The BEST Low-Carb Bread EVER!!!

DLD: The BEST Low-Carb Bread EVER!!!
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! The last recipe for low-carb bread you will need.

Updated 3/9/2016 to include pictures of pizza made with this dough as the crust.

I have finally posted the tutorial for this recipe. To be honest, this is the longest I have ever worked on a recipe, and I only got it where I think I want it about a month ago. As you can guess by the title of this post, the following recipe is for low-carb bread.
My quest for a good recipe for low-carb bread started two and a half years ago when my two oldest sons were diagnosed with CSID (congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency). This disease creates, in very short terms, starch and sugar intolerance. After I got over the initial period of shock and decided to start making recipes—some of which are on this blog—I realized that a really good bread would be hard to find.
The main reason for this is that bread is mostly made up of wheat flour, which is about 75% starch, which is a big no-no for my kids. Low-carb breads, for the most part, rely on almond flour or coconut flour, and wind up more like quick breads or cakes than fluffy white bread. My goal was to find/write a recipe for bread which fit the following criteria:
  1. Would be low in digestible carbohydrates.
  2. Would have a bite & chew similar to that of "regular" bread.
  3. Would be made of easy-to-purchase ingredients.
  4. Would be leavened by yeast fermentation.
  5. Looked, smelled, and tasted good.
  6. Could be used in all applications like wheat bread.
I scoured the internet for recipes, and even tried a few out, but I wasn't ever really happy with what I found. There were some common elements to all of the recipes, so I decided to use those to create my own recipe.

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of my son pulling apart a piece of bread

There were quite a few false starts, but eventually I came up with the recipe listed below. To be honest, this almost smells better than wheat bread when it is baking. The flavor is subtle, and not at all unpleasant. Texture-wise, this bread is chewier than wheat bread, but when toasted you can't tell a difference. I have used this bread to make everything from French Toast to zweiback (Melba Toast)to bread crumbs for meatballs. You can even use it to make a sandwich.
I use this dough (with only one or two very minor modifications) to make Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! One-of-a-kind recipe for low-carb sandwich bread.pizza crusts and tortillas. You could use it to make cinnamon rolls or baguettes.
For Pizza: I use between 1 and 1 1/2 pounds of dough for a 13" pizza, depending on how thick I want the crust to be. No dough modifications are necessary. After the dough has finished kneading, let it rest for 40 minutes before rolling/stretching into your desired pizza shape. Top like you would a normal crust, and bake. I recommend baking at 525°F until the cheese is starting to brown, about 5-10 minutes.
For Tortillas: I use 1 pound of dough for 10 tortillas. The only dough modification is to replace the yeast with baking powder. If you have access to a very finely ground almond flour, I would use it here. When the dough has finished kneading, let it rest for 30 minutes before splitting into ten equal portions. Roll the portions into tight balls and allow to rest a further 15 minutes. Dust the countertop with flour (or oat flour if you cannot use wheat flour) and roll into a 9-10" circle. Cook the tortillas in a hot skillet until a few brown spots appear, about 30 seconds per side.
The possibilities are—almost—endless.

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Just like regular bread!


By the way, this recipe is for a 2.5 lb loaf of bread, which perfectly fits my 12" long loaf pan. For a 8" or 9" loaf pan you would probably need to use a 2 lb batch. Also, 1 pound of dough makes enough dough for 1 medium-largish pizza or six 8" tortillas. For pizza, replace the egg with 3 Tbsp water. For tortillas, no changes are necessary.

Skip the tutorial and go straight to the recipe.

Show Notes Hide Notes

Step 1:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of the dry ingredients on a plate
Combine the oat flour, gluten, almond flour, coconut flour, dextrose, yeast, and salt.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Blend the dry ingredients together for consistent dough.
Use the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, and blend the ingredients on low speed for 2-4 minutes, or until they are completely blended.

Step 2:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of water and egg
Still using the paddle, and still mixing on low speed, add the water and egg.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! The dough starts out looking like cookie dough, but changes into bread dough as you mix it.
The dough will look like wet sand right after you add the water, but will start to come together as you continue mixing. Mix the dough with the paddle until it starts to climb up and hold itself together, about 4-5 minutes.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Started out looking like cookie dough, now it starts to look like bread dough.

