Almond Bread: Low carb, high protein, gluten-free, and tasty!
Posted by Deana Gunn at 1/15/2010 
Categories: Vegetarian and Vegan ,Food Recipes
Tags: bread gluten free almond meal
Categories: Vegetarian and Vegan ,Food Recipes
Tags: bread gluten free almond meal
My husband is gluten-free and I often bake and experiment with alternative flours. I was curious about making a bread out of almond meal since it's so conveniently available at TJ's. I stumbled upon a recipe at Elana's Pantry, an inspiring gluten-free recipe blog. Elana's bread recipe uses almond flour, whi
ch is pretty similar to almond meal, except that almond flour uses almonds that have been blanched (skin removed). In Elana's recipe, she made a mini loaf in a 4x6.5-inch pan. I played around with the recipe, adjusting so I could use nearly the whole bag of TJ's almond meal and make a larger standard-size loaf. The recipe is really simple - just a quick mix of a small number of ingredients. In fact, I was done measuring, mixing, and loading the pan in the few minutes it took my oven to preheat!I haven't experimented yet with additions to this recipe, but I think it would yield great banana bread or blueberry muffins.
What else can you do with almond meal? You can use it to coat chicken or fish before baking or pan-frying. In "Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's" we feature a unique and tasty almond pudding recipe - simple with a lot more nutritional value and flavor than your typical pudding. And the world of almond-based cookies, cakes, and breads seems endless. My kids and I recently made some light crunchy almond cookies using just the almond meal and no other flour - they loved the cookies and named them "marzipan cookies." Do you have any favorites uses or recipes?
Almond Bread
4 1/2 cups almond meal
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
5 eggs
2 Tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1.) Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2.) In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3.) In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and add the remaining wet ingredients.
4.) Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly.
5.) Transfer the mixture to a 5x9-inch standard loaf pan, lightly oiled (a spray oil makes it easy).
6.) Bake for 60+ minutes or until a skewer/knife inserted in the bread comes out clean.
7.) Cool and slice.
Makes one loaf (if you want to try a mini loaf, just follow Elana's original recipe, substituting almond meal for almond flour)
What did you think of the taste of the bread?
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I really liked the taste - kind of nutty and mild. If I hadn't known what it was and ate it, I might have thought it was some kind of dense, moist whole grain bread.
It has a sweetness to it too - which is why I like the idea of banana bread and muffins for it.
If you like almonds and hearty breads, I think you'd like it. I don't think a white bread devotee would be into it.
Deana
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I'll have to try this recipe. I made biscuits with the almond meal and they weren't very good. Then again, I didn't add much agave syrup to the recipe.
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I became adventuresome and added 3 Lg. very ripe bananas (I mean BLACK-skinned) plus 1/4 tsp. Gum with 1/2 c. TJ's Oat Bran and WOW! It's TERRIFIC!!! THANX for the SIMPLE recipe.
The one thing I've found frustrating is that gluten-free bread recipes are so intensive, this one's so EASY and full of protein! It's a whole new way of looking at bread!!
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You're right - I never knew Trader Joe's had almond meal and I practically live there! I grind almond meal myself to use in cakes and cookies (almond meal is GREAT in baked desserts. Lots of great European recipes online that use it) - but I'm definitely going to start looking for it at TJ's! How easy. Thanks!
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It isn't clear to me - is it wheat free? I appreciate that it is gluten free but that doesn't mean wheat free of course.
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If something is gluten-free, it is also wheat free inherently. The reverse is not true.
The ingredients are listed above and contain no wheat/gluten ingredients.
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sounds good love to try it
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Can you suggest any substitutes for the agave nectar? I have honey and sugar-beet-syrup (similar in texture to corn syrup). I'd rather not have to buy another sweetener. Would either of those---or a certain amount of sugar or brown sugar---work?
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I haven't tried them all in this recipe, but you should be able to substitute any sweetener. Honey should work fine. Agave nectar is pretty sweet, so if you use regular sugar, I would use 3 Tbsp instead of 2.
