When I found out I had coeliacs disease I thought my world was coming to an end. What the hell was I going to eat for lunch now that bread was the devil incarnate. I had managed to navigate my whole entire (well almost) school lunches eating multigrain BLT sandwiches. This still ended up being my go to ‘easy win’ lunch as an adult when I didn’t have the energy to make something exciting.
After diagnosis, I tried all the gluten free ‘breads’ on the market. Well lets just call them bread for categorisation sake ONLY, because they all could have been used for insulating houses rather than eating. Crumbly, dry, and down right revolting unless toasted almost to incineration point, then only barely edible. I thought my days of BLT’s were gone forever until I stumbled upon a recipe by the brilliant chef Pete Evans (https://peteevans.com) for Paleo bread and my whole world has changed (insert sounds of heavens gates opening, harps playing, doves flying off into the clouds).
This bread is soft, incredibly tasty, even elastic like my enemy gluten, easy to make and super healthy and good for you to boot. It can be made into a loaf if you want sliced bread but I find the rolls so easy and convenient as they can be frozen individually too.
Ingredients
70g (1cup) psyllium husks
70g (½ cup) coconut flour, plus extra for dusting
3 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp flaxseeds
30g (¼cup) pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp sesame seeds
30g (¼ cup) sunflower seeds
1 tbsp coconut sugar or honey
2½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp sea salt
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 eggs
2 tbsp coconut oil melted
Method
01 Preheat the oven to 180˚C (160˚ fan-forced). Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
02 Place the psyllium husks, coconut flour, chia seeds, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds in the bowl of a food processor and whiz for a few seconds until the seeds are finely chopped.
03 Transfer the flour mixture to a large bowl, then mix in the coconut sugar or honey, the baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the vinegar, 450ml of water and the eggs and whisk until smooth. Add the coconut oil and the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well to form a wet dough. Allow to stand for 2 minutes.
04 Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface for 1 minute.
05 Dived the dough into the size of rolls you would like. Place the dough balls on the prepared tray, allowing room for spreading. Bake I the oven for 1 hour, rotating the tray halfway through so that the rolls cook evenly. To check if they are cooked, tap the base of a roll. If it sounds hollow, the rolls are ready. If they seem to be very heavy and dense, they need to cook for a little longer.