Step 3:

Turn the mixer off and switch to the dough hook. Knead the dough on medium-low speed for 7 minutes.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Transforms from cookie-dough-like to bread-dough-like.
Depending on how long the dough was mixed with the paddle, you may have to "encourage" the dough to stay on the hook with a spatula. You may find that increasing the speed momentarily to medium will help keep it on the hook.
During this first kneading step it is important to keep the dough on the hook to start developing the gluten structure.
The gluten is what holds this dough together—almond flour, coconut flour, and oat flour do not contain gluten, and so are unlikely to form a cohesive dough by themselves. Gluten is acting as the glue holding the dough together.


Step 4:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! 20g of shortening in a small bowl Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! add the shortening to the bottom of the bowl
Turn off the mixer and add the shortening. (You may find it helpful to "tuck" the shortening under the dough. This will help keep it from creeping up the side of the bowl.)
Return the mixer to medium-low speed and knead an additional 7 minutes.
During this time a few things will happen—As the dough starts to absorb the fat, it will lubricate the gluten strands and the dough will start to relax. As the fat mixes into the dough, the dough will start to look sticky and tacky. Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! the dough looks sticky before all the fat is mixed in
Do NOT add additional flour! The stickiness will disappear as the fat mixes in more completely. Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! This dough looks just like regular bread dough.
Once the dough has finished kneading, pull off a small piece and try to stretch it between your fingers. It should form a slightly translucent membrane. Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! The only recipe that yields dough with a good gluten network.
If it doesn't, or starts to break before you can see light through it, knead the dough some more. It is especially important to have well developed gluten in this dough because if you don't your beautiful bread will shred as it rises.

Step 5:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Cloaking the dough helps it rise better.
Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and form it into a ball. Lightly cup the dough in your hands and move it in circles on the counter. You are trying to tighten the surface of the dough ball. This is called creating a " gluten cloak," or "cloaking."
Spray a very fine mist of nonstick spray in the mixing bowl to lightly grease it, and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with a piece of plastic (or plastic grocery bag as I normally do when I'm not taking pictures), and allow to sit on the counter for 20 minutes.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of the dough before resting
"You are not trying to let the dough rise at this stage. Instead you are letting the gluten relax, which will make it much easier to shape the loaf later on. This dough has an intentionally high gluten content, and we have just been mixing the dough for a long time. It needs to have a rest to relax that gluten.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Let the dough shape after mixing to make shaping easier.

Step 6:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of the dough rolled out into a rectangle
After the 20 minute rest, dump the dough out onto the counter and roll it into a long rectangle, the same width as your loaf pan and twice as long.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Rolling the dough into a log creates a perfectly shaped loaf.
Roll up the dough tightly, taking care to avoid creating any air pockets that will form holes in the loaf when it bakes.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of the dough in the pan waiting to rise
Transfer your loaf to the well-greased loaf pan. Cover again with plastic.

Step 7:

Now you need to let the dough rise until it is the desired size of the finished loaf.
This will take 40 minutes to an hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
Yes, I realize this goes against most bread baking procedure, but click here to read why.

By the way, now would be a really good time to preheat your oven to 375°F.

Step 8:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! side view of the fully risen loaf Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! overhead picture of the fully risen loaf
Once the dough has risen to your satisfaction,
use a sharp knife or razor to score the surface of the loaf 1/4" deep.

For a really good tutorial on scoring bread, visit TheFreshLoaf
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! When slashing a loaf, hold the knife almost parallel to the counter. Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Slashing the top let you control how the bread looks when it bakes.

Step 9:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! picture of the loaf in the oven, showing the lack of oven spring
Bake the bread in the middle of a 375°F oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the bread is done.
I'm sorry be inexact. If you really want a better way, the internal temperature should be at least 204°F.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! the loaf is finished baking and a thermometer shows 203°F
Or, you could thump on the bottom of the loaf—if the thump sounds hollow the bread is done.
I usually bake my bread in my oven for 48 minutes. But your oven isn't my oven, and your bread isn't my bread.


Step 10:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! A golden-brown crust means tons of flavor. Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Brushing the top of the loaf with buttermilk when it comes out of the oven will give it a sheen.
Immediately (or within a couple of minutes) upon taking the bread out of the oven, brush the top with buttermilk, half-and-half, cream, or butter.
This is to create a nice sheen, and to slightly soften the crust to make it easier to slice later on.

