Grain-Free Vanilla Sweet Bread

My great friend Jenn is a bread lover. You could even say she’s a bread addict. Sorry for you outing you Jenn, but let’s face the facts. When someone comes around toting a big white box of bread treats (that’s Jenn’s fun little name for doughnuts or pastries) her face lights up like it’s her first born. If these bread treats have managed to last into day three of the work week, she will scavenge through the cut-in-half, practically crumbling remains. Then, when the box is crushed and shoved so nicely into the trash receptacle, her face falls in disappointment. “Wait, were they all gone? No tiny pieces left?”

It’s absolutely adorable.

So I show up to work one day with a new”healthy” bread recipe that I was test driving. Oh, and when I say “healthy”, I mean in regards to what my silly guts can digest. SO Jenn watches as I pull a slice of homemade bread from the toaster and slather it with peanut butter. “Liz,” she asks, batting her innocent and clearly hungry eyes. “Ummm, what is that you’re eating?”

And my bread was no longer my own….

I’m happy to share with friends but knowing sweet Jennifer, bread aficionado, couldn’t be fooled by my fake bread I had to give her the full facts. I told her about the ingredients; no gluten, no grains, no real sugar, and asked her to be gentle because my psyche is fragile at 8 a.m. Cutting a tiny piece (it was all I had for breakfast!!!) I shared my frankenbread and guess what? She thought it was the shizz! She wanted more! Oh, and guess who has been bugging me about posting this friggin’ recipe???

This one’s for you, Jenn!

Before we get cooking, a here are a few details about this bread. It was initially inspired by the amazing Maria Emmerich. She has multiple cookbooks and is a Ketogenic genius. You can find her recipes FOR FREE on her blog mariamindbodyhealth.com and THIS recipe for her Cinnamon Bread. The following recipe is slightly different as I like my bread with a little less moisture. It reminds me of an Angel Food Cake consistency. 

The Goods: 

5 Eggs, separated (we are using 1 of the yolks but you can save the rest for my amazing French Toast recipe–coming soon–)

1/2 cup Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder

1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum-this gives it more of a “bread like” consistency

1 small loaf pan, sprayed with non stick spray

Preaheat oven to 350° and have the xanthan gum and protein powder ready and portioned out before beginning. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks and reserve 1 yolk (beaten) for later in the process. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand mixer, starting at a low speed and gradually increasing until foamy. Once you have soft peaks add the protein powder to the side of the bowl slowly. Continue to beat until STIFF. *Beating eggs whites can be tricky. At the bottom of the post I’ll include the link that helped me…4 dozen eggs and 6 hours later…

Next, the egg yolk you reserved can now be mixed well and slowly added to the egg white foam. Fold in gently (not with your mixer) as to keep the foam intact.

Scoop mixture into loaf pan and place in the bottom third of the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Turn off the oven but leave the bread in. The bread will still be fragile for a little bit so NO TOUCHING. It’s best if it stays in the oven for about 20 minutes. The loaf will be “short” and yield small slices or, if you prefer a traditional piece of bread, cut the in two pieces from end to end then in halves to make sandwich style slices. 

Cut from top-to-bottom and perfect for a little snack…

Nope, it’s not traditional sweet bread, but it’s pretty satisfying if you are trying to stick to a GF diet. Oh, and it’s ORGASMIC if you use your leftovers to make french toast. Just make sure you cut it from end to end instead of top to bottom to get the fatter pieces!

Vanilla French Toast–You can see I cut it from end-to-end for this particular recipe

OR top it with my Dairy-Free Nutella Swirl Almond Milk Ice Cream, Strawberries, and Whipped Cream. That idea was born on Mother’s Day when everyone had strawberry shortcake. Guess who wasn’t missing out…this girl.

Egg Beatin’ Tips can be found at craftybaking.com/howto/eggs-beating-techniques-egg-whites

♥ Liz