Almond Bread page

[pjgh]

I'm usually one of the first out there shaking the paleo spear, snorting about mimicking neolithic foods but actually, there is a time and a place for such things. This weekend seemed like one of those times.

I've made this before from almond butter, eggs, butter and baking powder and it came out really well! I'd love to do it again, but getting a hold of almond butter without all the added crap is actually pretty tough here in the UK, even by post it becomes an expensive loaf.

What we do have in abundance is almond flour, or ground almonds.

I read about making almond butter from chopped almonds, blending in the food processor for a good while, but ... I don't have a food processor. I do have a hand blender (or stick blender, I think it's called States-side).

I used 250g of ground almonds (almond flour), hand blended it with three eggs, a capful of cider vinegar, another capful ... why the hell not? and finally, some melted coconut oil. How much? A couple of teaspoons, possibly.

Sea salt, baking soda and pour it out into a buttered dish:



Cook until it's ready ... sorry, I don't do recipes, times and temperatures since timing could be all over the place and temperatures could well be set for something else cooking, but I guess 45 minutes at 180C. Rough guess.

... and it came out well!



We had a couple of slices after dinner with some cream cheese and pink grapefruit marmalade. We may well have boiled eggs and soldiers (buttered bread sticks) and some more grapefruit marmalade on toast for breakfast tomorrow! Whoa! Regular breakfast

This was a lot lighter than my first attempt with a rather expensively delivered jar of almond butter, which probably had all the skins in making it a whole lot darker, but the texture is about the same.

White bread here, brown bread if I was to add in walnuts or so on ...

Some further experimentation to do, since my Mrs absolutely loves this stuff. She really missed toast with marmalade, so I'm really happy to have found a decent method of doing this. It's not going to form a regular thing for me, but I'll no doubt knock this kind of thing up every so often for my wife.

[j3nn]

It looks like bread! Nice one. I want to try macadamia nuts being they're the king nut, or so I hear.

[pjgh]

I'm very confident that any manner of nut mix will do. Just blend them in. Even coconut flour could be added in after blending to give it some fibrous structure.

[Rindy]

Hi Paul,

This sounds like a great recipe, something I will definitely try - especially as I am trying to cut down my husband's brain bread consumption! Can I ask please where you get your almond flour? I am in the UK too (London) and have looked in my local Holland & Barrett but they never seem to have it in stock.

[pjgh]

Hi Rindy,

Frustrated by recipes that used ingredients like almond butter and coconut flour that are not readily sourced in regular supermarkets, I came up with a recipe and method that used supermarket ingredients. We can get such things in Britain at places like Holland & Barrett, other health and whole food shops and online, if sourcing particularly pure products. For busy people, swinging by a supermarket after work is convenient.

Almond flour is just ground almonds - you will be able to find a bag of this at any supermarket in the baking section.

If you have a food processor (I don't), you can use whole almonds. Pulse until they're well broken down and then just put the blender on low and leave it for several minutes. This is the simple process that makes almond butter - you do not need to add fat since the processing will actually let the almond oil out, producing the butter.

Ground almonds are different. You may be able to get them to do this through food processing. Using a stick blender, it started to come together as expected, but it was frustrating and the blender was getting really hot! Dropping three XL eggs (4 large?) in at the beginning gives a sloppier texture which the hand blender can work with.

You still need to blend and blend and blend until it is super-smooth. I also added in some coconut oil for extra fat, a chunk, maybe a generous tablespoon. I think some of the fat might well be lost in the production of the ground almond ingredient. Stir in with a fork until fully combined, add in a heaped teaspoon of baking powder and combine thoroughly.

[Rindy]

Hi Rindy,

Frustrated by recipes that used ingredients like almond butter and coconut flour that are not readily sourced in regular supermarkets, I came up with a recipe and method that used supermarket ingredients. We can get such things in Britain at places like Holland & Barrett, other health and whole food shops and online, if sourcing particularly pure products. For busy people, swinging by a supermarket after work is convenient.

Almond flour is just ground almonds - you will be able to find a bag of this at any supermarket in the baking section.

If you have a food processor (I don't), you can use whole almonds. Pulse until they're well broken down and then just put the blender on low and leave it for several minutes. This is the simple process that makes almond butter - you do not need to add fat since the processing will actually let the almond oil out, producing the butter.

Ground almonds are different. You may be able to get them to do this through food processing. Using a stick blender, it started to come together as expected, but it was frustrating and the blender was getting really hot! Dropping three XL eggs (4 large?) in at the beginning gives a sloppier texture which the hand blender can work with.

You still need to blend and blend and blend until it is super-smooth. I also added in some coconut oil for extra fat, a chunk, maybe a generous tablespoon. I think some of the fat might well be lost in the production of the ground almond ingredient. Stir in with a fork until fully combined, add in a heaped teaspoon of baking powder and combine thoroughly.

Paul, thank you so much for this information - and my apologies for the delay in responding, I am still pretty new to forums and where to look for responses to my posts Lol. I will definitely give this a try!!

[pjgh]

I've made this again since I posted this.

200g of ground almonds
4 eggs - sufficient to make it sloppy
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp (heaped) baking powder
pinch salt

Into a greased bowl - 40 minutes at 200C. Done.

Play around with adjuncts as you fancy - pumpkin seeds, coconut flour, etc.