Bread 'a la' Pumpernickel

Bread ‘a la’ Pumpernickel

It seems one of the difficulties people have with the SCD is not having the comfort of bread. In the Healing Foods Cookbook I have several recipes for bread and one of them in particular is my favourite, because it reminds me of a bread I used to love when I was eating a 'normal' diet.

The bread I am talking about is called pumpernickel bread and normally this bread is a dark grainy non leavened bread made from rye. The SCD version in the cookbook is made with almond meal and walnuts giving this bread the same consistency that the other bread has. It is nutty and chewy. It is great toasted with jam or cheese and fabulous with scrambled eggs.

It can be a trial and error getting SCD style breads to bake properly. Most of the times it is to do with baking the dough slow enough as well as hot enough to get it to bake through. Generally, I have found that a setting 150C/300F with the fan going works well. Some ovens tend to get hotter, and then you need to lower the temperature. Also it is essential to place the baking tin in the lower half of the oven so that the top of the tin is at about the centre.

I tend to get quite a few emails asking why one of the baked goods hasn't worked out. This is difficult to determine of course, as I am not in the kitchen with the person...So I have made a video of how to make the pumpernickel bread, hoping it will help you along. This is the first video I made all by myself and the sound is a little funny, but I'm sure the video nevertheless gets across how simple it is to make this great bread. Click on the Video link on the website.

Bread 'a la' Pumpernickel

Makes 1 Loaf

120 g (1 cup) walnuts 30 g (1⁄4 cup) sunflower seeds

400 g (4 cups) almond flour

1⁄2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 3 eggs 80 g (1⁄3 cup) butter or coconut oil 1 tsp honey

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F

Line a 10 x 21 cm/4 x 8 inch loaf tin with baking paper

Place walnuts and sunflower seeds into a food processor chop nuts for 5 seconds with the sharp blade inserted.

Take out the sharp blade and insert mixing blade.

Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and mix.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, butter, and honey until fluffy.

Pour into food processor and process with the almond flour until the dough is well combined. The dough will be quite thick and heavy.

Pour the dough into the lined loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until top is browned and cracked. The bread will sound hollow and will be quite firm to the touch.

Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

Remove from tin and peel off baking paper.

Refrigerate bread in an airtight container. The bread will keep for 1 week.

Great toasted!

Omit the sunflower seeds if they cause you problems.