Want a quick and easy bread to make? This is a focaccia-style flat bread that can be made into sandwiches, a soup or stew bread, or just toast and butter to serve with jam and tea. Unlike focaccia, this is a flat bread made without yeast. All the rise in it comes from the eggs and a little bit of baking powder.
I used CarbQuick, a low carb flour that behaves a little like Bisquick, but with lots fewer carbohydrates. You can also make it with almond flour or any other low carb flour. I also used a little coconut flour in it, but I wouldn’t recommend making the whole thing with coconut flour.
Focaccia-style Flat Bread
2 large Eggs
1/4 cup Egg whites
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasonings, crushed
1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Carbquick
2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F.) Prepare a small baking pan (about 10×6-inches) by cutting a piece of parchment paper to fit. I used a toaster oven-sized pan.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and seasonings together. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, egg whites, and oil together. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until they are combined. Use your hands if needed. Add the Parmesan cheese and mix it into the dough.
Turn the dough into the baking pan and spread it evenly across the pan.
Recently, a photo with the ingredients for a cream cheese bread loaf was posted, but it lacked mixing instructions, and the carbohydrate information on it was way off since it claimed it had only 6 carbs in the whole loaf. Nonetheless, the recipe is valid, and the slices are pretty low in carbs. So, I decided to give it a try and let everyone know how it works.
First, I cut the recipe in half and made about three-quarters of a small loaf pan. From that, I can deduce that the full recipe below won’t make a large loaf of bread. The one I made is about 2 to 2-1/2 inch tall and about three inches across. It looks great in the photos. I also made it two ways– once with coconut flour and once with almond flour. I added 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar substitute to the recipe.
Both of them work pretty well although the almond flour needs to be adjusted to replace the coconut flour since the latter expands by two to three times in the liquid ingredients. Both of them taste pretty good. The coconut one is a little sweeter, but the coarseness of the flour comes through. The almond flour one is less sweet and lends itself to a more conventional bread. For my own use, I would pair the coconut flour version with fruit or make it into a fruit bread. The almond flour could stand up to adding herbs in it and pairing it with meat and cheese. I will be experimenting more with this recipe and will let you know if I come up with something wonderful.
Both are close to the same carb count per slice and both are fairly sturdy bread that can be thinly sliced if needed. A full loaf would make about 10 slices of 3/8″ thick slices The carb count is based on 10 slices.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom and long sides of a small loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, add the cream cheese, butter, and sugar and cream together using a mixer until smooth.
Add the cinnamon, vanilla, and eggs and mix until combined.
Add the flour and baking powder and mix together thoroughly. Wipe the sides with a spatula to get all the mix blended together.
Spray the parchment-lined baking pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter mix into the pan and smooth.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool 5 to 10 minutes, then run a knife around any edge touching the pan and lift the loaf out using the overlapped parchment paper, then slide it onto a serving plate.
Makes about ten slices.
For the almond flour version, add 1-1/4 cup Almond Flour to replace the 6 tablespoons of Coconut Flour. I used a less processed almond flour, but the higher quality ones will yield a finer grained bread.
Taste test with both the coconut flour (left) and almond flour (right) slices smeared with butter. The almond flour is a little taller.
Not everything works well with low carb flours or natural flours and it takes some experimenting to get it right. One of those experiments was this failed popover recipe that actually made a very tasty, simple egg bread muffin that I am calling a popover muffin. Where a popover would rise and collapse in on itself while creating a well in the middle, this muffin rose, but simply deflated, leaving a nice rounded surface. But the flavor is great and it makes a fabulous low carb bread to go with almost anything.
The bread is also sturdy enough to hold up to being turned into French Toast Rounds. So this is a two-fer-recipe day as it includes the recipe for the popover muffins and the French toast rounds.
If you give either one of these recipes a try or both, let me know what you think and if you have other ideas how to use them.
Popover Muffins
Popover Muffin
This recipe makes 6 popover muffins, which are delicious with almost anything — butter, jam, soup, a salad, but it isn’t hollow like a popover normally is. So I am calling them popover muffins. A popover pan will give you depth and make tall and nicely browned muffins, but you can also use a standard muffin pan.
This recipe is the very basic version without any kind of flavoring or seasoning. You can add a little sugar substitute to make them sweet or you can add grated cheese to make a cheese version that would complement a bowl of chile nicely. Add a tablespoon or two of chopped chiles to the batter along with the cheese and really enhance the flavor.
3/4 cup Low Carb Flour*
1/4 cup Almond Flour
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Heavy Cream mixed with 1/4 cup water
Pinch Salt
* I used CarbQuick, but Bob’s Red Mill Baking Mix, LC Flour, Carbolose or any other low carb mix will work. I have not tried Coconut Flour, but I would guess it might not work as well.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F.) Make sure the oven rack is on the lower level to allow room for the batter to rise and to keep them from browning too quickly.
Prepare a 6 well popover pan by spraying with cooking spray or buttering the wells. Deep muffin cups will also work.
Put the eggs into a bowl of warm water to bring them to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
When the oven is fully heated, begin preparing the batter. Whisk the eggs, milk and salt together in a medium bowl. Make sure the ingredients are mixed well, then add the flours at one time and continue to whisk until the flours are and it looks frothy. You can use a mixer with a whisk attachment to do this. Or you can mix it in your blender following the same sequence. Wet ingredients first, then add the flours. Add the melted butter after everything is mixed.
Pour the batter into the popover wells equally. They should be between 2/3 and 3/4 filled.
Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 10 minutes. Do not open the oven door while baking, especially during the first 20 minutes. They should be a deep, golden brown.
Nutrition Info per muffin Calories: 153.2 Fat: 13.5 g Net Carbs: 1.9 g Protein: 5.8 g
Popover Muffin French Toast Rounds
This simple recipe uses an egg bread “popover” muffin as the base for a basic French toast for one. Add pumpkin butter or syrup to serve. A little bacon or sausage helps to round it out.
Slice the muffin across the middle, then slice each half across the middle again to make four rounds.. In a bowl or shallow pan, beat the egg, then add the cream, vanilla and pumpkin spice or cinnamon. Beat with a fork until well mixed. Dip the muffin slices into the egg mixture, turning them to completely coat both sides. Let them sit in the mixture while you warm up a small skillet.
Add the butter and set to medium heat. When the butter melts and is just getting to sizzle, add the muffin rounds. Cook for about 2 minutes on one side, then flip to cook the other side. They should be golden brown. If they aren’t, cook just a little longer. Remove to serving plate and top each with 1/4 of the pumpkin butter or butter the tops and cover with sugar free syrup.
Makes one delicious serving.
Nutrition info per recipe: Calories: 362.7 Fat: 31.6 g Net Carbs: 4.8 g Protein: 12.8 g
