Psyllium does not exist

I bet you have seen recipes out there that tell you to add a tablespoon of psyllium. That’s totally bonkers. Psyllium is a hypersensitive binder and you will immediately notice a gram more in your dough. In fact, it is necessary to determine the amount of psyllium in tenths of grams.

But there’s much more to it than just accurate weighing. What online recipe makers and even cookbook writers don’t seem to realize is that psyllium does not exist. There is no such thing as profit. The farmer does not exist. If you don’t specify what you mean by it, you can say anything and in fact it could be something completely different. An attempt is usually made to qualify the psyllium. For example, they say that they use psyllium husk and not the powder. Or the coarse version, the finely ground version, or whether they mean the white or the brown psyllium. Nice try, but it barely says anything about the quality and what effect it has in your bread.

Psyllium consists of seed coats of plants. It is a natural product and its quality varies from year to year. But fortunately that quality is measurable. An important factor is the swelling index. This is the ratio of the volume of the swollen psyllium (after it has absorbed water) to the volume of the dry psyllium. It is therefore a crucial indicator of the water-absorbing capacity. Between a good and a bad harvest the index can differ by roughly twenty percentage points. That’s huge.

You can buy psyllium with different degrees of grind and purity. These factors also play an important role in absorption capacity.

Enough bakers who swear by psyllium husk, the coarsely ground variant, on the right in the photo. I am sure your bread is better off with psyllium powder. The finer and purer, the better it can absorb water. And the more you can push hydration levels, which helps creating a great gluten-free loaf. And some recipe makers still dare to claim that the coarser variant produces a better result. The knowledge about psyllium in the gluten-free world is still very poor and needs to change radically.

But hey, if you are convinced that crappy psyllium works fine, do your thing. What really bothers me is that recipes practically always state: “if you use powder instead of husk, put 15 to 20% less in your dough”. Please start distrusting everything those ‘experts’ claim, because it means they have not done proper research. Firstly, the difference can go up to 30% and secondly, one powder is not the other. On the left in the photo is probably the best quality you can get and always yields the largest volume. The one in the middle is also powder, but everything is different: color, scent, texture and especially its performance. You have to put 25% more in your dough than the top psyllium, which is almost the same weight as the husk. So now you know psyllium has an infinite amount of variations, how do you find out how much you have to use of your own psyllium that matches an existing recipe or is optimal with your own creations? There is only one way. By testing with a method where all parameters in your process are exactly the same except psyllium. .
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