scott123

Josette, I'm happy the PDX is working out for you in your brownies. Would you post your working sorbet recipe? A raspberry sorbet sounds gooood.

What kind of percentage of E are we talking about here? To achieve a sugary mouthfeel from just E and no other bulking agents, that must jack up the quantity, does it not? 1:1 replacement for sugar, texturally? No recrystallization issues? If I can up my E without it going sand/grainy in the final product, my scoopability issues would be gone forever and it would be less chewy as well. Tell me it's true! ;)

A Pacojet, awesome! Gotta love it! Here's the working recipe: Frozen Custard Base: 3C. heavy/whipping cream (not UHT!) 1C. low carb milk (carb countdown whole) .5 C. Erythritol .75 C. Polydextrose 12 drops liquid Splenda (1/2 C. sweetening equivalent) 1 tsp glycerin .5 tsp liquid lecithin .5 tsp xanthan gum 4 egg yolks, beaten Sprinkle xanthan gum into cream/milk while whisking vigorously. Heat everything but the eggs in a double boiler until PDX/E are dissolved. Let cool momentarily. Slowly whisk in the eggs and continue whisking until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Strain. Chill in a sealed container. Makes 2 medium-sized batches of ice cream in a 1qt. ice cream maker. ----------------- Notes: This recipe was formulated for people with a small selection of sweeteners. It would hugely benefit from the addition of some ace k (no more than 6% sweetening equivalent), with a liquid splenda adjustment for synergy. Sebastian is correct about polydextrose, when used in excess, making a gummier ice cream. I would call it 'chewier' as well. I've kept the erythritol relatively low in this because of my recrystallization paranoia. You might want to play around with increasing the erythritol/decreasing the PDX and see where that gets you. This is an unflavored base. Vanilla is an obvious addition, as are low carb fruits, peanut butter, chocolate, you name it.

If you're happy with the level of sweetness that it's at, go with polydextrose or inulin. Both of these are freezing point depressors that add sugary consistency but very little sweetness (10% the sweetness of sugar).

Nathan, polydextrose makes phenomenal ice cream. The chemistry of low carb ice cream gets a little complex, though. I've been reading everything I can on it, and still don't fully comprehend it. Low carb ice cream needs more than just polydextrose/artificial sweeteners to work. You'll need stabilizers/emulsifiers/water immobilizers to obtain the right mouthfeel/scoopability. 1. Polydextrose, like sugar, is a freezing point depressor. It's high molecular weight causes it to have less anti-freeze qualities than sugar, though (I read somewhere that it's half). Scoopability tends to be a major concern with low carb ice cream. Erythritol is a good freezing point depressor, so that will help. Glycerin, in small amounts, is another freezing point depressor that's popular in low carb formulas. And, if you're making this for adults, a zero carb alcohol like brandy, rum, vodka, gin, whiskey will lower the freezing point as well. 2. For a non baked application, dissolving the PDX in a warm liquid is essential. Actually, hot liquid. The heat necessary to denature the egg proteins for a creme anglais might not be sufficient. It would be better to heat the PDX with the cream until it dissolves, let it cool, then start adding the eggs/egg yolks. 3. Cold impairs the ability to taste, so an ice cream base has to be very sweet to be the correct perceived sweetness when frozen. Because of the intensity of sweetness required, combining multiple sweeteners isn't just a good idea, it's mandatory. The list you mention is excellent, although xylitol, with it's potential laxative effect should be used sparingly, if at all. I'd also add a tiny amount of ace k (5% of the sweetening equivalent). Because you're dealing with a low carb product, fat is not an issue. Some milk might be good, but the majority of your formula should be cream (not UHT!). There's also low carb milks available. Emulsifiers/Stabilizers are a whole other topic. I'm running out the door at the moment and will add more about those later. Btw, I have a working low carb recipe that seems to produce good results that I'd be happy to share with you. If you're like me you'd probably want to learn how to fish rather than be provided with a fish, though :)

Hey, the Jersey Shore is pretty darn clean these days! :) Shalmanese, I'd go rent Ghandi and watch the scene where they are making salt from seawater. That might be a little low tech, though. I think grit is a fairly major concern. You could collect it and store it a day or two and allow the grit to fall to the bottom or you could pass the whole thing through a coffee filter or cheesecloth.