Step 11:

Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Side view of the loaf after brushing with buttermilk
Remove the baked loaf to a wire rack to cool completely.
And I mean completely, or at least until the internal temperature is less than 90°F. Even better would be to let the bread sit out overnight, so that the crust can soften and to reduce the amount of crumbing during slicing.
But that is up to you.


Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Overhead picture of the baked loaf with a few sliced fanned out

By the way, if you are wondering if kids will like to eat this bread, let me tell you a story. Once the loaf of bread featured in these pictures had cooled to room temperature, I wrapped it in plastic and left it on the counter so that I could cut it in the morning and take more pictures.
Well, my eldest son woke me up, so I gave him his tablet and had him sit on my bed whilst I took a shower. As I am getting out of the shower, he comes into the bathroom to inform me that his younger brother stole the bread.
As you might imagine, I was a little curious what he meant, as I hadn't given them any bread because I hadn't sliced it yet. I hurried and dried off then rushed out to the kitchen, where sure enough, the beautiful loaf a bread was missing. I heard a sound and looked over at the couch to see my wonderful son, indeed eating the loaf a bread.
You know it is said, "Pics or didn't happen," well here you go.
Dinner in the Life of a Dad—The BEST Low-Carb Bread Ever!!! Picture of the baked loaf with my son's bite marks in the bottom
This is apparently what happens when you take a shower instead of cooking breakfast. Lesson learned (^_^)

Here are some links for dough batch calculators. These tools will let you calculate the exact amounts of ingredients for whatever size batch you want.>
    

Low Carb BreadYields a 2.5-lb loaf




Combine all dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer (mix on low speed with the paddle attachment for 2-4 minutes).
Still using the paddle, add the water and egg and mix on low speed until the dough starts to become elastic, about 4 minutes.
Switch to the dough hook, and knead the dough on medium-low speed for 5-7 minutes. Make sure that the dough stays "attached" to the hook.
Add the shortening and knead for an additional 8-9 minutes, or until the window-pane test shows a good gluten structure.
Gather the dough into a ball and roll it around on the counter to develop a gluten cloak. Place back in the mixing bowl, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes to let the dough rest.
Roll the dough into a large rectangle (12" x 24"), trying to get out as many large gas bubbles as possible. Roll up the dough to form a log the same length as your pan. Place the log in a well-greased loaf pan, cover, and let rise until double (30-45 minutes).
Bake in a 375°F oven for 45-55 minutes, or until done. (internal temperature >205°F or the thumping sounds hollow).
Depan and allow to cool completely (internal temperature <90°F) before slicing or bagging.


This recipe was printed from Dinner in the Life of a Dad (samslaugh.blogspot.com)
The BEST Low-Carb Bread EVER!!! 2 1/2 lb loaf Low-carb sandwich bread recipe. This dough can be used not only for bread, but also pizza and tortillas. 260g oat flour 155g Vital Wheat gluten 135g almond flour 38g coconut flour 23g dextrose 6g instant yeast 6g salt 1 egg 440g water 20g shortening

73 comments :

  1. This bread looks fantastic and I'm anxious to try it. I'm curious: how critical is the dextrose to this recipe? Also, do you know how many net carbs per serving? Thanks for the recipe!

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    1. Hi Lori,
      The dextrose provides the yeast in the recipe with easy-to-get-at food ie: simple carbohydrates. If getting dextrose is a problem, another sweetener may very easily be substituted in.
      If there is concern about the sugar/carbs added by the dextrose, it is true that the oat flour does contain some starch and will provide food for the yeast, but it will dramatically slow the rising time.
      On the other hand, I have tried to keep the level of dextrose to only that which will be consumed by the yeast, so there wouldn't be much remaining in the bread, in theory anyways.

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    2. This is by no means a low carb bread. Since there were no nutritional values given I merely added up net carb counts for the ingredient list and there are more than 200 net carbs for the loaf! Any way you slice it, this bread is not a low carb alternative.

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    3. Trying to figure out how you came up with 200 net carbs, that doesnt seem right given the ingredients.

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    4. I also calculated 200g+ of net carbs, on cronometer based on the grams listed above. I actually left out the dextrose, because I'm not sure if there would be any leftover from the yeast. This is how it turned out for the loaf:

      Calories: 2855
      Net Carbs: 253g
      Fiber: 58g
      Fat: 119g
      Protein: 194g

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    5. Is it possible that Oat flour was supposed to be Oat fiber? The difference being a net carb count of 22g per 40 gram serving. That would make the net carb count 110g or 5.5g per serving assuming 20 slices in a loaf.

