Mini Almond Butter Loaves (SCD & GFCF)

Hope everyone had a great April Fool’s! I was going to post this yesterday, but…it’s almost an unsaid rule: if you want something of yours to be taken seriously, don’t do it on April Fool’s Day. Myself, I didn’t play any pranks on anyone; although I was nearly duped a few times before remembering what yesterday was.

I want to say thank you for all the comments from my readers on my Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free post! I’ve read all of them, and they are all lovely. Thanks to all of you, that post has a (so far) total of 101 hits as of last time I checked this morning. It had over 60 hits on the day after Amy’s roundup, and it was one of my busiest days that I’ve had on this blog. A big, warm thank you to everyone!

I just signed up on Foodbuzz, although I’m having a bit of trouble finding the link for my public profile. Hopefully this works. I’m having Internet connection issues while I type this, so I haven’t been able to verify that link. Let me know in a comment if it does.

Now, for the recipe. This is another SCD friendly, gluten-free, casein-free, recipe and it uses almond butter. Although it’s not obvious by what recipes I’ve posted here so far, I have baked a good deal with nut butters, especially in the early days of my family being SCD (read more about that here). If you’re in the early, initial stages of the SCDiet, nut butters are one of the first foods to gradually introduce in the diet. Nut flours are more advanced. That is just a basic overview, though, and I’d recommend reading Elaine Gottschall’s Breaking the Vicious Cycle for a more detailed explanation – for me to explain it here, it would be too long for this post.

You may use almond butter, or another nut butter – I’ve also used cashew butter for this bread. Smooth and crunchy varieties work well, although in my case I’ve noticed that when I’ve used crunchy nut butter that I don’t need exactly as much. The original recipe, from Grain-Free Gourmet by Jenny Lass and Jodi Bager, uses 1 teaspoon of baking soda but I found that to be too much: while the bread baked, the baking soda could be smelled and there was also a slight bitter aftertaste. I usually use half the amount then (1/2 teaspoon), but with these loaves, I actually forgot to add it! They still rose pretty nicely, all the same.

I’ve changed some of the directions, such as when to beat the egg whites – only because the egg whites start weeping soon after they’ve been beaten. In fact, I just realized now that I’ve always beaten the egg whites (by hand or machine) after mixing the almond butter with the other ingredients! The original instructions state to use an electric mixer, but I’ve always done it by hand except for beating the egg whites, unless I decide to beat them by hand, too.

Adapted from Grain-Free Gourmet by Jenny Lass and Jodi Bager

Makes 5 miniature loaves or 1 (8- x 4-inch*) loaf

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated
Pinch salt
1 cup (or half a 500 gram jar) almond butter, or other nut butter such as cashew
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF and line loaf pan(s) with parchment paper.
2. Mix the almond butter and 3 egg yolks. Add the whole egg and baking soda. It will be stiff.
3. Separately, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff but not dry. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the almond butter batter to soften it.
4. Gently fold the remaining egg whites in two additions into the batter. It will be thick and stiff, but try not to deflate the egg whites. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. If making mini loaves, fill each half-way full and set the pans in the centre of a baking pan. Bake the loaf for 30 to 40 minutes. Bake the mini loaves for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from oven when done, and cool. Wrap the bread to prevent it drying out. Slices that are left out go stale. Enjoy!

*According to their measurement. At the present moment, I do not have a loaf pan of that measurement.

Recipes that use almond butter bread:

• Egg in the Basket

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