I've seen crusts cooked with parchment paper on a stone and crusts without the paper and they certainly look different to the naked eye. I'm guessing if they look different, they must taste different. Wood is a very powerful insulator. Even in the fraction of an inch of the paper, that's still delaying the heat getting to your pizza. The dough from the bakery was probably a day or two old and/or it could have contained more moisture than the dough you usually make. As dough ages, the enzymes continue to break down the starch and it gets sticky. Slacker doughs are sticky as well. Slack doughs generally make better pizzas though (better crumb, better oven spring, etc.) so if your regular dough is that easy to work with, you might want to increase the water a little bit. It's kind of a tradeoff - manageability vs. improved taste. In my experience a dough that is slightly tricky to get off the peel usually makes the best pizza.

Thanks everyone for your replies! Wendy, Weinstein's recipe results in almost a carbon copy of a Kraft soft caramel only just a tad firmer. The sugar doesn't undergo any caramelization, but the cream will 'brown' and make a Kraft colored/tasting caramel - for those that are into that kind of thing. I will go with the another recipe, thanks!

Josette, I stand by my math :) That was a cup of sugar equivalent. In the context of such an intense/bitter chocolate as scharffenberger, 1 C. of sugar would have been not nearly enough. Have you done 4 oz. sharffenberger to 1 cup sugar brownies before? My brownies are 4:1.5 and that's a very mild, alkalized Nestle baking chocolate. With the high cocoa content of Scharffenberger, I'm surprised an extra 3 T. of Whey Low was enough. I, personally, adore that chewy crusty exterior, but I can see how someone might find it texturally obtuse. To prevent it from happening, I'd suggest three things: 1. Bake them at a lower temp - if you went with 350, try 300. 2. Bake them on a lower shelf. 3. Reduce the PDX to 1/2 C. 1/4 C. PDX translates into about 7% of the total ingredients (by weight). If you're going to cut back for less chew, I'd recommend trying 1/2 cup (14%). 1/2 C. and a lower shelf/lower temp should give you exactly what you're looking for. P.S. Another way around the crusty top is to cover them when you take them out of the oven. The steam will soften them right up.

I made soft caramels today using this recipe: http://www.baking911recipes.com/candy_caramels.htm I noticed that they were not all that deeply colored or flavored. That just happened to be the first recipe I stumbled on. After that, I started looking around for other recipes and noticed that they all cooked the sugar syrup first until color is achieved (300ish) and then added the cream/butter for a second phase (248). In the single phase caramel, if you don't caramelize the sugar syrup first, the only thing that's browning when the cream/butter is added is the cream, correct? 248 isn't a high enough temp to color a sugar syrup. How common are these single phase caramels? Is this recipe an adulteration for soft caramel connoisseurs?

Does anyone know if these could be made with all corn syrup (no sugar?)

Viva, I love pot pies too :) On my last trip to London, I fell in love with the pot pies at Marks & Spencer. For a commercial product, nothing compares.

Rendered fat in the fridge? Mmmmm... A pure fat like clarified butter lasts for ages. But beef fat doesn't strike me as being that hardy. I'd lean towards the fat lasting slightly longer than cooked meat. In other words, maybe a week? If you rendered it completely (no moisture) and strained out the solids, maybe that might buy you more time, but I kind of doubt it. Frozen, it lasts for months. Although some will tell you otherwise, a cuisinart doesn't grind meat all that well. It has a tendency to give you a very uneven grind, or worse, too fine of a grind. But fat in a cuisinart? Maybe. It depends on what you're going to do with it. For something like sausage making... I'd think you need pretty uniform pieces of fat for that. But for adding to hamburger meat... sure, I think that would work. Although I'm very anti cuisinart for grinding meat, I think using it for fat wouldn't be the end of the world. Viva, beef fat is suet.

I agree. Splenda is fairly reknowned for being horrible on it's own with chocolate. I'm wondering if pumpkin based baked goods are difficult to sweeten. My biggest problem with sweetening to date was pumpkin bread, which I blamed on the saccharin. The bread had a alcoholic 'heat' to it in my mouth.

It's not that weird - I love hard cooked egg korma.

Chefwoody, I have these three links for wholesale tagatose: http://www.gaiotagatose.com/ http://www.arlafoodsingredients.com/C1256E...1256E6F003428F7 http://www.tagatose.com/index.htm If, during your reading, you come across anything relating to the dextrinization of starches in roux, I have a similar question there as well. As we all know, a roux, as it darkens, loses it's thickening abilities. Does it burn away sugar as well? My theory is that both very dark caramelized sugar and very dark roux have very few sugars/carbs left in them. At least that's what I'm hoping ;)

Make cracklins, then take the rendered fat and use that for stuff, such as sauteeing onions for chili or in dumplings. For instance, I like caramelized onions with my steaks but like starting them before the steak goes into the pan. If I have fat around, I can use this for the onions rather than waiting until the steak is done pan frying/giving up it's fat. You can also grind it and freeze it. When bottom round (or rump) goes on sale, have your butcher grind up a roast, bring it home and combine it with 20% thawed fat. It'll be better than any pre-ground beef you've ever bought. You can grind it, then freeze it or you can render it, freeze it. Fat, unlike meat, freezes without impairment. Grind it for sausage making.

