Almond flour doesn't exchange cup-for-cup with wheat flour and you won't get the same results you are looking for. They generally use high-glycemic ingredients like rice flour (see link below), not almond flour, for the type of breads you are trying to achieve.

I bake a lot with almond flour and find it works best in things like muffins, cookies, brownies and quick breads, but not a loaf of Crusty French Bread. I made "graham" crackers and cheese snack crackers recently using almond flour. You'll find a lot of great recipes at Elana Amsterdam's web site - I love her book "The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook" - www.elanaspantry.com

Another good low-carb flour choice is coconut flour. You can find all kinds of recipes on-line. I use a number of the recipes found in "Cooking with Coconut Flour" by Bruce Fife, N.D. The recipes using coconut flour also use LOTS of eggs. The general rule for coconut flour is 1 egg per one ounce of coconut flour OR 6 eggs per 1/2 c. of coconut flour. For six muffins I use 3 eggs.

Good luck on your quest...

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Simply Gluten Free

I think that is the book I am reading. Hmm. I will try a bit of almond flour baking when I get home.

Rice flour doesn't really appeal to me, because it is (I think) lower protein and higher/equivalent carb/glycemic index as wheat flour, so I don't think I'd gain anything by using it.

I think you would be better off having a small piece of the bread you like, and a good sized handful of almonds.

It is not possible for me to have a small piece of crusty French bread . . . that's why I stopped baking bread. I'd bake four loaves, and somehow consume a whole 1,000 calorie loaf within an a hour. I could live in a chocolate house, stroll in forests of candy and canyons of ice cream, no problem. But crusty French bread, and I lose control.

The Fresh Loaf has a recipe for almond meal baguettes, it still uses mostly regular bread flour though. Maybe you could experiment with substituting more almond meal. Pictures at the link, it sure looks good.

1) Recent favorite: Almond meal baguette

AP Flour, 425g
ice water, 325g
almond meal (I recommend to grind them yourself, the store bought almond meal usually is less flavorful and too fine), 100g
salt, 10g
white starter (100%) 150g

-Mix flour, almond meal, icewater, and autolyse for 12 hours.
-Mix in salt, starter, then follow the basic 36 hour sourdough baguette formula here.

A lot of cakes and cookies use almond meal to enhance flavor and texture, it does the same thing here. So fragrant!

Goes well with both savory and sweet fillings. I plan to try nuts other than almonds too. A big hit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Almond Meal Baguette

I haven't found *any* gluten free French bread that's really like French bread. To me, French bread should be only flour(s), water, salt, and yeast, and it should be baked at at least 450 degrees to get the crust right. You might get it to work though by mixing almond flour, regular flour, and extra vital wheat gluten. I'm not sure what effect a water roux would have on the texture of the bread, but it is supposed to give a better rise.

Woudn't sourdough baugettes have a lower glycemic index than regular french bread? Maybe those are not the type you like but just thought I would mention it. I have a weakness for SF SD baugettes but break down every couple months and ask family to leave them there or I freeze them for my next urge. I am so WEAK!

Then don't go there. I haven't had a doughnut in 2 years and hope I never fall off the wagon. I could eat 6 KK's without blinking.

Trader Joe's has almond meal for a good price.

Bread flour and almond meal gotta be lower carb. Let us know where this great idea takes you. Thanks.

Ain't gonna happen, sorry.

If you want to try coconut flour email me and I'll send you some good quality stuff. I don't like the taste of stuff I tried to bake with it.

Also, I found the coconut flour/almond flour route of baking just frustrates me and makes me want the "real" thing. So I stopped trying to fake/bake it.

If a 'crusty loaf' is your trigger food and you're LCing to lose weight, you're better off giving it up for a while and incorporating it back slowly once you're closer to your goal weight. Then make a batch of crusty rolls and keep them in the freezer individually wrapped. Bury those suckers to give you time to think about each one and save them for a meal where a few carbs won't matter.
I had NO ICE CREAM for two years! I consider ice cream a food group, lol, it was a definite binge trigger for me. I also gave up homemade pizza 'with crust', although I made 'meatza', which was very satisfying for both me and DH. It was not hard to give up regular sliced bread. I lost 35lbs and have been keeping it off by intermittently LCing. I'd prefer to do it consistently because I feel better eating that way, but lately it's cost prohibitive. And I do have the occasional ice cream treat now without worry.

I agree with the binge trigger food element. Even now, almost at my ideal weight, I don't buy foods that might set it off. Recently, my brother was over babysitting Dad for us and he brought with him a couple bags of Frito honey bbq twists. One bag was left behind, Ughh, I ate the whole bag in all it's glorious healthiness in two days.
I never buy that kind of stuff either for many reasons but a half gallon of ice cream in the freezer will go bad before it's used up. Not a trigger.
And I don't buy ciabatta, sourdough, crusty french bread either! But I might have it at a restaurant.

Last night, took my standard French bread recipe (70% hydration), substituted 1/4 of the wheat flour for almond flour, and am (hopefully) rising it in the refrigerator (was too late at night to rise it normally), so we'll see what happens. If it isn't awful I will try progressively substituting more of the wheat with almond.

I also vote for giving it up completely. Is a piece of bread really worth it? I know, I know it's a cooking forum. But there is a lot of good food out there. I say this because I had to quit gluten over the past two years and no longer miss bread at all.

It turned out okay. Very crusty. Didn't rise as much as I'd like or form big crumb, but I think I can fix that by using more yeast, fresher yeast, or maybe a bit of vital gluten. Looked and tasted pretty good, the crumb and texture were the only real problem. I'll try again later.

Possibly a lot more vital wheat gluten. It adds protein as well as replacing the gluten missing in the gluten-free or low-gluten flours.

I worked on a low-carb bread machine recipe for a diabetic friend who is very carb-sensative and this is the ingredients list. I won't make the recipe anymore even though it was never "right"....can't stand the taste of it after so much testing. The recipe might give you some ideas for the recipe you are working on. If you want your bread to taste like rye bread, add some caraway seeds. I pulverized the seeds into powder rather than using them whole, but that's because hubby doesn't like seedy bread and I think the flavor is more intense and a little caraway went a long way.

1/2 c. + 2 T. water
1/2 c. kefir (omit and use more water)
1/2 c. vital wheat gluten
1/2 c. almond flour
1 to 1-1/2 c. rye flour (or whole wheat)
1/2 c. wheat protein isolate (could also use bread flour)
2/3 c. flaxmeal
1 egg
3 T. hi-maize flour (adds more fiber and helps control blood sugar)
2 T. agave nectar (or palm sugar - both are low-glycemic)
1/2 t. salt
2-1/4 t. SAF Instant Yeast

-Grainlady

Thanks for the report, John. I appreciate your experiments.