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  2. My daughter is also a csider. I've talked to your wife before on the facebook page. I was wondering if you could tell me the amount of starch present in the oat flour and in the gluten. Or if you have a rough idea of how many grams of starch we are looking at per slice?
    I think this bread looks AMAZING! great job!!!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Aline,
      I'm hesitant to provide nutritional information because I don't have access to the exact nutritional breakdown of each of the ingredients, but I can provide an estimate based on the USDA Nutrient database.
      Oats have about 65g of carbohydrates per 100g, and 10g of that is fiber, leaving around 55g of starch per 100g of oats. One loaf of bread uses 260g of oat flour, which yields 143g of starch. Vital wheat gluten contains 13g of starch per 100g, yielding 20 in the loaf. Total starch in the loaf is therefore about 160g.
      One serving of bread is 55g, which would yield about 20 servings in this loaf, or 20 slices of bread (I normally get about this many, 1/2" thick). This would in turn wind up with 8g of starch (net carbs) per slice of bread.
      On the other hand, 1 serving of regular whole wheat bread has about 20g of starch per serving, so my recipe is significantly lower in carbs.
      I hope this helps.

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    2. I ran the numbers into MFP and got 207 calories; 8g fat; 19g net carbs; 5g fiber; and 12g protein per slice if there are 20 slices per recipe. I did sub honey for the dextrose since that's not an ingredient I keep on hand. Hope this helps.

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    3. Angela,
      One difficutly with MFP is that you have to approve the ingredient matches it proposes, and sometimes the ingredients aren't entered correctly into MFP.
      I went through and did the long-hand calculations for the nutrition facts panel, using the USDA nutrient database as my information source. Below are the calculations and nutrition facts panel resulting from this investigation.

      Nutrition Facts Panel

      Calculations

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  3. Beautiful! Pinterest recommended your recipe and I hope to try it asap. I've been a low carb eater for a couple of years now and still can't stick the yeast bread landing.

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  4. I am allergic to eggs. is it possible to leave out the egg or do I need to add some kind of replacer?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous,
      I'm really embarrassed to say that I just found your comment. It had somehow been marked as spam, which I don't recall doing, but if I did accidentally do so I apologize.
      Um, regarding the eggs, you are welcome to substitute with 75% the amount of water (100g eggs replaced with 75g water, or 2 eggs with 1/3 cup), or with your favorite egg substitution. Keep this in mind though, I am adding eggs for the stability of the egg proteins, as well as for the emulsification of the lecithin.
      I used to leave the eggs out when I used this dough for pizza and had no noticeable effects, but it may have been because it wasn't as a bread dough.
      I say go for it (^_^)

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  5. I am looking forward to trying this! Have you ever given it a longer refrigerated rise a la No Knead Bread in order to develop the flavor? I don't know if that will work for this recipe or not--I'm not sure if the yeast will die off in a long rise, even a slow one in the fridge.

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    Replies
    1. This is a great question. Unfortunately, this recipe doesn't tolerate a refrigerated rise unless you are making a pizza crust or tortillas with yeast. I once made a big batch and let it rise in the fridge before splitting it into pizza crust and a loaf of bread. The pizza worked fine, but the lower never really rose even after three hours at room temperature.
      It did bake fine, but wasn't nice and fluffy like in my pictures. Kids still ate it though.
      Good luck with the recipe. I actually have to make some more today 😁

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  6. we are doing the Trim Healthy Mam diet and are sucessful at it, but my bread loving hubby is not satisfied with the bread options. I am an experienced bread maker and this looks like a fantastic real bread. I do not the equipment you have and have always used my hands. Will it work the old fashioned way? Thanks for your hard work on this recipe.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jann. I'm excited that you and your husband are trying to get in shape. Good for you.
      I can see no reason why it will not work to make the dough by hand, but be prepared to knead it for a really long time. The dough starts off like cookie dough because of the high almond and coconut content, but after the gluten develops it becomes more bread like.
      Give it a try. I think you will really enjoy the recipe. I hope you let me know how it goes (^_^).

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  7. Thanks for the reply. I will give it a try. Because of the high whole wheat content of most of the breads I've tried, they areThank very dense. Great toast but (to me) not a great sandwich. Either that or a loaf takes a bunch of eggs... ugh...hubby won't touch that. So, high hopes for this! I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!

