Snow Day Sandwich Rounds

We had what some called an unexpected winter storm here in SE Tennessee.  I expected it, but I am a bit of a weather nut and had been watching the models for days.  I did my grocery run the day before, but didn't take into account that my husband would be working from home, and his lunch appetite is a bit heartier than myself and my daughter.  Speaking of him working from home, his co-workers looked at him like he had two heads when he left work early.  "It's just a dusting, why are you going home?  They haven't even called off school!"  He said "It's going to get worse."  They called off school shortly after he left, and his co-workers left early--their usual commutes turned into hours long journeys with traffic jams, wrecks, and kids stuck at school or on stranded buses.  I think they believe he's psychic.

After playing outside in the snow, a fire, hot cocoa, creamy tomato soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches were non-negotiable.  The tiny loaf of gluten free bread I had bought for my daughter's lunches this week was gone within the first day.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and I needed to come up with some sort of savory, sturdy bread-like product to please my family.  I remembered making almond flour cheese biscuits a while back that turned out rather flat, and thought that the recipe could be adapted to make sandwich thins, you know--those round little sandwich breads favored by "healthy whole wheat" dieters.  The only flours I had on hand were coconut, almond, and tapioca.  I am not a fan of coconut flour in breads, so I worked with almond and tapioca.  I've made Brazilian cheese bread, and tapioca flour pizza crusts before, so I knew cheese was pretty key to getting the elastic qualities I needed.  Thankfully, there was half a wedge of Manchego forgotten at the back of the fridge.  ::whew::

This was a kind-of "wing it" recipe, so you may need to tweak it.

Snow Day Sandwich Rounds

2 cups almond flour
1 cup tapioca flour/starch
1 tablespoon golden flaxseed meal (optional)
1 cup (not packed) coursely shredded cheese - I used manchego, but only because that's all we had left.  Cheddar, parmesan, low moisture mozzarella would all work fine.
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs - I use farm eggs, if yours are rather large, 3 may be enough.  I used 3 medium and 1 pullet.
1/2 cup+ milk of your choice  - I used raw cow's milk, and did have to add a splash
Seasonings of your choice - I find for a savory bread, onion powder is key.  I used roughly a 1/2 tsp. each of onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and a pinch of cayenne.  Italian seasonings would work if you were making Italian style sandwiches.
Toppings - I put toasted sesame seeds on mine just for fun.

Preheat oven to 350.  Dump dry ingredients and cheese in a bowl and sift with a whisk.  Add eggs, it should turn into a stiff, gloopy dough.  This is where you can tell if you need another egg--the flour should mostly be clumped up into the mix.  Then add milk, I added 1/4c at a time until the consistency was thicker than pancake batter, but thinner than a drop biscuit.  Plop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a baking mat.  Spread drops with the back of a spoon into a circle roughly the size of a sandwich round.  They spread, but not much, so leave about an inch between rounds.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, check to see if they look done, mine needed a few minutes under the broiler at this point, but my oven is weird.

Cool on a wire rack.  Mine were too thin to slice, so we used two pieces for sandwiches.  I haven't tried it, but I'm guessing that if you had a muffin top style baking pan, you could make these thicker and slice them.

We used ours for sausage and egg "muffins".

Please forgive my photography (and lack thereof), I am currently stuck with a cell phone camera that doesn't even have a flash.  Eventually I'd like to start taking step-by-step photos, but this will do for now.