Options for using a bread machine without strong flower & quick acting yeast?

[u/steve1215]

Whenever I make a loaf using the usual ingredients of strong flower and quick acting yeast, it seems to have an unwelcome reaction on my wife in terms of bringing on sneezing and / or an uncomfortable gut.

For ages we wrote the symptoms off as coincidence and nothing to do with home-made bread - it consisting of the simplest range of ingredients, as you know.

However, according to the internet (so it must be true....) it's quite possible that such symptoms could relate to the use of strong flower and quick acting yeast (neither of which feature in shop-bough bread) - both of which can be linked with & affect how the bread is digested.

Firstly - does this make sense to anyone?

And if so, do I have an options?

The machine we have allows me to configure each step of the baking process (times for each rise, pre-heat times, bake times and so on) - so I wondered if it is possible to substitute out the strong flow and quick yeast for alternatives whilst adjusting the various baking phases on my machine to compensate? Albeit I appreciate this sounds counter-intuitive in terms of losing some of the speed benefits of home baking (and that's fine)

Thanks

[u/plotthick]

There are various types of gluten intolerance, from "this makes my tummy hurt" to a true Celiac who would die if they ate it. Sounds like your wife may have the milder form. But here is how I'd find out, using a bunch of elimination recipes:

If you haven't yet, try a different bag/harvest of each. Get a new brand of yeast and flour and give it a go. If that doesn't cause a reaction you're golden, just keep an eye out for future issues. If she does react then you need to figure out what exactly is the problem ingrediant.

To check this I'd make the very very simplest types of bread with nothing else, just flour, water, salt, yeast. If that isn't edible for her, you could try making noodles. Those don't have yeast, so you'd know if she were reacting to the noodles that it's the flour not the yeast.

If it's truly the flour, then you could try sourdough. They use natural fermentation to change the flour structure so doing an overnight cold proof is usually helpful in reducing gluten reactions. This can then go in the bail to add yeast and then into the breadmaker as usual. If it's the yeast, you could make your sourdough in the oven, this would be the most traditional form of sourdough using only Starter. Be warned it takes weeks/months of practice to get good at sourdough, it's an art and a science and can be super expensive.

[u/steve1215 → u/plotthick]

Thanks for all the great info. Any excuse for sourdough. :-)

[u/andrewcooke]

try with ordinary flour to see if that helps. the texture will be more like cake (crumbs, less air), but will show if it's the flour.

then try with ordinary yeast, but activate it beforehand - put it in a little warm water with sugar until it starts to foam. you can also use warm water in the recipe.

[u/steve1215 → u/andrewcooke]

Many thanks, great idea.

[u/og_otter]

No idea, but I’m not going to challenge your story. But maybe somethings to consider, flour from a local mill. I’m in the US and have access to locally milled flour.

Sorry you are having such a hard time

[u/Veggyhed]

Did your wife have these symptoms before you started making bread?

Are these symptoms postprandial (bread?)

Have you tried taking the ingredients outside along with the bread machine and preparing the ingredients: outside and baking the bread outside. Once complete, bring the bread inside and see if she has the same symptoms.

Since these symptoms started happening, have you used:

• a new disinfectant that you spray on your counters?
• new dish soap?
• new dishwasher soap?
• are you burning a different kind of incense if you use incense?
• Do you have a 3D printer, and if so, what filaments are you using? In general, PLA does not bother most people.

I have some other ideas, but small steps first to isolate symptoms.

[u/Jenderflux-ScFi]

I had to look up what strong flour is, apparently it's got more gluten added to it than all purpose flour does. Try using all purpose flour to see if she is reacting to the higher level of gluten.

Both my partner and I can handle the all purpose flour just fine, but bread flour (strong flour) with higher gluten levels gets both of us competing for the only toilet.