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  8. I finally tried this recipe (after one failed attempt and two excellent post tries later) and it tastes amazing! Due to it being hard to get vital wheat gluten at local stores I thought xanthum gum might have been a decent replacement but no go. My first loaf was a fail so I just bought the vital gluten online and have only had great results. Thanks for sharing, this is super helpful for keto dieting.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mel,
      I'm really sorry about the xanthan gum mishaps. Out of curiosity, what happened when you tried using the gum? Did you try a 1:1 replacement?
      It makes me really happy that you've been able to make a couple of successful batches with this recipe and that you enjoy the flavor.
      I use this same recipe to make both pizza dough (no changes) and tortillas (sub yeast for 1/2 amount of baking powder), so give those a try.
      Thanks for your awesome comment (^_^)

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    2. It didn't give me the consistency you need between steps 2-3. Instead of it coming together it just looked like quicksand. And yes I believe it was a 1:1 ratio. I thought if I spent the time until it all blended together that it might work but time had no effect. The final product looked like a piece of bread but not with the same stretchy, chewy bite.

      I may actually try this with your other ideas too. I've already used it to make small baguettes. Since I have a 9x5 tin, I can really only fit about 1 lbs. worth of contents in it. So I've used whats left over to make smaller baguette shaped loafs and they've come out nicely. Really toasted on the outside but very fluffy soft on the inside.

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    3. Hi Mel. Again, I'm really glad that you enjoy this recipe so much. My kids can't get enough of it. If you are into experimenting, I would recommend making pizza from this dough (no changes)
      This is a picture of the last pizza I made for my kids with the dough:
      Click this link for picture.

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  9. was wondering what you tweaked for the pizza dough recipe .

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous,
      I have made the pizza dough two ways. The first way I actually use the recipe as is with no changes. I occasionally make a large (3.5lb) batch of the dough and split off a pound for the pizza while I shape the remaining dough into a loaf to bake into bread. I don't recommend this unless you have a beefy mixer though.
      If I am making just pizza dough, I have sometimes replaced the egg with water and the shortening with olive oil to bring it close to a pizza dough. But to be perfectly honest, the recipe works fine as pizza as is.
      After mixing the dough I let it rest for 30 minutes or so before shaping into a pizza skin. I bake my pizza on screens and it doesn't stick, but a stone would work well too. I have also baked them on parchment paper. In any case, I bake the pizza at 500° until the toppings are done, which takes around 5-8 minutes.

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  10. Can I omit the almond flour and substitute it for 1 C of oat and 3/8 C of coconut flour and add one more egg

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    Replies
    1. Hi Unknown,
      I have never tried that before. I'm not sure if that would be enough liquid for the additional coconut flour. I would start by subbing with just the oat flour and going from there.

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  11. What else can I use in place of almond flour??

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    Replies
    1. Hi Nusrat,
      It depends what effect you are going for. The easiest substitution would be with any other nut flour (peanut, walnut, cashew, etc).
      If you are allergic to nuts it becomes trickier. The almond flour is taking up some of the bulk of the dough, but it doesn't absorb much water.
      I'm sorry if this isn't too helpful. I've always used almond flour, so I'm not really sure about a good substitution.

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  12. could you calculate the grams to cups? thanks

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  13. I found 20g of shortening is not the same as 5 tablespoons, am I wrong?

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    Replies
    1. You are correct in this. The 5 Tbsp should be 5 tsp. I will update this in the recipe.
      Thanks for the catch.

      Delete
  14. This recipe looks fantastic, and the nutritional breakdown is very exciting! I have Type 2 Diabetes, and have had great success in managing my glucose with a low carb keto-style diet. The lower I can get my carb count, the better, so I wonder if you have had any success in your experimentation with a higher almond to oat flour ratio? Also, do you grind your own oat flour (and if so, how?), or do you rely on a store bought brand (and if so, which?)? Thank you for keeping up with this recipe, it might help keep this low carb thing going for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad to read that you're excited for the recipe.
      I haven't experimented much with reducing the oat flour, but I would try replacing with a mix of nut flour and gluten.
      I do grind my own oat flour. I buy bulk steel cut oats (from Winco) and grind them with my Wondermill. I have also used a hand grain grinder, but that was a little miserable. I have not tried a food processor or bullet style blender, but those might work. Bob's Red Mill sells oat flour, but it is significantly more expensive per pound than grinding your own.
      Good luck with your baking!