Let me know how it turned out!
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Deana, thanks for replying. I'm going to try the recipe this week with honey and let you know. Cheers!
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I was wondering if you think this will work with egg replacer? MY siser in law can't have eggs or gluten. I'm looking for some good things to make her as she's very down about it. I've heard flax can be swapped for the eggs. Thoughts?
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Hi Jennifer,
When the recipe doesn't call for a lot of egg, or if it isn't very dependent on the egg, I have used applesauce or blended silken tofu or flaxmeal. BUT, in this recipe which calls for 5 eggs, I might try a commercial egg replacer like the Ener-G brand product. I haven't tried *any* of these myself in this particular recipe - I've only made it with real eggs. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out.
Deana
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Hi again,
I finally go around to making the bread and just substituted honey for the agave nectar. It had a nice flavor, but I thought the texture was kind of heavy, since it's purely nuts and eggs. I wonder if you could incorporate some rice (or other GF) flour or whip the egg whites separately to lighten it up?
Would love to see where you take this recipe...
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Are you planning to post the recipe for the "marzipan cookies"? They sound delicious. My newly gluten-free mother-in-law is really missing cookies, and I'd love to try them out for her. Thanks!
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Hi Shauna,
Yes, I'll work on getting that recipe posted soon. Almost forgot about getting it on the blog. In the meantime I wanted to suggest a few other gluten-free cookie ideas for your mother-in-law.
First, I know it's a mix, but Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix is very very good. In fact, all of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free mix products are really great (and they're made in a dedicated gluten-free factory and tested gluten-free). They're not sold at TJ's but they're easy to find.
Here are some gluten-free cookie recipes from our blog: We have a Rice cookie recipe that I love. The texture is not that of a traditional cookie - it's more delicate, crumbly, like a tea cookie. http://blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com/2009/04/13/rice-cookies.aspx
We also have Sunflower Butter Cookies:
http://blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com/2010/03/14/sunflower-butter-cookies.aspx
Did you see our Lemon Ricotta Almond Cake? Delicious and moist.
http://blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com/2010/02/17/lemon-ricotta-almond-cake.aspx
Our no-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake is another one with a gluten-free filling and a crust made from Tj's gluten-free gingersnaps (that's also another cookie that's ready made and gluten-free)
http://blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com/2009/11/23/no-bake-pumpkin-cheesecake.aspx
These are a few off the top of my head. Please browse our site for more gluten-free meal ideas and substitutions. Let us know if there's ever something particular she'd like a GF recipe for and we'll try to help.
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Thanks so much for the speedy reply. I'm definitely making those nut butter cookies now, even though I won't be seeing my M-I-L for a few weeks! I also found a great website (glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com) with lots of baking recipes, if you're looking for some for your family. She likes Bob's Red Mill products too. Looking forward to the almond cookie recipe.
Shauna
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I read that ground flax seed can be substituted for egg in baking recipes. Has anyone experimented with this and almond meal?
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Do you see any WHEAT in the recipe???
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This looks very good! I have some almond meal I used as a facial scrub. And I still have plenty to make almond bread. Thanks for the recipe.
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In your recipe you call for "baking powder", yet in Elaina's recipe she calls for "baking soda". These ingredients create very different results. Which one is correct; powder or soda?
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Hi Karen,
Both recipes call for baking soda - Can you please point out where you see "baking powder" - and I'll take another look. I see "baking soda" in this ingredient list.
That said, in this recipe the two are interchangeable. Baking powder would actually work fine here. Baking soda is not always interchangeable in recipes unless there is an acidic component (here it's apple cider vinegar). Baking powder already has the acidic component and just needs to become wet to work.
Baking soda will have more increased browning than baking powder, making a more brown "crust" on this bread. Other than that, and slight affects to the flavor profile, there's not much of a difference.
Hope that helps!
Deana
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