SCD sundried tomato bread

I am having a craze for recipes that fit in with the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD).  The SCD is a lifesaver for so many people with Crohn’s and colitis that I had to start including some of the recipes here and eating them at home sometimes.  This bread is really lovely and very easy to make. Just tried it at the weekend with home-made baked beans for breakfast and a piece of fruit to follow.  Naturally I also smothered it in my home-made buttery spread for bread but you could use normal butter or ghee (clarified butter).  Wish I could say the recipe is my own, but I found it in the wonderful SC diet cookbook.  I did reduce the (I thought) excessive amount of salt from the original recipe and it still tasted great.  This bread is suitable for a grain-free ketogenic diet as well – AND IS TOTALLY DELICIOUS AND SATISFYING.

 

 

2 large eggs  (if they are tiny, you could use 4)
230ml (1 cup) home made kefir or home-made natural yoghurt (see SC diet website)
28g clarified butter or ghee or (if you are not dairy sensitive) normal butter, melted
½ level teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt
1 rounded teaspoon baking soda (“bread soda” is another name for this)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black or white pepper
385g almond flour (ground almonds are fine.  The finer ground the better – I whizzed mine in the food processor for a bit before adding the other ingredients)
12g (1/4 cup) chopped chives (do use these, they give a fab flavour – if you don’t have any you could use the green parts of spring onions chopped up finely)
14g finely chopped, dry, sun-dried tomatoes (with no additives if you are on SC diet)

1. Preheat oven to 170C (fan oven) or 195C otherwise.  Grease and bottom line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking parchment.
2. Blend together all ingredients in a food processor then pour into the tin.
3. Bake in the oven for 45-55 mins until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4. The bread, once cool, should keep well in a self seal bag or airtight container in the fridge for at least 5 days.

Why this is better for you:
Some people need to follow a grain-free diet in order to stay well.  This recipe is just the thing to satisfy the longing for bread.  This bread would be brilliant for anybody needing a low carbohydrate diet (e.g. people with diabetes, or people following a ketogenic diet to manage cancer).  Being baked, its naturally not quite as healthy as eating the nuts (almonds) raw.  But what the hey, sometimes you just want bread.  Because the bread is very low in carbohydrates (sugars) its a great substitute for the wheaten bread that can cause such huge dips in energy after lunch. And of  course its low GI and studies show low GI eating helps skin and hair health too.  You might wonder why I mention “dairy-free” when the recipe contains ghee/clarified butter – this is because when you clarify butter you remove the lactose (milk sugar) and casein (problematic milk protein) and so it becomes hypoallergenic.  Great news for anyone who is dairy sensitive.  If you have a true dairy allergy (throat swelling, anaphylactic shock) you will of course still want to steer clear of any contact with dairy products whatsoever, even during food preparation for others.