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Hello fellow listmates I need help with this.

I notice when I use Dakota Gold flax seed ( http://www.heintzmanfarms.com/)
and I grind it and mix it with Mountain High yogurt, that the yogurt becomes
extremely thick after stirring in the ground seed. If I let it sit for a
minute the yogurt becomes so thick that it will keep a heavy silver
tablespoon upright in the yogurt cup, and will not let it fall to the side
from gravity. When I scoop out the yogurt after stirring in the ground seed
and letting it sit for a couple of minutes, the yogurt has the consistency
of thick Clay-Doh modeling clay. After the ground seed/yogurt mix sits for a
couple of minutes, it reminds me of the consistency of soft banana nut
bread. So the question is, is this useful, can we use it for anything, like
for baking or cooking, as a new “natural ingredient” thickening agent.

This last yogurt I made today with the ground gold flax seed was the
Mountain High “Mountain Berry Bramble”. Within a couple of minutes of
stirring in the seed, the yogurt was on its way to wet concrete consistency.
When I grind the gold flax seed, I use a Braun coffee grinder, and I add 5
level teaspoons of the gold flax seed to the grinder, then grind for 10-15
seconds. I shake the grinder while I grind to ensure all the seeds get
ground up. Then I fold the grind into the Mountain High yogurt, and stir it
in well. From there the chemical bonding takes place (whatever chemicals are
bonding) and it starts turning into banana nut bread consistency yogurt.

I need help in isolating what ingredient(s) in the Mountain High yogurt are
causing this thickening process. The ingredients of the Mountain Berry
Bramble are:

Cultured pasteurized nonfat milk
Crystalline fructose
Whey protein concentrate
Raspberries
Black currant
Strawberries
Tapioca starch
Kosher gelatin
Natural flavors
Active cultures (S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, L. Bifidus,
L. Casei)

I tested milk as one possible candidate. Ground up gold flax seed mixed with
milk does thicken, however it only thickens as much as warm honey. So the
milk is an ingredient in the thickening process, but not the main one.

Also, this Mountain Berry Bramble yogurt is just the flavor I used with the
ground gold flax seed today. I buy and eat all the Mountain High flavored
yogurt cups, strawberry, raspberry, peach, etc, and this thickening occurs
in all of them when ground gold flax seed is added to the various flavors.
So I think we can eliminate the fruit as being involved. From looking at the
raspberry, peach, strawberry and “Mountain Bramble” flavors Mountain High
makes, the common ingredients among them are:

Cultured pasteurized nonfat milk
Crystalline fructose
Whey protein concentrate
Tapioca starch
Kosher gelatin
Natural flavors
Active cultures (S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, L. Bifidus,
L. Casei)

My guess with this is that the tapioca starch and kosher gelatin combined
with the milk and ground flax seed are causing it to turn into yogurt
pudding (an extremely thick pudding at that). I doubt the yogurt cultures
are playing a role in this thickening process as the thickening is occurring
in a fairly short period of time, virtually as the ground gold flax seed is
stirred into the yogurt, and then it hardens within a minute or two at room
temperature. This is too quick for the yogurt cultures to have any effect,
IMO.

I have not tried experimenting with common brown flax seed, because the
brown variety of seed is small and extremely bitter in flavor. The gold seed
variety is a larger, softer seed, with an almost nutty flavor to it, very
edible compared to the brown seed (which I hear is used for making linseed
oil, and paint thinner, among other industrial products). The gold seed does
not give me acid indigestion, whereas the brown seed always does. The gold
seed has a flavor of almost hazelnut or a filbert nut, quite pleasant on the
palate, and great for the digestion.

Anyway, can you guys help out with this, trying to isolate a combination of
these ingredients that allow for thickening using ground gold flax seed? Do
you know of any source that sells tapioca starch and kosher gelatin so I may
buy some and experiment further with this possible new thickener? I would
also welcome your kitchen experiments with the gold flax seed and these
ingredients in the quest to find what combination of ingredients works the
best as a new thickener. I am good at cooking my own meals, but not too good
at baking. I am thinking though that this gold flax seed might be used in
creating a new thickener that can help to make better GF breads, pastries,
donuts, cakes, pizza, etc, etc (GF yummies!)

Regards,

Jerry Andrews
San Jose, CA

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