Monday 6 June 2011

It's bread Jim, but not as we know it...

Bread is comfort food. Easy, fast, convenient and adaptable comfort food. We use it every day, some of us even eating bread at every meal. Kids especially love their sandwiches and toast. So, it would be very difficult to manage without it, but as this diet is grain-free that means no wheat, rye, corn, spelt or any other kind of bread. The GFCF diet allows gluten free bread but these breads are highly processed and still contain a lot of ingredients which would be very hard on a sensitive or damaged gut. SCD allows no grains at all so we make our bread from nuts!

This bread is really easy to make. It doesn't contain yeast so there is no resting time. It is more like making cake really. I make a loaf every night. It is a very adaptable recipe. You can add salt, pepper, herbs, or grated cheese for a savoury version or apple, banana or raisins for a sweet version.

Basic everyday SCD Bread

60g butter, melted
3 eggs (I use duck's eggs, I find the bread rises really well, but large or extra-large hens eggs work fine)
1 tablespoon honey
280g ground almonds
1 pinch baking soda

Put your melted butter into a good-sized bowl, add the 3 eggs and whip them together with a fork until they are nice and yellow and well mixed.  Add the honey and give it a quick stir. Then add the ground almonds and baking soda and mix well. You can use an electric mixer for this but I just use a tablespoon, it comes together very easily and doesn't need to be mixed for too long.

When it is well-mixed, and looks a bit like thick yellow porridge, turn it into a loaf tin. I line mine with parchment paper as the tin is ancient and looking a bit rusty! But if you have a nice new tin you can just grease it with butter. Smooth the top of the bread. Bake for one hour at low temperature, 150-160 C, Gas mark 2 or 3. I usually bake it at Gas 3 for the first 45 minutes and then turn it down to Gas 2 for the last 15 minutes. You need to watch it in the last 15 minutes as the top might burn so if it's looking a bit dark, cover it with foil.

After an hour, take it out and cool it on a wire rack. It is totally delicious hot and smothered in butter! It toasts well too!