I'm tweaking the recipe I have for bread, as I'm always trying to make it better. It calls for 4c of ap flour, and uses honey rather than white sugar (there is no milk in it). I also use refined coconut oil (no coconut taste). Up to now, it's been quite satisfactory. However, next time I bake, I'm going to use 3c ap flour and 1c oat flour and will also include 1 whole egg instead of the tbl. of apple cider vinegar I usually use. If I add the egg, do I reduce the amount of liquid used and by how much? Oh, I'm not using a bread machine. I'm baking for just me, and usually get a decent loaf and 4 buns from the dough. Thanks much for your help!
Baking – Egg In My Bread
bakingbreadeggs
Related Solutions
It is quite easy to find the ingredients of the bread from the picture you posted. They are:
Purified Water, Organic Coconut Flour, Egg Whites, Psyllium, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Baking Soda.
J.A.I.L.'s answer already explains part of what makes bread texture what it is: you need raw proteins which form a flexible 3-d mesh to trap the air when they set during baking. You also need a thickener combined with water which makes the whole thing soft instead of rubbery. In wheat bread, the proteins are called gluten (actually a mixture of two different types of protein, both coming from the wheat), and the thickener is starch (also coming from the wheat). In the bread you posted, the protein is the egg white, and the thickener is the psyllum mucilage. Coconut flour doesn't even come into play; it consists mostly of fat and some fiber, but the fiber is not of the rare thickening kind (as opposed to psyllum fiber). It contains nothing helpful for the bread structure, so they obviously use it as a filler. Of course, it will provide you a pleasant mouthfeel, aroma and lots of calories; it just won't give you a bread-like structure.
Conclusion: Trying to build a bread recipe around any nut flour is totally wrong. You have to search for a recipe which has the right balance of protein source, thickening agent and leavening agent. Once you have found it, you can substitute your favorite nut flour (or some other food item) as a filler. By the way, making such recipes from scratch is very hard, because you need not only the combination of ingredients (in this example, it is easily found), but also the correct ratio, and the correct timing for mixing and baking; these artificially-constructed combinations are nowhere as forgiving as wheat doughs when it comes to leavening. I would suggest looking for existing recipes. Sadly, it would be off-topic to give you one here, even if I had one, but I can give you a tip for your search: stay away from the ones which don't have all three things: leavening agent, protein and thickener.
Probable protein sources are: eggs, vital wheat gluten, possibly extracted soy protein (if you can get a source for its raw form). Probable thickeners are: anything described in this e-book. As for leavening mechanisms, the Wikipedia article should give you enough pointers. If you find a recipe which has one of each, it is likely to end up puffy. I must warn you that alternative thickeners have a mouthfeel which is very different from starch, so most breads made from such recipes will probably be much less soft/cottony than white wheat bread, and some of them might have a slightly rubbery or gooey feel. But the good ones will have a decent approximation of bread texture.
You may wish to try a dark colored baking sheet, such as this one from Chicago Metallic (not an endorsement, I haven't tried it.)
The dark finish will help absorb radiant heat, which is a major mode in baking, and better brown the bottoms. In fact, such a tray probably would bake too fast for the bottoms of cookies.
Buttering it will also help conduct heat from the pan to the bottom crust, although you will also get a touch of that almost-fried texture (I like it, but it might not be what you have in mind).
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Best Answer
Since this is a bread you are accustomed to baking, you know how the dough should feel. You will either have to change the amount of liquid or the amount of some other ingredient(s) - probably the flour. I suggest that you start by adding some of the flour to the oat flour and all of the wet ingredients. Then, continue adding more flour until the dough reaches the proper consistency. Add flour in consecutively smaller amounts, kneading as you go.
I assume your dough has water in it. Some bakers would start by adding the water to the wheat and oat flours, and let it sit for about a half-hour before adding the other ingredients. This allows the flour to hydrate. If this results in the dough you're after, you're golden! If not continue, to knead in flour in small amounts until you reach the proper consistency.
This post has a good description of adding flour to wet ingredients.