After telling my pre-diabetic clients about cloud bread and how easy it is to make, I thought I should actually get round to making it myself so I could talk the talk – it’s so much easier than I first thought! This low carb alternative is a great replacement for bread -light and airy and full of flavour (my version is anyway). Perfect for those who are conscious of their carb intake but can’t bear to part with their beloved carbs. All it requires is eggs, cream cheese and some cream of tartar – plus herbs for seasoning. I adapted a simple cloud bread recipe from BBC Good Food. 1) because I didn’t have any nigella seeds and couldn’t be bothered to search for them and 2) because I wanted something with lots of flavour. Now I can’t compare mine to the original recipe (for now) but these little fluffy clouds of egg and cheese were delicious! Just a heads up: you will need an electric whisk for this recipe.
Ingredients
4 eggs (whites and yolks separated)
Butter or Oil for greasing (I used extra virgin olive oil)
50g of garlic and herb reduced fat cream cheese
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Herbs of choice (I used a general garlic and herb grinder)
Method
- Heat oven to 150°C/130°C fan/gas 2 and line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper, then grease well with butter or oil.
- Place egg whites into a large mixing bowl. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT GET YOLK IN THE EGG WHITES OR IT WON’T WORK! Please guys don’t make the same mistake I did! A good tip is to crack the eggs separately over a bowl so if it does happen to get mixed you don’t waste all the eggs.
- Using electric whisk/beaters, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. You should be able to carefully turn the bowl upside down without it falling out – be cautious with this trick.
- In another bowl, put the egg yolks, cream cheese and cream of tartar then whisk together (no need to wash the beaters first) until smooth, pale and frothy. Next, fold the egg whites, a spoonful at a time into the yolk mixture, be as gentle as you can with this so you don’t knock out too much of the air.
- Carefully dollop the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets – if the mixture is a little runny when you get to the bottom of the bowl you can still use this but they won’t end up as fluffy.
- Bake for 20 mins or until lightly golden and firm on top. Sprinkle with herbs. Allow to cool for a few moments before carefully removing from the paper with a palette knife.
- Serve as you wish: on its own, with soup, topped with avocado…. you know, whatever butters your bread.