Paleo Almond-Chestnut Crusty Bread

I attempted making this bread the other day and it sort of flopped. Some of you may recall my post on Facebook. The bread looked great and tasted great, but it turned out raw in the middle. It  just wouldn’t dry up in the oven. I think I was being overly ambitious by experimenting with combining these two “flours” and also adding fruit to the mixture.

So this time around, I kept it simple, which oftentimes is better. This recipes works! I love the flavour and the texture. You may want to adjust for sweetness, although I find it perfectly balanced for my palate. The crust is hard and “crusty” and the inside is tender, but doesn’t fall apart like with other Paleo loaf breads I’ve made the in the past. In fact, so far, it’s the closest thing to “real” bread that I’ve made!

Because the dough must be kneaded and is dry, it could be shaped and made to look like a baguette or a traditional bread. However, I made it in a loaf pan (8×4). For a higher bread, I recommend a slightly small pan.

PALEO ALMOND CHESTNUT CRUSTY BREAD

Ingredients

  • 150g (1 3/4 cups) chestnut flour
  • 200g (2 cups) ground almonds
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon raw honey (optional)

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
  2. Grease and line with parchment paper a loaf pan.
  3. Mix the chestnut flour, ground almonds, sea salt and soda. Set aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the eggs until fluffy. Add the olive oil and honey and mix well.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. With your hands, knead the dough about 3-4 minutes, until completely combined.
  6. Spoon and flatten into the prepared loaf pan and drizzle with some olive oil over top.
  7. Bake for 10 minutes at 180C.
  8. Reduce oven temperature to 150C and bake an additional 20 minutes.
  9. Allow to completely cool before cutting.

Note: Inserting a toothpick into this bread does not work, as it will come out clean even if the center is still undercooked. That was my mistake with the first attempt.

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11 Comments

  1. 3.2.13
    Linda said:

    Thank-you for this recipe. I made the quantity into 6 oval rolls and they were wonderful.

    • 3.2.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Thank you Linda for your comment and trying out the recipe. I’m very happy you liked it! 😉

  2. 3.18.13
    Gwen said:

    Thanks for the recipe! I recently made this bread, and I love the taste!

    I have one question though: What is the best way to preserve the bread?
    The day I made it the texture was great, with the crispy sides and a nice center.
    The next day when I ate though, the crispyness was gone and it was really dry.

    • 3.18.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Hi Gwen! I’m glad you liked the bread! I preserved part of mine in the fridge, and actually toasted it the next day. The rest, I froze and when I defrosted it, I also toasted it in the oven. So, for me, it always maintained it’s crispiness. Hope this helps…

  3. 4.17.13
    Alexa said:

    Oh no, this recipe has grams. I’m useless with this. Can you please give the conversion to cups? Thank you!

    • 4.17.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Hi Alexa! Good point.. I have to remember to do it in both for every recipe. 200g of ground almonds is 2 cups. 150g of chestnut flour is 1 3/4 cups. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.. I’ll try to update recipes, as I remember!

  4. 9.7.13
    Jennifer said:

    I really like this bread. Yummy taste and very nice consistency. I put half a tablespoon of honey in but think I’ll omit it next time as the bread is on the sweeter side :). Keep it up, I love your blog.

    • 9.8.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Thank you Jennifer. I’m happy to hear that!

  5. 1.23.15
    Conny said:

    Thanks for the recipe. I baked this bread today with leftover chestnut flour. I used 100g almond meal and 100g hazelnut meal since I didn’t have enough almond meal. The dough was pretty sticky and not dry at all, but the bread turned out awesome! This is a keeper for sure!

    • 1.24.15
      The Saffron Girl said:

      Glad you liked it Conny! I’m also happy to hear you made substitutions! I’ve done that many times since I don’t always have all the ingredients on hand and sometimes one has to improvise! Debra xx