No More Corn Syrup!

[bennelson]

Wow, lot's of passionate bakers on this forum!

I have used bread machines before. In fact, I once borrowed my mother's bread machine for almost 2 years, and then returned it, all without her noticing.

Bread machines do work well, and are convenient, but the crust they make is just aweful! If you just use them to make up the dough, then bake it in a loaf pan or flat sheet, you can get a great loaf!

The bread I made last night was just flour, water, a pinch of yeast, and a pinch of salt. It doesn't require any kneading, but you have to let it sit and rise a long time instead.

I then sprinkled it with corn meal, (I said NO to corn SYRUP, not corn itself!) and baked the dough inside a lidded pot for about 40 minutes. The finished loaf is sort of a cross between sourdough and English toasting bread.



The pot I baked the bread in is the blue thing on the counter behind the loaf.

[Ryland]

I grew up without corn syrup in the house because my mom has an allergy to all corn products, with my own house now I think the only foods I have that have corn syrup in it is barbecue sauce and I've looked for bottled sauce without and can't find it, a single bottle of course will last nearly a year because if I want to cook or grill and use barbecue sauce it's cheaper and tastes better to make your own.
As it sounds like you have noticed, if you cut something like corn syrup out of your diet you tend to eat alot better food, real food.
Pizza crust is just bread dough that is spread thin on a flat round pan, and if you plan it out ahead of time you can made bread or pizza in just a few minutes of working time because alot of the time that bread takes you don't even need to be home, make the dough in the morning let it sit punch it down on your lunch brake or put it in the fridge to slow it down enough that you can leave it wait till evening, from that dough you can make cinnamon rolls, cinnamon bread, regular bread, pizza crust, dinner rolls, ad a bit of sugar and form then in to donuts, boil for 30 seconds then bake and you have bagels, bread is so good stuff to make.

[bennelson]

In the Bar-B-Q sauce display at the store - literally 6 feet tall by six feet wide of store shelving, I only found two varieties of non-corn syrup sauce.

One was Annie's Organic, and the other was, believe it or not, a Kraft brand - Bull's Eye. It had sugar and molasses, no corn syrup.

[Doofus McFancypants]

I am going to have to check what we have in the cabinets.
we have a lot of "Light" items - so we might have purged most of the HFCS anyway.

we got the bread machine for cutting expences - a loaf of the Fancy breads can run $4.
we can make a fancy bread ( with no Preservatives) for under $2.
and with a 18mo old and a 5 yr old - it is just to darn hard to make it the traditional way.

Something else to cosider - Icecream maker - you can control the ingredants there as well if you want No Preservatives - known sugar contant - darn good icecream...

Steve

[metroschultz]

I have a case of "Gatorade" in the house.
I keep it because I have found it to be one of the few inexpensive products to help with my hypoglycemia.
I just looked this morning and found it is little more than Water and
.......................HFCS................
So now I am left in a quandary, or if you will a conundrum.
How to bring my blood sugar back up to an acceptable level,
WITHOUT
HFCS
Gatorade has worked for years and I know how it affects me.
I won't spend the money on the pharmaceuticals for raising my sugar.
I don't fare well with straight juices. Maybe cause they have no HFCS.
If any of you have any advice I would greatly appreciate it.
I will use KoolAid for now cause I can make it with plain sugar and
(it's been a long time but)
I believe it worked as well as the Gatorade I just didn't like the taste.
Maybe I can find a pure fruit juice that will work well also.
KRAP
with a kapital
K

[Doofus McFancypants]

I say keep the gatorade if ti works for this specific need.

see if you can limit it elseware - but personally i would not mess with it for this reason.

Besides - if this is the limited source you are ingesting it from - that proaably is not really that bad - Moderation and all.

Steve

[bennelson]

Hey Schultz,

You are certainly the "Jared" of our group here. Keep up the good work.

I also have blood sugar issues. As long as I remember, I always get feeling really crummy if I don't eat on a regular basis. This usually means that if I don't eat when I am a little hungry, I tend to get dizzy and headaches. Not fun.

For me, eating smaller amounts more often helps a lot. Big meals tend to make me feel terribly sluggish later, I almost always have a big low in the afternoon. Grazing helps fight this a lot!

This also means that if I have to work late, or have some other circumstance where I don't get to eat, I will eat almost whatever is available, which usually means McDonalds or Gas Station Food. Neither is a good choice, but it beats being dizzy and headachey!

"Convenience Food" is a HUGE industry in the States. By just planning a little bit more, and cooking as much of our own food as we can, we have MUCH better eating, and control over our own health.

[hummingbird]

Hey Schultz, Sugar will work just fine, if the magic elixir that you call Gatorade is hardly anything other than water+HFCS. Powdered sugar with water will hit the blood stream in no time, working as good as your elixir or even better...

Googled to find that Gatorade is a sports drink... usually a highly priced lowly formula synthetic drink...

Instead, be creative - Make a bottle of Lemonade with sugar to your taste and Sip some cool Lemonade rather than just sugar + water.. Wotsay?

Wikipedia says originally Gatorade did not contain HFCS...

The original Gatorade contained water, sucrose (table sugar) and glucose-fructose syrups, citric acid, fish oil, sodium chloride (table salt), sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate,and flavoring/coloring ingredients.

[RobertSmalls]

HFCS is not some universal evil. I have a few minor digestive issues, and some food allergies, so it's difficult to find new foods I can eat. I'm far from overweight, and I'm happy when I can pack a few more calories into a meal. HFCS is a good thing for my diet, then.

As long as whole foods, rather than processed foods, are the bulk of your diet, and you eat enough fresh fruits and greens, you've probably got enough fiber and micronutrients, and you don't need to worry if you eat a dessert that is devoid of both and full of HFCS.

If you're hypoglycemic, scrawny, or healthy, HFCS in moderation is probably beneficial.

[hummingbird]

Hey Ben,

the red spatula in the snap above looked just like a small fireman's ax with the red color and all... Had a hearty laugh imagining you having baked a concrete-shaming loaf, and sweating all over hacking at it with the ax... LOLz...!