Back-to-School Almond Flour Bread

You Gotta Try this Back-to-School Almond Flour Bread

As the mother of a nine year old and twelve year old, both whom are addicted to their screens, I need to be ready to create yummy lunches that help my kids stay focused and full all day long. Most school lunches are filled with processed foods and sugars. I committed to my kids long ago that I would pack them a healthy and delicious lunch, every day, and forgo the unwholesome hot lunch at school for good.

But packing my kids' lunches everyday is a process. While my kids aren't gluten-free, I am. This means everything I bake and prepare in my kitchen has to be gluten-free. Like many gluten-free families, I struggle with bread. I'm no dummy. I know gluten is an essential ingredient in giving bread its doughy texture. Without it, it feels like you're eating sand.

However, gluten is 100% off limits to me because I have celiac disease. I was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition in 2012. While it was difficult to change my diet at first, I have embraced my role as a gluten-free expert of sorts. Today, I blog at Good For You Gluten Free, where I share my love of gluten-free eating, cooking, living and more!

There are a few store-bought brands of breads my kids will tolerate, however, none are truly as good as the stuff the gluten-eating kids are taking to school. Don't mistake tolerable for enjoyable. So this year, I decided to experiment to see if I could come up with a delicious bread that was gluten-free and actually had some redeeming nutritional qualities.

That's when I decided to study almond flour bread recipes from other bloggers and cookbooks. Most of the recipes, ironically enough, are very similar and contain only a small list of ingredients. Unlike traditional bread recipes, however, recipes made with almond flour don't require yeast, kneading or time to rise. They just require a combination of ingredients and a push into the oven. Easy!

I took components of different almond flour recipes that I liked in order to come up with one I liked best - and below you can find the winning recipe.

The bread recipe is made with protein-rich blanched almond flour from Honeyville, along with tapioca flour (which is gluten-free and paleo-friendly) and ground flaxseeds, which add essential fats to the bread. The tapioca flour doesn't have a lot of nutritional qualities (nothing to the extent of the almond flour and ground flaxseeds), but it's job is to add good texture to the bread, which is essential to getting my kids to eat it.

The bread looked amazing right out of the oven. A golden brown crust and a soft, spongy inside. I couldn't wait to try it. After snapping a few photos, I finally cut into the bread. It was soft but held together well. I could tell it had a great texture, perfect for sandwiches or morning toast.

I patted a slice of the almond flour bread with a little butter and tasted it. Yep, this is good bread.

Slice this bread for sandwiches, or serve it topped with your favorite spread or a pat of butter (or vegan buttery spread). This morning I lightly toasted it with some butter in a pan over my stovetop. You can't go wrong. It even tastes good naked (that is, the bread is naked, not you!).

I hope you enjoy this bread recipe as much as I did. It's definitely a keeper recipe.

If you'd like to connect with me directly, please visit www.GoodForYouGlutenFree.com. I have tons of gluten-free recipes on my site. Don't be shy, come over and say, "Hi."

PS: I'm hosting a Honeyville Almond Flour Giveaway on my website August 21-25, 2017. Visit my gluten-free giveaways page for details.

Back-to-School Almond Flour Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of Honeyville blanched almond flour

3/4 cups tapioca flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 8" x 4" loaf pan - set aside.

In a large bowl, use a fork to whisk together almond flour, tapioca flour, flaxseeds, salt and baking soda. 

Using your fork, push the dry ingredients to the side of the bowl, leaving a valley in the middle of the bowl.

Add the eggs, honey and vinegar into the valley and beat well with your fork.

As you beat the wet ingredients, gently begin to incorporate the dry ingredients until everything is well combined. You will want to switch to a spoon midway through mixing.

Add batter to loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool, slice and enjoy with a pat of butter or your favorite condiment.