You're right, isomalt won't caramelize. I had eaten isomalt toffees that I had assumed were made by caramelizing the isomalt, but I just looked into it - nope, just caramel flavoring. Sugar alcohols won't caramelize. Chefwoody, cross isomalt off my list of recommendations :) It'll glass but it won't caramelize. Now, speaking of caramelization... I've been thinking. As you caramelize sugar, it's being converted to other compounds, some sugars such as dextrose, some non sugars, correct? If you continue cooking sugar, you end up with carbon, correct? Carbon contains zero sugar, does it not? Doesn't the amount of sugar in a caramel decrease the longer you cook it/the darker color you achieve? And, if so, is there any way of quantifying this loss of carbohydrate for use in sugar free baking?

I've been thinking about this lately... how certain are you of the '7-10%' figure? I have tens of people in the forum that I moderate that are seeking answers to the erythritol crystallization issue. If there's any chance that this 7-10% could be a hard and fast rule, it would make a lot of people, including me, happy. Also, I have read that polydextrose, when used in conjunction with erythritol, will inhibit crystallization, but so far, I have yet to notice that occuring. Have you had any experience with this? And lastly, a polydextrose/erythritol fudge... In theory I think it's quite feasible - a liquid phase polydextrose solution combined with a solid phase crystallized erythritol. My biggest obstacle is obtaining a small enough crystal size. Ideas?

One advantage of using isomalt instead of sugar for sugar type garnishes is that if you have any left, you can remelt it whereas you can't with sugar. ← Fascinating, thanks! I'm curious... what happens if you try to remelt sugar?

Chefwoody, the kind of specs you'r describing (low hygroscopicity, caramelization, glassing, proportionally less sweet than sugar) are tailor made for isomalt, a sugar alcohol. Unfortunately, once you wander into the non-erythritol sugar alcohol realm you have laxation/digestive issues to worry about. Whey Low should caramelize/glass in the manner you're looking for, but, being a combination of sucrose, fructose and lactose, I don't consider Whey Low a 'sugar substitute.' I've been reading a little bit about tagatose lately. That sounds like another likely candidate, if you can get your hands on some. You might be able to play the business to business card with one of the tagatose manufacturers. Tagatose can't be purchased retail, but commercial... possibly. I've heard it mentioned here a few times. Maybe one of our esteemed members has an 'in'

An impressive presentation! I can't wait to see the pictures of the finished product. I couldn't help but notice your choice of relatively lean meats. I wonder how fattier/well marbled cuts of meat would impact the bonding process.

Matsu, from Sebastion's description it's 'total sugars,' so the sugar from the fruit definitely has to be counted. I don't know what was in the tart, but raspberries happen to have relatively little sugar in them. This applies to most berries. Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries - low sugar as well. Lemons are okay, used in the minimal context they tend to appear. When you see high sugar fruit mentioned in low carb/sugar free commercial products, it's usually a combination of fruit and flavoring, not 100% fruit.

Hmmmmmmm... you got me :) As Nullo suggests, it could a different penchant for sweetness. Still, though, that's a huge disparity. Maybe it's a typo? That 2:3 synergy sounds about right for two sweeteners. When combining 3 sweeteners, I think it it's closer to a 1:2 amplification.

Re: Stevia, I don't know the answer to your question exactly, but I will say that, in general, the less processed a brand of stevia is, the worse it tastes. Nullo's brand (Now White Powder) is very processed/standardized as is the sooolite and those, as I said earlier get some of the best reviews. I was under the misconception that PDX could caramelize until I looked further into it recently. The 90% fiber constituent can't caramelize, but the 4% glucose can. So, technically one can say PDX caramelizes, but in reality, you can barely detect any color. So, no. PDX is extremely hygroscopic. Working with it is very much like working with corn syrup. It is also highly resistant to crystallization. I keep adding more and more to a water solution, heating it and expecting, like sugar, for crystals to form when it cools - nope. Nothing. It glasses for candy, but due to the hygroscopicity, the candies can end up sticky. It definitely can't be used for everything.