Grain-Free Sugar-Free Breakfast Bread
I’ve been having a difficult time omitting carbs and particularly refined grains from my meals even though I know it’s best for an anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer diet. In particular is that hankering for bread.
Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer I frequently made sourdough bread from scratch. I had to give it up when I shifted my diet to cancer-fighting, nutrient dense foods. All through treatment I made a superfood smoothie every morning instead of my usual toast and coffee. But I missed my morning bread!
Food Porn Alert: OMG! This is one of my homemade sourdough loaves. I use the Tartine method. It’s a bit time consuming but not difficult and the results are tremendous.
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Now that I’ve finished conventional treatment for breast cancer I want to stick to a cleaner anti-cancer diet and develop appropriate long term eating habits. I’ve been playing around with variations of keto bread recipes to find a low carb solution. This recipe contains 1 banana so it wouldn’t quality as keto, but it is gluten-free, paleo and appropriate for GAPS and anti-inflammatory diets.
I gathered my ingredients and set out to make a great grain-free breakfast bread. This is always the best way to start a recipe, so that once you begin following the instructions everything is ready for you and there will be no unwanted surprises (like… not having enough eggs or whatever.)
I like combining almond flour and coconut flour for grain-free baking — they provide body for the bread. The grated zucchini adds a lot of moisture so this bread stays nice and moist. The banana adds some natural sweetness and helps bind the flours in the absence of gluten. It also keeps it moist. I chopped pecans to add in for some contrasting texture and extra protein.
It’s important to squeeze as much liquid out of the grated zucchini as you can — or you risk the integrity of the structure of the loaf. I used a nut milk bag, and squeezed hard, below.
This recipe has a healthy quantity of zucchini in it, but you can’t distinguish the zucchini in the final product. It’s a great way to get non-veggie eaters (like kids) to eat their veggies!
I love that this recipe is so simple. It, just requires one bowl for quick clean up. Plus you don’t need to be super careful about over-mixing as you would with a wheat flour-based bread. Just mix up the ingredients into a thick batter. I poured it into a lined loaf pan and topped it with pecans.
It bakes much as a wheat-based bread would bake — about 50-60 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
The final bread has a great crumb and tastes great. You’d hardly know it was grain-free or sugar-free. It can be kept in an airtight container outside of the refrigerator and it stays incredibly moist.
Are you ready to get cooking? Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!
Grain-free Sugar-free Breakfast Bread
ingredients:
- 1 cup grated zucchini with moisture squeezed out (approximately 2 small zucchini)
- 4 organic free range eggs
- 3 tbsp erythritol
- 1 banana, very ripe, mashed with a fork
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted, plus extra for greasing pan if needed
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, raw organic
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) plus ~6 whole pieces for decoration