn fancy flours. Any gluten-free recipes you find with maize flour, it’s a 1:1 substitution (alllllmost - many people can’t tell any differences, and for those who do, adjust other ingredients to taste and texture).

5

I am planning on making this strawberry almond cake for my sister who is trying to go gluten-free. According to the recipe (and the comments down below), you can’t substitute almond flour 1:1 with the coconut flour. They recommend using a lot more almond flour.

King Arthur has lots of good advice on their website.

Incidentally, I saw coconut flour at Trader Joe’s last week, if you happen to have one of those in your area.

6

The almond and coconut flours are higher in fat and the almond in protein, which makes the muffins have a higher calorie count. They are lower in carbs though. The OJ, honey and cranberries alone are enough to be a small portion, sometimes food for most diabetics and others watching their carbs.

If gluten free is the biggie, oat or rice flour are more reasonably priced than almond or coconut are.

7

Yeah, almond flour is not going to be any cheaper per pound than almonds. I use unsweetened shredded coconut, which is much cheaper, but still $0.30 per ounce, much more expensive than wheat flour.

8

Orange juice=sugar
Honey=sugar
Vanilla is made with alcohol=sugar
Sugar=carbs, regardless of the form it comes in.

9

Ummm … where is the xanthan gum? If been cooking carb/gluten free for a year and xanthan gum is critical for replacing the gluten you need for bread products to actually act like they have wheat flour in them i.e. provide structure.