Emergency Bread (Quick Microwave Loaf)

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So you have surprise guests on their way over and nothing good to serve them. Or your kids come home from school hungry and all there is in the fridge is the light—and an echo.  Okay, maybe you have a couple of low-carb cookies left in that jar hidden in the back corner of your pantry, but those are cold comfort. What to do?

No worries! Just whip up this quick and easy bread and you can serve delicious sandwiches, garlic bread, bruschetta, croutons—you name it—to your guests and family in mere minutes!

Size matters here. If you ever need a slightly bigger keto bread than just a mug bread, and need it in a hurry but don’t want to turn on the oven, this bread is the perfect solution. You can make your slices as thin or as thick as you want: it’ll hold together well, but it’s still fluffy with a “bready” mouthfeel.

Tips for making the Emergency Bread

This bread is really easy to make. The most important thing is to mix the dry ingredients into the fluffy beaten eggs properly. This is best done by adding them gradually while mixing all the time with a rubber spatula.

The narrower and higher the bowl you use, the more the bread rises. I use a bowl that is 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, but feel free to use a narrower one if you want. Just adjust the baking time according to your microwave oven.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention: This recipe is meant for a microwave oven, but you can certainly use a regular oven if you really want to heat one up and waste some energy while you’re at it. That said, I didn’t try to bake this bread in a regular oven myself, so I’m not going to answer any questions related to that. You’ll have to figure out how to prepare it in a regular oven yourself if you don’t want to use a microwave. (Or just use a different bread recipe: the internet is full of them.)

But let’s take a look at how to prepare this delicious and easy bread:

Combine all the dry ingredients: that is, the coconut flour…

…psyllium husk powder…

…baking powder…

…and the pinch of salt.

Mix well to break up any lumps.

Beat the eggs…

…until very fluffy and pale.

Add the dry ingredient mixture gradually…

…mixing all the time with a rubber spatula. Like this.

Pour into a well-greased 4-inch (10 cm) microwave-safe bowl. (Or an even narrower and higher bowl, if you can find one.)

Bake at 350 watts for 5-10 minutes.

Check the bread every couple of minutes for doneness and adjust the total baking time according to your microwave oven.

Carefully remove the bread from the bowl by loosening it with a knife around the edges to get it out (be careful, it’s hot!) and let cool.

Slice however you like…

…and serve.

Yum!

My Emergency Bread experiments

As you might remember, I sort of introduced this recipe last November when I posted my leftover Thanksgiving turkey recipe. I needed bread for photography purposes for that blog post. I wanted to be able to whip up the bread quickly—and without heating up my “regular” oven.

I have several mug bread recipes (like this one), but for the leftover Thanksgiving turkey salad, I needed something slightly bigger for the photos and the video. To make it as affordable as possible, I wanted to use coconut flour as the base. Almond flour would have been another option, but it’s much more expensive than coconut flour. And you need far less of it because coconut flour absorbs so much fluid.

Then I wanted to add some psyllium husk powder to make the bread hold together well. And I don’t necessarily add baking powder to all my baked goods, but this time I wanted to use it to achieve a really fluffy texture. That’s why I was also planning to beat some eggs until fluffy and pale—to incorporate as much air to my bread as possible so that it’d be very soft, airy, and fluffy. So, my goal was to make a relatively large microwave bread with as few ingredients as possible.

For my first experiment, I combined 1/4 cup (60 ml) coconut flour, 1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder, 1 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of unrefined sea salt. I beat 4 eggs until very fluffy and pale. Carefully, I folded in the dry ingredients and poured the batter into a greased microwave-safe bowl.

I baked the bread in the microwave oven at quite a low setting: I think I used 350 watts. I wanted to use lower settings because I had found that the texture of  microwave bread improves when you use low power and a longer baking time.

After some seven minutes the bread looked good. I removed it from the bowl. Boy was it hot! I almost burned my fingers. Still, it was surprisingly easy to get it out of the bowl.

But I was even more impressed with the texture: the bread was fluffy and airy, held together well and I was able to slice it really thinly, thanks to the psyllium. Wow! This bread was indeed a success.

As I’d intended, I used the bread for the leftover Thanksgiving turkey salad blog post. After the photography session, my husband enjoyed the bread with the salad and raved about it. I told him that I needed some bread quickly for the blog post and for photography purposes, and that I’d created this bread from scratch and it turned out really well. When he heard the story, he said I should call it “Emergency Bread”, because if you have an emergency—that is, no bread in the house!—you can whip up this super-delicious bread super-fast. I’d intended to post the recipe separately after that, but I didn’t get around to it until now.

Well, even though the bread was a success the first time around, I wasn’t completely happy with the recipe. I thought it tasted too much like coconut flour. I wanted to see what would happen if I used less coconut flour and more psyllium: that should deliver a great texture without too much coconutty flavor.

So, I conducted another experiment in which I used 2 tablespoons coconut flour instead of 1/4 cup (60 ml) and 2 teaspoons psyllium husk powder instead of 1 teaspoon. This time I couldn’t taste the coconut flour at all and the texture was still perfect: airy, fluffy, yet easy to slice. My family approved this version wholeheartedly.

My husband ate the bread straight up, using it to wipe up sauce from his plate. My son gulped down one slice after another—topped with sugar-free strawberry jam. As for me, I covered mine with an ample amount of butter, liver pate, cheese, and cucumber. What a delight!

Here’s the recipe at last:

 


 

Nutrition Information	In Total	Per serving if 12 servings in total
Protein	33.7 g	2.8 g
Fat	26.1 g	2.2 g
Net carbs	4.5 g	0.4 g
kcal	408 kcal	34 kcal

 

Tips for serving and for variation

You can season the bread any way you like. Add garlic bread seasoning to make a quick and easy garlic bread, or add some dried herbs like rosemary and oregano to make a delicious, fragrant, herbed version.

Add a few drops of stevia to further enhance the flavor. Yes, you can add a couple of drops of stevia even to a savory bread!

Here are some tips for serving the bread:

• This bread makes two large or several smaller sandwiches. Use it with the leftover Thanksgiving turkey salad like I did, or fill the sandwich with egg salad or any other salad you desire. My Low Sugar, So Simple book also has some fantastic sandwich recipes with which you can use this bread.
• Serve it as snack with sweet toppings like homemade sugar-free jam (my son’s favorite!)—and/or add some peanut butter for a real PB&J treat! Or smear it with sugar-free chocolate hazelnut spread (check out the recipes for Easy Sugar-Free Strawberry Jam and 5-Ingredient Sugar-Free Chocolate Hazelnut Spread in my Low Sugar, So Simple book!).
• This bread is a perfect vehicle for savory toppings, too. Try this garlicky cream cheese and feta spread, or this exciting Cheesy Kale Spread.
• How about making luxurious garlic bread? Slice the bread vertically into thin slices and top each slice with melted butter, crushed garlic, and chopped fresh herbs like parsley, oregano, or chives. Add some grated mozzarella, if desired, and grill or broil until lightly golden brown and crispy.
• Similarly, you can turn this bread into bruschetta. Toast, grill, or broil a few slices until golden. Rub the toasted slices with a halved garlic clove. Drizzle with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with some natural salt (salt flakes are the best!). If you wish, you can add chopped tomatoes and basil before adding the olive oil and the salt. Maybe a dash or two of balsamic vinegar as well? These make fabulous appetizers!
• To make croutons: Cube the bread and fry the cubes in butter. Season with crushed garlic or dried herbs, if desired. Serve with salad — like Caesar salad.

What’s your favorite way to use this bread?