I have tried and failed many attempts to make a “faux bread” before. I love love love bread, so that is the hardest thing for me to steer completely clear of, but these days I am too nutritionally savvy to continue to pump my body full of gluten, high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil and whatever other junk most breads now come laden with. So I went on the hunt to find a substitute for store bought bread that actually tasted like bread and had that nooks and cranny, doughy texture to it too. The trick wasn’t just being gluten free, but also being very low in net carbs. I call them impact carbs. Those are the carbs left over after you subtract fiber from the total amount of carbs in a food. That is what is left to have an IMPACT on your blood sugar and ultimately what determines if your meal will be stored as fat. I will go into why gluten is absolutely wreacking our health on another blog, for now, let’s get to the awesome recipe!
(SUPER) Amazing Bread Loaf or Rolls
(The ingredient hyperlinks are to the products I actually used, a lot of my ingredients I get on Amazon because it is cheaper than most local stores and it is all one stop shopping!)
Ingredients
3 cup Blanched almond flour (10 oz)
10 Tbsp psyllium husk powder (no substitutes) (90 grams) (must be a fine powder, measure weight to be sure)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
5 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar (2 oz)
6 egg whites (7 oz)
1½ cup BOILING water (12 oz)
3.5.3226 I originally used half of all the ingredients listed above to make 7 palm-of-the-hand size rolls, but then I came across this loaf recipe that simply doubled the ingredients and more if definitely better with these wonderful delights! Next time I make these you can bet I will use this recipe, as these rolls don’t last long in my house and I had to make two batches in two days anyway. After cooking, keep them in the fridge, then cut rolls in half and toast when ready to eat. If you make it as a loaf, just cut from the loaf as you are ready to eat. These really are delicious and the texture is spot-on for bread. Makes 14 rolls or 20 slices of bread. Oh, how I wish I could take credit for these heavenly pillows of low carb, gluten-freeness (yes, I made up that word) but I cannot. I am not that in tuned with the science of baking to have figured out these measurements or to have thought to use apple cider vinegar and hot water to make it truly doughy, so the credit must go to the genius Maria Emmerich from her mind body health blog! Love her for this and so many other reasons.
Each roll(if you made 14 from the large batch) has: 157 calories, 10g fat, 5.7g protein, 14.7g carbs – 11.8g fiber = 2.9 effective carbs!!!!
Here is what the fabulous Maria tells you to do: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, psyllium powder (no substitutes: flaxseed meal won’t work), baking powder and salt. Mix until dry ingredients are well combined. Add in the eggs and vinegar and mix until a thick dough. Add boiling water or marinara into the bowl. Mix until well combined and dough firms up.Briana says: Form into 14 rolls (the dough will rise about 2 to 3 times, so don’t be worried if they look a bit small to start. You can also use a large greased loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes (40-45 minutes for smaller shapes like rolls – so watch closely around 35 minutes in for small shapes). Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool completely. Cut open with a serrated knife. Fill with desired fillings. Makes 14 rolls or 20 slices of bread