Gluten-Free Grain-Free Focaccia Bread
 

My latest bread recipe! Best one I've made since I totally stopped using even small amounts of Carbquick, which has wheat in it. This bread has a very nice elasticity to it. Tomorrow, I'm making a pizza crust out of this batter. Stay tuned! ;)

I no longer eat wheat flour, after reading Dr. William Davis’ Wheat Belly. Carbquick, with its specially processed wheat ingredients, is off my shopping list and off my recipe ingredient lists. I have a number of existing Carbquick recipes here on the site using Carbquick, and will leave them on site for those who still eat Carbquick. This gluten-free, grain-free recipe I made today is VERY close to my older Carbquick Focaccia bread recipe, but this one has more chewy elasticity. I’m most pleased with this bread! It’s actually a reworked pizza crust recipe to which I added several ingredients and altered a couple others. This one has a nice elasticity, top and bottom crust, is not crumbly and has a wonderful flavor. :yum: :yum: I enjoyed a piece hot from the oven with butter and it was amazing! Scarfed down a second piece! I’m sure it will make great sandwiches, too. I will definitely explore other uses, both savory and sweet, for this batter, especially for pizza crust!

INGREDIENTS:

½ c. almond flour
¼ c. golden flax meal
¼ c. unflavored, unsweetened whey protein powder
1 tsp. baking powder
3 T. softened cream cheese
2 beaten large eggs
1 c. grated Monterrey Jack cheese
½ c. grated Mozzarella cheese
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 T. heavy cream
1 T. water
Spices (your choice) sprinkled on top. I used the blend shown below.

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Soften cream cheese in medium mixing bowl in microwave. Beat in the eggs, cream, water, vinegar and both cheeses. Measure and add in all the dry ingredients and stir well with a rubber spatula. Line a sheet pan either with parchment paper or silicone sheet. Scrap the batter onto the prepared pan, spreading it as evenly as possible with the spatula into a rectangle that is roughly 10″x13″. Batter will be about ¼” thick. Sprinkle on spices if using any. Pop bread into 350º oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until done to the touch in the center and lightly browned around the edges. Cool a few minutes and cut evenly into 9 “slices. When totally cool, store in plastic bag in refrigerator.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 9 large slices, each contains:

149 calories
11.5 g fat
3.5 g carbs, 2.1 g fiber, 1.4 g NET CARBS
10.1 g protein
204 mg sodium
65 mg potassium
12% RDA Vitamin B12, 10% calcium, 18% phosphorous, 10% selenium.

8-Seed Spice Blend:

1 T. coriander seeds
1 T. black peppercorns (I use a mixture of black and red)
2 T. dehydrated onion (I used dried shallot)
1 T. sesame seeds
1 T. caraway seeds
1 T. Nigella seeds
1 T. dark whole flax seeds
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T. poppy seeds
2 T. dried minced garlic

I'm so happy to hear you stopped using carbquik since you always have such yummy recipes, but since I have celiac I could never try them.

You might want to find a substitute for the oat-fiber. Oats are often heavily contaminated with gluten and they contain a protein that often causes issues to celiacs. :\

Actually, I didn't intend to include that ingredient and have already edited it out of the recipe on my website. Just hadn't done so here yet. I realize I can't use that and call it "grain free". Thanks for reminding me to do that edit here, too, Nancy.

I'm so glad you like my recipes, dMarie! I'm leaving all previous recipes that had Carbquick up on my website, as many low-carbers still use the mix and might be interested in those older recipes. May delete them off my site entirely one day.......not sure about that. I figure there are some folks who will sadly never buy into the Wheat Belly position on wheat consumption.

Good stuff, Peggy!

Did you make it already, Nancy? It IS good, isn't it? :)

No, sorry. Was just commenting about leaving out the oat-fiber.

Ah, I misconstrued your meaning.

I wasn't exactly clear about it! :)

That bread looks delicious, thanks for posting!

I was wondering if there was any other ingredient you could recommend to replace the whey protein with. Sadly, whey sends my insulin levels through the roof...not good if there's 'bread' around! ;)

Well, it's apt to come out a little different, maybe not as firm for hand holding, but you could use 1/4 c. more almond flour and see what happens.

Makes a GREAT pizza crust, too. But I'm posting that as a separate recipe, so it will not get lost and maybe missed buried in this thread.

Gluten-Free Grain-Free Pizza Crust
 

The bread I posted yesterday here: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=452136 also makes an outstanding pizza crust!

This is the sausage, mushroom, bell pepper, onion pizza I made for dinner: http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/...butt/003-40.jpg

I cooked the crust for 20 minutes, carefully slipped the parchment out from underneath so the bottom would get air flow through the holes in my pizza pan, sauced it, added cheese and toppings and baked another 20 minutes. It was delicious. Absolutely no flax meal taste coming through on this one, which pleases me to no end. I get tired of the taste of flaxmeal REAL fast.

AND you can eat it with your hands too!

This one's a keeper for us! Hubby said it was THE best LC pizza crust I've developed in 4 years of tinkering around with different ratios of ingredients.

Next I'm trying my hand at dinner rolls with this batter, as it was amazingly good right out of the oven with a smear of butter!

I think glucomanan flour might work. Maybe a tsp or two.