      Delete
  15. Hi, could you please print the nutritional value of your bread, it probably is in comments, but I could not find it, thank you so much, love,love your bread recipe.

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  16. Hi anonymous,
    The nutrition facts for the bread can be found on this page. Out of curiosity, have you been using a mobile device to look at the recipe?

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  17. This recipe looks great. I've tried it a few times and can't seem to get the gluten to develop like your pictures. I tend to do baking by weight and when I was looking at some of the conversions from cups to grams some of them are not equivalent. The oat flour, gluten, and water don't match up. Can you please check those and see which one is right. Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous,
      I developed this recipe using the grams, so when in doubt you can trust those.
      Regarding the gluten, depending on your mixer and the exact speed it runs at, it can take a really long time for the gluten to develop. Also, if your almond flour is really coarse it can mess up the gluten.
      There have been times when I've been more lazy or just don't have the time and I have done this recipe when the gluten is less than ideal, and it will still work fine. The final product just may not be quite as fluffy.

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  18. Hi Sam

    Do you think I could use a breadmaker to do this, at least just to get the dough ready?

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    Replies
    1. You can try with a breadmaker, but I don't know if it will turn out correctly. This dough is really weird—it starts out more like a cookie dough and doesn't turn in to a bread dough until it has been mixed for a really, really long time.
      It might work if you run it through two dough cycles, but I am only guessing. I don't have a bread maker and have not really ever used them personally.

      Delete
  19. Hi,

    I just discovered your recipe by googling (hooray for searches!), and was curious if this could still be made without a mixer - ala by hand?

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have a book on Nursing from 1888 and the recipe for "Gluten bread" is just 2 1/2 cups gluten flour, 1/4 cup white flour, yeast and water and they add teaspoon of vinegar to their recipe. It was for people with "Sugar", as they referred to Diabetes back then. They make a starter with the white flour and yeast with the vinegar and then after 1 day of proofing it they mix that with the gluten. That was it. I have not tried it yet.

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    Replies
    1. Wow! Can you write the recipe as it is written, or was that it? I know that sometimes recipes were not terribly precise in those days...

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    2. In a nursing book, A Cook Book for Nurses (1901): 5-6 cups gluten, 1 pint water, 2.5 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp butter. Louise

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  21. I entered the recipe exactly as written into the Lose It! app. I have the numbers for 1/12 of the 12" loaf as written:

    259.8 calories
    11.6 g fat
    2.6 sat fat
    15.6 mg cholesterol
    12.1 mg sodium
    26.6 g carbohydrate
    4.5 g fibre
    2.2 g sugar
    17.2 g protein

    So each 1" slice contains 22.1 net grams of carb.

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    Replies
    1. Who cuts 1" slices of bread?
      1/2" is closer to normal, and this bread slices well, so you can get even thinner slices than that.
      11g per slice is more like it

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    2. Hi Kath,
      One reason it might be so high is that the recipe uses dextrose as a food source for the yeast.
      Keeping in mind that this recipe was originally developed to be suitable for people with starch and sucrose intolerance (CSID/GSID), for whom the simple sugars are not a problem.
      If you are trying to get the net carbs even lower, you could try eliminating the dextrose altogether.

      Delete
  22. 11g of net carbs per slice is NOT low carb by any stretch of the imagination, you can get bread at the grocery store that has a lower count than that so why go through all the trouble and fancy ingredients. Seriously, you should not be calling this recipe 'low-carb', you're doing a disservice to all the people out there trying to stick to their diet properly, if they eat even 2 slices of this they're screwed themselves for the day, that is not an acceptable alternative

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    Replies
    1. Hi anonymous,
      You are correct that you can purchase bread which is lower in net carbs per slice than this recipe. My family has actually started buying a product such as this, and the net carbs of 2 slices are equivalent to the net carbs of 1 slice of this recipe. That being said, the weight of 2 slices of their bread is also the same as 1/20th of my recipe.
      It's not so much that the recipe isn't low-carb, but that "the dose makes the poison."

      Delete
  23. Why call this low carb? It's retarded

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sicarius,
      Keep in mind that "low-carb" isn't defined anywhere, except by people who are on low-carb diets.
      Furthermore, this recipe was developed to be an aid for people with CSID, for whom the type of carb is a problem, not the quantity as much.

