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Hi!

With regards to Vance's comment about "indelicate problems" after
ingesting guar gum, he's right - but I have found that they disappear
with time.  I think we get used to it.  Xanthan gum is very expensive
here and being a graduate student, I decided to try guar gum, which is
one third of the cost of xanthan.  So far, I am pleased with the results
- except for the morning after eating a large amount of homemade noodles
the first time I experimented with guar gum  - I kept thinking, man,
it's like I took a laxative or something...oh right, I pretty much did
:)

However, I did notice something about baking bread - maybe someone can
comment on this?  I forgot to add the guar gum to my bread maker and
looked at the mixture in the final mixing session and remembered that I
hadn't added any guar gum.  So I hastily added about 2 teaspoons (the
amount in the recipe) and hoped for the best.  Interestingly, the bread
was firmer (stuck together better) and didn't overflow my machine the
way most recipes do.  It kept better and was even good cold.  Am I on to
something here?  It would make sense (from a chemical perspective) that
too much mixing would destroy the sugar networks that are acting like
gluten - and since they are more fragile, they may not recover as
easily.  If you've ever chewed gum until it fell apart (not
recommended!) you'll understand what I mean.  I haven't tried this with
xanthan gum, but this may be something worth experimenting with. I much
prefer my bread made this way.

By the way, I add equal amounts of guar gum to the dry ingredients as I
would xanthan gum.  It is NOT soluble in eggs (hence the noodle
experiment with too much gum!).  I have been warned that you may end up
with very gooey baked goods if you aren't careful and add too much.

Happy Baking!

Becky :)
Calgary, Alberta

April showers bring May flowers, but April blizzards just make for
cranky gardeners...expecting 30cm of snow overnight...this is spring?