<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Dear Listmates,

MJ Thomas did a great job researching Expandex and posting the responses
received. I enjoyed reading her post.

I have picked a rumor that those of us that live near a Whole Food Market
can substantiate. The rumor is that WFM will be selling the entire line of
Heartland's Finest products. Heartland is one of the "re-packagers" of
Expandex. Corn Products ships Expandex in 100 pound boxes composed of 4-25
pound bags. It appears that Heartland's Finest breaks this down into
reasonable sized one and two pound bags for us consumers.

There are number of really good Heartland's Finest products, but the two I
use the most are their mild Navy Bean flour and Expandex. I use the mild
navy bean flour in all of the bread recipes, making a mix that is a
modification of one recommended by Carol Fenster. The resulting bread is
excellent. I've tested the bread with my non-Celiac friends at work and a
baker that I know. They all agree that the bread is "normal" tasting enough,
but it feels differently in the mouth than wheat bread.

MJ is correct. The shipping charges to get Expandex and mild navy bean four
delivered are out of sight. Our family placed a large order, and that was
more thrifty. But shipping even large orders amounts to somewhere around 20%
of the cost. That is really more than I want to pay. However, I bit the
bullet so that I could see if Expandex really made my bread better. I think
it does.

At the present time I am not in the market for any more Expandex or mild
navy bean flour. But I would like to hear if anyone is successful in finding
Heartland's Finest navy bean flour and Expandex at their local WFM. I also
picked up the rumor that you can ask the WFM department manager to order
Heartland's
Finest products for you. Hopefully, you won't have to buy a whole carton.
That would be too much!

How much Expandex does it take to make bread? If you read the Corn Products
recipe suggestion, the answer is about 50% of the bread flour is Expandex -
that plus soy flour which I don't like the taste of. My testing is based on
1 tablespoon of Expandex per final cup of flour mix. That would be around
6-1/4% of the flour - way less. I have not optimized the flour recipe with
respect to Expandex: Does it take 2 tablespoons or 1/2 tablespoon per cup of
complete mix. I don't know yet, but it is about that amount - 3 - 12% of the
flour mix, certainly no more.

What does Expandex taste like? It tastes like tapioca flour because it is
tapioca flour. Corn Products has changed the starch's physical properties.
It appears that they have made it more elastic. Why do I believe that? When
I made Corn Prouducts' recommended bread recipe, I thought it's texture was
a little "rubber-bandy." Incidentally, the Corn Products bread recipe does
not use any xanthan or guar gum, but my recipes do. The amount of gum can be
reduced according to Corn Product's website, but they don't specify how
much. Again, I haven't optimized, but half the gum seems to work OK. Maybe
it should be 1/4 or 3/4.

Does anyone else make a modified tapioca for celiacs? Yes, but I am having
trouble with the spelling. It is something like "chibe." Their flour is
composed of tapioca flour and modified tapioca flour. This company has its
devoted followers.

I'm always interested in hearing the results of your research.

Vic-Sunnyvale,CA

Visit the Celiac Web Page at Http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html
Archives are at: Http://Listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?LIST=CELIAC