      Delete
    2. Low Carb, is basically in the word, isn't it? I have been working with this for 20 years, so yeah, there are plenty of definitions, one of them being the word in itself.

      Delete
  24. Just tried this recipe.
    Fantastic.
    My wife and I are recovering diabetics on lchf diet.
    The one thing we both miss is bread.
    This recipe is not for the very low carb dieters, but is comparatively low in carbs and low GI.
    I left out the dextrose, it isn't needed.
    I will be trying it with added bran and an overnight poolish starter next.

    ReplyDelete
  25. OMG this bread is wonderful! Being diabetic, I'm always looking for new recipes that fit into my diet plan. Since I like my bread thin, I made two smaller loafs using this recipe and counted about 35 slices total. So great to have a piece of toast in the morning with my scrambled egg and cheese that has minimal effect on my blood glucose level. Thanks for letting me bake bread again! BTW, I used honey instead of dextrose, since that's what I had. The bread rose beautiful

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  26. Is it really oat flour and not oat FIBER?

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  27. THANK YOU for including ingredients by weight. Can't wait to try the pizza dough. That's a great rise and beautiful Cornicione.

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  28. Yum! This works for me. I altered the recipe a bit. I did a half batch and used a smaller,throw-away foil pan that was 8x4. I also used the dough cycle of my bread machine and followed your timelines for mixing. I used 1 egg and 7/8 cup water, salt and 1 teaspoon sugar in the bottom first. Then I slowly added spoonfuls of dry mix for the next couple of minutes. I used a rubber spatula to encourage the dough to stay by the paddle. After the first 7 minutes of continual kneading, I drizzled Olive oil as my fat of choice. I did this slowly to allow it better distribution. I then let this knead for the remainder of time, which was a good 13 minutes. Followed the rest of the recipe. Baked at 375 for 35 minutes. 10 absolutely wonderful slices of real bread. One slice keeps me in my desired carb range and finally makes me feel like i can have toast or a sandwich and not be eating cardboard. I also made my own oat flour by tossing old fashion oats in my food processor, cutting down on the amount of special ingredients. Thank you for taking the time to experiment this out. I've made many brick loaves without success.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Has anyone tried any other types of flour besides the almond? I'm interested mostly in lower calorie bread, so I was looking at coconut flour options that use gluten since you use less coconut flour in a recipe than other flours because of how absorbant it is...high protein is good too, but almond flour is super high calorie and high fat so I would want to use something else....perhaps a bit more coconut flour to replace part of it, then I have Garbanzo/chickpea flour and thought that might work? It is lower calorie and higher protein. I was also looking at the possibility of teff, cricket, amaranth, and/or sorghum flours.... any thoughts? I'm not eating low carb, but I'm trying to balance things better and I am eating low calorie....and I freaking love bread....lol So if I can find a decent lowish calorie, high protein bread I will be in heaven!

    ReplyDelete
  30. This at last is REAL bread. It is delicious. It is easy. I made a couple mistakes each time and always turns our wonderful. Thank you, Sam, for sharing!! SRuetz

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  31. Thanks a lot for the recipe. Me and my husband are on keto for a couple of months and my husband was badly craving for bread. We tried the other low Carn bread recipes which are dependent on egg and are dense and have an eggy smell. This is the first bread that's read bread like...
    I have made a couple of changes to the recipe though to make it more keto compliant
    - change the oat flour to flax meal
    - increase the water content
    - substitute shortening with butter and increased the quantity a bit
    - did not add any sugar
    The rise was slow., however the end result was quite good...
    Thanksnonce again wholeheartedly for this recipe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you want the yeast to work without using actual sugar honey dextrose etc, you can use inulin (chicory root fiber) 1.5 tsp for a packet of yeast. My daughter can't have white sugar so I normally use coconut sugar but I went back on keto and found this suggestion on another site gnomgnom.com

      I tested it side by side against coconut sugar proofing the yeast. the inulin actually had a better response
      Although both worked well. Inulin is permitted even in strict keto diets.

      I'm wanting to make a low carb bread (which this is not) using gluten, coconut flour, oat FIBER, with possibly small amounts of almond flour a, whey protein isolate and/or golden flax meal. Want to keep the almond flour lower than coconut flour due to the inflammatory characteristics, very high fat, as well as the high phytate content which makes it hard on digestive system. Also want flax minimal as it is highly estrogenic which is bad forfor hormonal balance.

