Baking, Bread, Breakfasts, Dairy Free, Eggs, Gluten Free, Grain Free, Lunchbox, Lunches, Naturally Sweetened, Nuts, Thermomix, Wholefood
Pecan Bread (Grain Free)
I’ve been meaning to try pecan bread for a while now, ever since a friend who can’t eat any grains told me about it. So last week when I got a big bag of local, organic pecans through my co-op, I decided the time had come. I made it and loved it! It has a lovely texture, with a crisp, almost buttery, crust. Have I ever mentioned how much I love nuts? Yeah. I do. So I’m really sorry if you have a nut allergy, but I can’t cover all bases at once, and this bread is gluten free, grain free, dairy free, sugar free, low salicylate (with tweaks), high protein, low carbs, and… okay, it’s not egg free, but we’re running out of ingredients here, guys!
Anyway, I googled ‘pecan bread’ and found this amazing blog, “Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried” (the quirky title immediately catching my attention), which has delicious SCD recipes (which means ‘grain free’ for the uninitiated!). Naomi is a homeopath and nutritionist in London who is herself a coeliac and coaches people through “the process of healing their gut and learning how to eat without gluten”. A worthy cause. So I decided to try herGluten Free Pecan and Apple Breadbecause it looked so good, and I loved her blog title. 🙂 And here it is, with a few Thermomixin’ tweaks of my own. Enjoy!
P.S. Even though it has apple in it, that is more for moistness than sweetness – this is not a ‘sweet’ bread like banana bread – it’s a bread that can be used for sandwiches or toast or just eaten happily on its’ own.
P.P.S. This also has almonds in it. In fact it has more almonds than pecans. So I’m not really sure why it’s called pecan bread without any allusion to almonds, but it is. And also, if you are on the *Failsafe diet, you can cut down the salicylates by using hazelnuts instead of pecans. Of course, then you might like to call it hazelnut bread or it could get confusing. Okay. On to the recipe…
* For more Failsafe tips, see the comment from Naomi below!
Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!
- 200g raw almonds
- 120g raw pecans (or use hazelnuts for a low salicylate version)
- 1 apple, quartered (no need to peel)
- 5 large free range eggs
- 50g macadamia oil (or grapeseed, or other light oil)
- 1 tbspn lemon juice (or 2 tsp apple cider vinegar)
- 3/4 tsp bicarb soda
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 60g coconut butter
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line a bread tin with baking paper and set aside.
- irst you need to make some coconut butter. (I loooove this stuff!) This is what gives the bread that buttery crispness.
- Now, after you've scraped the coconut butter out of your Thermomix into a dish, place the almonds in the Thermomix bowl (no need to wash the bowl) and grind up on speed 8 for 10 seconds
- Add the pecans and chop on speed 5 for 6 seconds.
- Place in the Thermomix bowl the remaining ingredients, and mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds.
- Scrape down sides and add the ground nuts back in to the mixture, mixing for a few more seconds on speed 6.
- Pour into the lined tin and bake for an hour or so, until risen and browned; a skewer poked down into the centre of the bread will come out clean when it's ready.
- Let the bread cool for 10 minutes before removing carefully from the tin. Pull it up with the paper so you don't break it. It will firm up as it cools.
We ate it warm with naturally sweetened apricot jam, then had it the next day toasted. It makes lovely toast! It’s great for sandwiches too. I really wanted to try it with grilled strawberries and Rapadura, but the strawberries were all gone. Next time.
If you won’t use it within a day or two, it can be sliced thinly, frozen in loose layers, then when completely frozen, wrapped and kept frozen to use a slice at a time.
Hope you like it!
And thanks Naomi.
Thanks for the mention! Your version of the recipe looks delicious.
Failsafers can also use cashew nuts and a few more pecans, or sunflower seeds, as these are both low in salycilates. Cashew nuts make a very light bread.
The reason you don’t generally use all cashews, is because they are very oily and very expensive! The exception is pecan meal, which is coarser ground and can be used in greater quantity.
So glad you liked it x x x
Oh, thanks so much for dropping by, Naomi!! And thanks for the failsafe tips – I’ll add them to my post!
Jo xx
Hi Jo – Glad to see the Coconut Butter came in handy for making such an amazing grain-free bread. It’s recipes like this that really bring out the ‘power’ of Thermomix cooking. Thanks for linking to SuperKitchenMachine 🙂
Just about to get this out of the oven – my kitchen smells AMAZING! I can’t wait to pass this on to my friend who normally can’t eat bread!
Thanks once again! Julie
Thanks Helene & Julie 🙂 Hope you like it, Julie! xx
It was beautiful – it holds together so well – I thought it may fall apart a bit as we cut it whilst it was still warm but it didn’t. Don’t think much will make it to the freezer! Julie
Oh that’s great Julie!!
Had fun trying this today but did have to take the eggs out and replace it with my egg replacement (1 tbsp flaxmeal, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp baking powder, 3 tbsp water per egg). It worked out quite well but needed a little longer to cook, maybe 10 minutes. I have sliced it up and put it in the freezer so will see how DS goes in the morning. His taste buds are still changing over but struggling to find an alternative for him.
Thanks so much for the egg replacing tip, Bek! I’ll post that on my FB page! Hope you son likes the bread. Can he have gf bread, or no grains at all? The gf artisan bread is good – doesn’t have the ‘cakey’ texture gf bread usually has – my boys liked it better. 🙂
I just made this today, it is fantastic, so delicious! Thank you.
I have made this without a Thermomix. I would love one! I was able to grind the nuts. On the first occasion I mixed coconut flour with coconut oil to make the butter. This did work well but on the second try I looked at Naomi’s site and ground the dessicated coconut and made a sort of butter. On the second attempt I made mini muffins with the mix. It worked well. Next time I have decided to add some bluberries in each muffin. Thanks for the recipe. I found out about it through someone posting in the forum of
Changing Habits HCG Protocol.
Thank you Mary!
That’s great Daisyrose – glad it worked out well for you! That’s a great idea to make blueberry muffins with it – must try that too, yum! Hope you can get a Thermomix one day 🙂 They’re amazing.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jo x
You’re such an inspiration, Jo! I should be in bed, but I can’t get off your site. I am so going to try this, with Helene’s coconut butter recipe … can’t wait … have to seek out the pecans first though!
Ha ha! I love late night baking – and recipe surfing… 😀 Let me know how you like it! 🙂