I began reducing my carbohydrate intake, and was curious to see if I could find recipes of bread, cake and the usual pastries, but with less flour. Then, I ended up in the fitness side of the Internet, where I found some rather creative, easy and tasty recipes! The first one I found really impressed me. It's a milk bread that only needs three ingredients and no flour. It rises a lot, and surprisingly feels and tastes like some kind of bread.
This recipe comes from people who are following the Dukan diet (info for those who follow it: this bread may be consumed in all phases of the diet). The nutritional value may vary depending on the ingredient brands you use (consult the labels), but for me it totals around 272 calories, 31g carbohydrates and 24g protein, which I divided into six smallish rolls (meaning 45.3 calories, 5.1g carbs and 4g protein for each roll). Below is the recipe:
Three Ingredients Milk Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 egg;
- 6 tablespoons skim powder milk;
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
Instructions:
- Beat the egg with a fork or a whisk until it begins to foam.
- Add the skim powder milk and the baking powder and mix well. The mix will become a foamy, creamy mass that's not possible to shape by hand.
- With a spoon, place portions of the mass into a greased (or a nonstick) baking pan. Make sure to leave some space between the bread rolls because they rise a lot and may stick onto each other. If you need to help with your hands, wet your hands with water so that the mass sticks less.
- Bake in an oven at 360°F (180°C) for around six minutes (it may take a bit longer depending on your oven, but anyway the bread bakes really fast).
And that's it.
This is the base recipe, and you can experiment. You may add more powder milk if you want rounder rolls (as opposed to flat rolls), though this also depends on the egg's size. If you use a bigger egg, you may need more powder milk (but then the calories and carbs will increase). I, on the other hand, also did the opposite and used less (5 tablespoons instead of 6) and the rolls came out just fine, too. You may add a pinch of salt if you want it more savory, or a bit of sweetener if you want it sweet.
I baked my bread rolls in my air fryer instead of an oven. I had to cover the bottom of the air fryer's basket with aluminum foil (it was the only option I had available) so that the mass wouldn't fall through the basket's holes, and because my only baking dish that fits my air fryer is a bit small to accommodate all the rolls. Even with the basket's full space, the rolls grew to the point they glued to each other! Below is a picture showing how they came out:
Image source: photo of the six small bread rolls right after baked, inside the air fryer's basket. Own picture, taken with a smartphone.
I've followed this bread recipe four times already, and it still manages to amaze me every time. When we mix the ingredients and form the foamy mass, it's hard to imagine that the thing will really become bread at the end. But after baked, tada! There the small bread rolls will be. They become fluffy but firm enough that you can cut them and put whatever fillings you'd like. Last time, I shaped a handful of ground beef into a hamburger (also fried in the air fryer, with no additional oil), and placed it inside the bread along with some lettuce and a slice of tomato. Here's a picture of the mini burger:
Image source: photo of the little sandwich made with one of the bread rolls from the previous image. Own picture, taken with a smartphone.
Even though the rolls are somewhat small, they manage to be quite filling. One roll (1/6 of the recipe) is worth 100mL of milk and 1/6 of an egg (and this is without weighing in what goes inside the sandwich). The size tempts me to have more than one roll, but having two already feels like too much for me. In the end, I have one of these small sandwiches as a snack, and it manages to hold me until dinner time just fine (around three hours). Because of the milk and the egg, it is obviously not an option for people who don't consume anything of animal origin, but may be an interesting option for those who do. If you know of, or manage to come up with, a vegetarian or vegan variant of the recipe, I'm curious to know too!
Thank you for reading! This post is participating in the 77th edition of Qurator's Tasty Tuesday contest. The prizes are some nice upvotes, and even non-Qurator members can participate. If you like to write and/or read about food, you may want to check it out.