      This recipe may be a good starting point. Oat fiber is very smooth like flour but very absorbant like coconut flour. Whey protein isolate is often used to mimic vital wheat gluten to hold the other flours together, but it doesn't have the same gummy stretchy characteristics as wheat gluten.

      Just for information in response to anan earlier comment, xanthan gum is not a one-to-one replacement for vital wheat gluten. Xanthan gum will mimic the gummy characteristic but will not hold together well as there is no protein. Xanthan gum should be used in I believe 1/8 to 1/4 the amount of vital wheat gluten lest you want a slimy mess. you would also have to use something to mimic the protein and replace the bulk. Whey protein isolate might work well for this. Also glucomannan, known as konjac, is a one-for-one replacement to xanthan gum but I've never tried it in bread type recipes, only as a thickener.

      I'm hoping to give this a try replacing some of the almond flour with a smaller amount of coconut flour (I believe 1/4 to 1/3 the amount of coconut flour should be used in place of almond flour and increase liquids) . Oat fiber behaves like coconut flour in the absorbance but with a smooth texture so I would think you could sub it in a similar way.

      However the only brands of oat fiber that do not have a nasty taste are THM which is expensive and can only be ordered from trim healthy mama site or Life Source which is cheapest by the 1 pound bag on netritition.com or 5 pound bag on Amazon if you have prime.

      Will post my results after I have the chance to experiment if I get good results. So far the best yeasted low carb bread I've found is on YouTube from deirdres kitchen, also featured on the keto king's youtube channel. This one is very high in flax which I'm trying to minimize but did get a good rise and the closest low carb (5 net carbs or less per slice) to real bread I've found so far. There are many LOUSY recipes out there.

      Will post back with my results in case that's helpful.

      Delete
  32. How much did you increase the water content? How much total butter did you use?

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  33. I know I'm a few years late on this post but recently started the keto diet and was excited to find this recipe. I calculated the carbs based on all the ingredients nutrition labels (that I already had on hand!). The entire loaf only has 36 grams of carbs! Thank you so much for this recipe, I can't wait to try it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is NOT low carb. Oat flour is merely ground up oats. The oat flour alone has 197 g carbs, 30 g fiber for 167g net carbs alone. Thats without adding in any other ingredients. This is not keto, not low carb AT ALL. Perhaps you were thinking it said oat fiber, not oat flour?

      Delete
  34. I made a half recipe of the bread yesterday. Outstanding! We are moving overseas and my mixer was packed, and food processer too. So I used quick oats for the flour, kneaded it by hand. Wonderful! I do ha e a small almond allergy, and got a headache from it, so next time I will sub the flax for the almond. Don’t let people discourage you about the carbs, everyone has a different tolerance...and needs to judge for themselves.

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  35. I agree with all the commenters who say this is NOT low carb bread if you really do mean to use oat flour (essentially ground up oats). If you mean oat fibre, then the carbs go down but the price goes up!!!

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  36. Do you soak the yeast before adding it to the dry ingredients? Do you use instant yeast ? Thanks for the recipe.

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    ReplyDelete
  38. Hi Sam. Just found this page for the bread and was so excited to add this to my weekly recipes. However, tried finding the breakdown of the nutrients and cannot find it. A couple of others have also asked and you supplied a link that takes us right back to this page where there are no calculations for the nutrients.

    I cant imagine how this is considered a low carb bread as it contains 2 1/2 cups of oat flour. The carbs in that amount total to approximately 146 grams of carbs just for the oats not counting the other ingredients. Someone else in the comments came up with 22 grams of carbs per slice if the loaf yielded 12 slices.

    That would be 44 grams of carbs for just one sandwich. Could you explain why this is low carb? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
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    Keto Bread diet to lose weight

    ReplyDelete
  40. Everyone's definition of Low carb is different. Does this qualify as a keto bread? No. But does it qualify as low carb? Absolutely! Besides all this keto breads with oat fibre tastes like literal CARDBOARD! This actually tastes like bread but doesn't have as many carbs as regular bread. Thank you very dearly much for this recipe!! All these other people can go eat their oat fiber flavorless cardboard thing(can't even call it bread). I will happily eat this instead.

    ReplyDelete
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