One cannot celebrate Italian food without thinking of their iconic focaccia bread. Oh, the sandwiches one can create with it! It is so versatile it is used in many ways but quite honestly, is delicious buttered right out of the oven with nothing else. My inspiration for this 8-seed garlic version of my focaccia bread recipe was a photo of a seeded bagel recipe I saw somewhere on the net. The texture of this sheet focaccia is soft, and it is very much like real focaccia. Not at all grainy or coarse as is the crumb of many low-carb breads. If serving to company, I like to skip the baking pan conformity and with a rubber spatula, shape the dough thicker into a smaller, somewhat irregular-edged oblong shape for a more ‘haphazard’ thrown-on-the pan look. That makes calculating nutritional almost impossible, as the pieces will be irregular in shape/size. But hey, it’s for company, so I cut a few corners on such occasions.
This recipe is not suitable until you are well into Phase 2 (OWL) of Atkins due to the ingredients in the bake mix. This recipe is OK for other Keto diets if it can fit into your daily macro number limits. This sheet bread can be cut differently (like bread sticks for hummus or soup). Take the “entire recipe” numbers and divide by the number of portions you get for the particular cut on the sheet to get your ‘per piece’ (estimated) nutritional numbers.
INGREDIENTS:
2 oz. cream cheese
2½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 c. blanched almond flour
1 T. baking powder
½ c. my new Buttoni’s Low-Carb Bake Mix
2 large eggs, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
TOPPING: 1 T. melted butter brushed on and then sprinkle on 1 tsp. Italian seasoning (or my 8-seed blend).
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly oil an 8″x11″ metal baking pan. Set aside for now. Measure out onto a paper plate the almond flour, bake mix and baking powder. Stir them together well and set aside. In a glass or ceramic bowl, place the mozzarella and cream cheese. Place bowl in microwave and cook on HI for about 2 minutes. Stir, adding a few more seconds of cooking if cheese is not fully melted. Remove from microwave, add flour mix, minced garlic, and beaten eggs. Stir quickly with a fork (while cheese is still hot and pliable). When it begins to form a single ball of dough, moisten hands with a bit of water or oil (as it is sticky if you don’t) and knead into a smooth ball. Press into oiled 8×11 pan as evenly as you can. Sprinkle on the 8-seed blend. Pop into preheated 350º oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown (to your liking) on top. Remove and brush with the tablespoon of melted butter over the top. Cut into 8 portions and serve at once. This would make delicious sandwiches so I am providing numbers below for entire recipe for alternate baking pan size or slicing methods. You will need to re-calculate nutritional “per serving” numbers if you change the indicated slicing suggestion.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 small slices. 1/8 recipe contains:
265 calories, 20g fat, 6.92g carbs, 2.21g fiber, 4.71g NET CARBS, 16.3g protein, 379mg sodium
ENTIRE RECIPE CONTAINS: 2118 cals, 161.8g fat, 55.4g carbs, 17.7g fiber, 37.63g NET CARBS, 130.1g protein, 3032 mg sodium. Dived these by the number of cut servings you get a per serving value.