Challah with mostly artificial sweetener?

OOTBubby

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 10:16 am

We like sweet challah. My standard recipe uses 1 cup sugar for 5 lb. flour.

I know that some sugar is needed for the yeast to activate and work. How much real sugar must be used, and could I substitute artificial sweetener for the rest (something like Stevia or maybe Splenda)? Would it work?

shoemaker

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 11:17 am

there is a specail splenda for baking did u ever try that? I used it to bake cheese
cakes & cookies it was great but not for challah, would u try it ?

OOTBubby

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 1:18 pm

shoemaker wrote:

there is a specail splenda for baking did u ever try that? I used it to bake cheese
cakes & cookies it was great but not for challah, would u try it ?

I believe that blend is just a mixture of spenda and sugar.

What I'd like to know is what the minimum amount of sugar is that is necessary for the yeast to work and if the dough will be okay replacing the rest with stevia or splenda.

ra_mom

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 2:23 pm

OOTBubby wrote:

shoemaker wrote:

there is a specail splenda for baking did u ever try that? I used it to bake cheese
cakes & cookies it was great but not for challah, would u try it ?

Activate the yeast first, so you know it's working.
For 3 Tbsp dry yeast, use 1 cup very warm water, and 2 tsp sugar. Mix well. Allow to rest for a few minutes until bubbly and double in size.

chocolate moose

Fri, Nov 18 2011, 3:48 pm

these fake sugars are not nec. heat stable. yu should contact the company for a recipe they've developed.

Raisin

Sat, Nov 19 2011, 12:46 pm

I think about 1 tsp of sugar is needed to activiat the yeast. Most bread has very little sugar in. I make pizza and foccacia dough often and that only has about 1tbsb and is delicious.

honeygold

Sat, Nov 19 2011, 8:59 pm

I used splenda in my challa and it came out fine. I substituted the lets say 1 cup sugar for 1 cup splenda. I think I used real sugar for the yeast but only about a tablespoon.

nylon

Sat, Nov 19 2011, 9:18 pm

You do not need sugar at all. French bread is made without it. The sugar is used to proof the yeast so you can see it's active, but you can just dissolve it and it will feed on the starch in the flour. Or, use instant yeast as I do and don't dissolve it at all--just mix the dry ingredients and add the liquid. I use SAF, but bread machine yeast will also work.

I have no idea how splenda would behave in bread, but you don't need sugar for the yeast. I make focaccia, pizza dough, and hearth breads with no sugar.

OOTBubby

Sat, Nov 19 2011, 10:10 pm

honeygold wrote:

I used splenda in my challa and it came out fine. I substituted the lets say 1 cup sugar for 1 cup splenda. I think I used real sugar for the yeast but only about a tablespoon.

Thank you. That is the information I was looking for. Was the texture different?

OOTBubby

Sat, Nov 19 2011, 10:16 pm

honeygold wrote:

no the texture was the same as far as I remember.

Thanks.

Annie

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 12:02 am

Let me know how it comes out. I've been really cutting back on sugar and mostly just gave up on making challah, but I'd like to again. I just decided that my recipe which ends up being about 1.5T of sugar per challah wasn't so bad as long as I was using 100% whole wheat flour. So far so good, but I'd love to get rid of the sugar all together. I did see though that it takes much longer to rise when I don't have the sugar as present in the recipe.

OOTBubby

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 9:33 am

Annie wrote:

It'll be a while until I need to bake again as I've got a lot in my freezer.

Would you please share your whole wheat recipe?