23 Jan Bread without the Bloat

The crispness of freshly baked bread that’s still warm as you pop it in your mouth is hard to beat.

I recall staying in Paris with a friend as a teenager and going to La Boulangerie first thing in the morning to get our thin baguette. Walking back to the apartment, holding the bread wrapped in a thin slip of paper, felt so chic. The anticipation of spreading butter and jam on was almost too much to bear.

Whether you are coeliac, gluten intolerant or looking to reduce carbohydrate intake or avoid the heaviness that eating some breads, it can be a struggle to find products that are gluten free and health-supporting.

For coeliacs it’s a minefield as they can often, unknowingly, have cross-reactions with other grains that they eat in place of the oats, barley and rye. Thankfully, Cyrex labs have gold standard tests that I use to help people identify their problems foods.

The key though, is not just to identify true allergies and food intolerances, but to work to find the underlying cause of the loss of oral tolerance. If unchecked this can lead to increasing intolerances and allergies, the loss of chemical tolerance and even progress to auto-immunity.

There are numerous factors that can result in a loss of oral tolerance. If you are interested to dive deeper into what’s causing your food intolerances and allergies I am here to help you.

For intolerances I work to remove, repair and then reintroduce and monitor, whilst investigating the root cause or causes of your loss of oral tolerance.

Elimination diets for food intolerances can be so restrictive, so I also work to ensure your elimination diet is as varied and as health-supporting as possible. So please don’t be silent and put up with increasingly restricted and dismal food choices.

Back to bread for now!

The discovery of a great tasting bread alternative is a time for celebration. Life Changing Bread from the amazing My New Roots (link given below). It’s a delicious, satisfying loaf that can be frozen in slices so you just take out what you need. The closest ready-made version that I’ve found and enjoyed is by Seedful.com. They create organic loaf slices without gluten, diary or yeast.

An even simpler recipe that I’ve tried is by Londoner (link given below). It’s mainly ground almonds and eggs and is so, so easy to mix and bake. You could prep the ingredients the night before, then mix in the morning and pop into the oven while you shower, so you have a fresh baked loaf ready for breakfast. I find that this loaf is great with some Greek yoghurt and sliced berries.

Browsing through one of my cookbooks recently, I came across a recipe for cloud bread buns. They sounded so light and fluffy that I just had to try. Oh my! They were good.

The texture is very similar to a meringue which might seem very strange, but actually it worked really well as a burger bun replacement. It gave me the feel of a burger bun without the bloat or heaviness in my stomach.

The one drawback is that the cloud bread needs to be made on the day you want to eat it. It does involve a little effort, rather than a quick mix and bake like the bread recipes mentioned above.

Ingredients:

You will need:

3 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1/4 cup (50g) cottage cheese

1/4 teaspoon sea salt flakes

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

How to make the cloud bread

Preheat your oven to 140ºC.

Line 2 backing trays with baking paper.

 

Whisk your egg whites and the cream of tartar in one bowl until they form soft peaks that stand up if you tip the bowl upside down.

Whisk the egg yolks, cottage cheese and salt in another bowl until well mixed.

The next step is to gently fold the egg white mixture through the cheese mixture. I usually take one spoonful of the egg whites and mix this in well to lighten the cheese mixture. This helps to loosen it which makes a gently folding of the rest of the egg white mixture easier.

Take a metal spoonful of the egg white mixture and place gently on to the cheese mixture, then make a figure of 8 shape with the spoon, gently folding the mixture over the egg white so that it is incorporated without knocking out too much of the airy lightness.

Repeat this until you have incorporated all the egg white.

Spoon into about eight 9cm rounds on the trays about 10cm apart. I use a metal ring from Lakeland Plastics to get a great circular shape, but you could do it by eye. If you use a ring, place the ring on the baking tray and fill with a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture and then gently remove the ring and repeat until you’ve made eight. Add any leftover mixture equally between the rounds.

Sprinkle with your sesame seeds. I missed out this step by accident, as you can see in my photo. Pop your baking trays in the oven and wait for 30 minutes. have a peep and if they are not quite pale golden. Giving them another 10 minutes, checking every 5 minutes.

Remove and cool on the trays.

The recipe suggests serving as a wasabi fish burger

You will need:

4 cod fillets (or other skinless firm white fish) divide into two.

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes

Olive oil

Method:

Sprinkle the seeds and chilli flakes on the fish and pan fry in olive oil until cooked through.

To make a delicious mayo based dressing:

1/4 cup 150g whole egg mayo

2 teaspoons wasabi paste

handful of fresh soft herbs: eg parsley, coriander, dill

Simply finely chop the herbs and mix with the mayo and wasabi paste. Adjust the wasabi paste to your taste.

To serve:

Spread the wasabi mayo on one half of the cloud buns and then top with the cooked fish and any salad additions you like. the recipe suggests carrots in thin matchsticks, thinly sliced bok choy and spring onions marinated in a little sesame oil, tamari sauce and rice wine vinegar.

I just added some lettuce, tomato slices and some cucumber and it was delicious!!

 

Have a go with this and see how you find it.

The cloud bread and wasabi fish burger recipe comes from The Australian Women’s Weekly Low Carb Dinners cookbook – one of my favourites.

Here are the links to the other breads that I mentioned.

https://www.thelondoner.me/2014/03/mums-low-carb-bread.html

The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread