It’s Fall and each morning I get up the air seems crisper and colder. Cold enough for me to want to stay inside, wrap myself up in blankets, and just enjoy a warm treat. This was so much the fact this morning that I ended up making some warm and delicious pumpkin bread to start my day off. It’s almost like a protein bar for us keto-ers that seem to have little to no time in the morning. Grab a slice or two, a slab of butter, and walk out the door while chomping on bliss! It’s very dense, so that means it’s extremely filling too. You just need a slice or two and you’re set for the day ahead of you.
We use a water bath at the bottom of the oven to allow the loaf to rise evenly. This is a trick I learned a long time ago where the steam from the water will help keep the bread uniform. Not only that, but it allows the dough to rise as much as possible – a trick used by professional bakers to get the biggest and best loaves out. The steam allows the outside of the bread to stay moist until it’s finished rising – then, once there is no more steam, the crust will start to form as the outside begins to dry. This gives springiness and a beautiful crust on the outside of your bread.
Although the steam has more of a chemical reaction (and slowing of the cooking) with yeast and gluten in traditional bread, I’ve seen that it works really well with keto bread too, and if you can do it – you should. Keep in mind that the steam only really matters for the first 5-10 minutes of baking, so we only add a cup of water to a baking dish so that it is already evaporating by the time you put the loaf into the oven.
Originally I had added pistachios to the top of the loaf, but later found out that leaving the pistachios off gives the best texture and best taste. They were just a bit too salty, and I felt that they took away from the pumpkin flavor of the bread. My recommendation: don’t use pistachios. They add carbs, they take away from the bread, and it just tastes better without them 🙂
So, what are you favorite recipes to do with leftover bread? Let us know in the comments below. I have some awesome pumpkin bread french toast and some pumpkin bread pudding coming up in the next few days!
Yields 10 slices of Keto Pumpkin Bread Loaf
The Preparation
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup psyllium husk powder
- 1/4 cup stevia/erythritol blend, such as Swerve
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
- 3 large egg white
The Execution
1. Measure out all dry ingredients into a sifter. If you don’t have a sifter, you can grab one on the cheap from Amazon.
2. Sift all ingredients into a large bowl. Preheat your oven to 350F. Fill a 9×9 baking dish with about 1 cup of water and place on the bottom rack of the oven.
3. Add pumpkin puree and coconut milk and mix together well. You should have a pretty resistant dough by the time you finish mixing.
4. Whip the egg whites in a second bowl. If needed, add some cream of tartar to the egg whites to keep them stable.
5. Aggressively fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to the dough so that some of the moisture is absorbed. Then, add the rest of the egg whites and gently fold into the dough.
6. Grease a standard bread loaf pan well (with either butter or coconut oil). Then, spread the dough into the bread pan.
7. Bake the bread for 75 minutes. Optionally add 1/4 cup pistachios (I prefer it without the pistachios, so I left them out of the recipe).
8. Remove loaf from the oven and let cool.
9. Slice and serve!
This makes a total of 10 servings of Keto Pumpkin Bread Loaf. Each serving comes out to be 133 calories, 8.7g fats, 3.3g net carbs, and 4.8g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 1/2 cup almond flour | 973 | 84 | 37 | 21.8 | 15.1 | 35.3 |
| 1/4 cup psyllium husk powder | 224 | 0 | 51.2 | 44.8 | 6.4 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup stevia/erythritol blend | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice | 9 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| 2 teaspoon baking powder | 5 | 0 | 2.6 | 0 | 2.5 | 0 |
| 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup pumpkin puree | 42 | 0.3 | 9.9 | 3.6 | 6.4 | 1.4 |
| 1/2 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk | 23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 large egg white | 51 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.7 | 10.8 |
| Totals | 1336 | 86.9 | 103.2 | 70.6 | 32.6 | 47.6 |
| Per Serving (/10) | 134 | 8.7 | 10.3 | 7.1 | 3.3 | 4.8 |
Keto Pumpkin Bread Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup psyllium husk powder
- ¼ cup stevia/erythritol blend such as Swerve
- 1 ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
- 3 large egg white
Instructions
- Measure out the dry ingredients into a sifter.
- Sift the ingredients into a large bowl. Preheat the oven to 350F. Fill a baking dish with about a cup of water and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
- Add the pumpkin puree and coconut milk and mix to form a sturdy dough.
- Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl. If needed, add some cream of tartar to the egg whites to help keep them stable.
- Aggressively fold one-third of the egg whites into the dough to get it to absorb some of the moisture. Then, add the rest of the egg whites and gently fold them into the dough.
- Grease a standard loaf pan. Spread the dough into the pan.
- Bake for 75 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Slice and serve!
This looks amazing – thanks for the recipe! I will be making it this weekend!
Thanks Susanne, let me know what you think when you get the chance to 🙂
Do you use glucomannan powder at all? Using it to substitute for the psyllium (maybe 1-2T.?) would help cut the carbs. I’m finding my husband’s BG doesn’t do so well if I use psyllium–we used to make Amazing Maria bread all the time.
Hm, interesting. I don’t really use glucomannan powder, but I have heard and read about it. My blood sugars don’t tend to spike much when I use psyllium, but I will keep that in mind for the next time – it’s on the list to order now 🙂
Thanks for that!
is the husk powder necessary can I add coconut flour or more almond flour instead
I find that the psyllium is needed to get the texture that I wanted. If you use coconut flour or more almond flour, you’d need more liquid and less liquid respectively. But, the texture wouldn’t come out the same, either. It may be slightly crumbly if you were to skip on the psyllium husk. Luckily, it’s quite cheap in larger quantities online 🙂
i made this and mine didnt rise at all. its like 1 1/2. taste good but it doesnt look like the pic and is very dense
It might have possibly been that you did not fold the egg whites in gently enough. You should be left with a pretty airy dough when you finish folding it in. The steam bath at the bottom also helps with rising.
What about flax seed meal in place of the psyllium powder?
I’ve heard some people have success with it, but I have never been able to replicate the texture of psyllium with flaxseed. Your mileage may vary.
Hi, Which coconut milk do you use that gives 0 net carb? Would love to find one that goes that low, mine is 2 for 1/2 cup. Thanks!
I use a brand called “So Delicious” – it’s linked to in the ingredient list. It’s just about 1g per cup.
Tasted great, but mine didn’t rise at all. 🙁 Making the French toast with it now.
Mine rose about 3x by the time I took it out the oven, and then fell about 1/2 of that. So it ends up not rising too much
How can I make this without Almond flour? I’m allergic to nuts.
Samantha, I don’t think the consistency would be the same if you used coconut flour, sorry 🙁
What did you use to whip your egg whites? My bread didn’t rise and ended up being about 1.5″ in height. Incredibly delicious, but not quite what I was expecting. I’m thinking the egg whites were the issue. I have a whisk, mixer, and immersion blender. I tried the immersion blender since you’re only whipping 1 egg white (right?). Any suggestions?
Molly, I used a regular electric mixer to mix the egg whites. If you’re having trouble with them, you may want to use cream of tartar. Though you say that you only used 1 egg white, and you should be using 3 (as stated in the ingredient list). When you fold the whites into the batter, you have to be quite gentle.
Oh, shucks – I think I mentally combined two the steps: whip the egg whites and fold 1/3 in, and came up with whip 1/3 =)
No big deal. It does fall flat a little bit once you take it out of the oven, but if you’re careful with folding in the egg whites, it should do okay 🙂
Can you recommend any changes to the recipe for high altitude baking (around 7000ft)? Most recipes advise adding a bit more flour and water than normal. Thanks!
Zibby, unfortunately I really don’t have much of a clue when it comes to high altitude baking. I’ve read about the same on adding more flour/liquid than normal, but I really don’t know when it comes to low-carb baking. I’ve only been doing low-carb baking for about 2 years and still getting the hang of it myself 😛
Can the recipe be adjusted to use xanthan gum instead of psyllium husk powder?
Lauren, I’ve never been able to sub out psyllium for xanthan gum – so I am going to have to say no, unfortunately.
Do you think grated zucchini could be substituted for the pumpkin? I am wanting to make bread that I can use to make stuffing with for Thanksgiving.
It may be able to. You may want to hold off on some of the liquids in the ingredients as zucchini won’t add as much water as pumpkin would.
Do you think this bread would be a good option for stuffing bread or do you have a suggestion for another of your recipes that I could use?
Yeah you could use this bread as a stuffing, though pumpkin might be a bit weird. I have a bread recipe in my cookbook (Keto-fied!) that would work well also.
Could psyllium husk powder be the culprit for diarrhea? This was delicious but I couldn’t leave the house!!!
Usually not, psyllium usually hardens stool rather than cause diarrhea.
I just got around to making the pumpkin bread for the first time today. However I printed out the recipe using the list of the nutrifacts first and made the recipe from that. Imagine my surprise when I tasted some crumbs that stuck to the bottom of the pan – no sweetener. However after reading the back of my Swerve package I find that there are indeed carbs in Swerve at 5 grams per teaspoon / 3 tsp=1 TB=15 grams / 4 TB = 1/4 cup=60 grams. Did I get my math right? Crikey! If that is right then this recipe has 60 grams of carbs that is NOT on the nutrifacts list. I am glad that I didn’t put this in after all. I am planning to use this bread for the French toast. So now I can just sweeten the cream with stevia and top it with the keto maple syrup. I figure that all out in my keto meal plans. Definitely going to have to rework this recipe to change the nutrifacts in my recipe book. Obviously I will have to use the unsweetened version for my purposes and my diet. No way can I have a bread with 14.12 carbs per slice. However I have just sliced my bread and am happy with the texture and the flavor in spite of it not being sweet. Good work there, Craig.
Rita,
Swerve is a mixture of Erythritol and Stevia. These two sweeteners have 0 glycemic index, which means that we don’t actually see blood sugar raise after consuming it. In fact, erythritol can’t even be broken down by the human body – we don’t have the enzymes to do so. So, which there are sugar alcohols (carbs) listed, they aren’t actually processed and used by the body. Most are just excreted through urine.
This is why I choose not to list them in the nutrition information, as they don’t actually interact with our blood sugars.
Hope that makes sense!
I will have to check with my ND because she has told me to by my total carbs , not even net carbs. So I don’t even get a pass for the fiber that is in certain foods. I know that I am allowed to use these sweeteners but I have not been told that I shouldn’t count the carbs. I am always told, “Just watch your carb counts.”
Just be sure to show her the studies on it also:
About 90% of eryrthritol is excreted through urine: http://journals.cambridge.o…
We cannot digest eryrthriol: http://journals.cambridge.o…
We see no change in blood sugars: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov…
Stevia can have different impacts on blood sugars, but is much more well accepted and documented so I am sure she knows about this already.
I know everyone else loves the stuff, but every time I eat a sugar alcohol of any kind it starts to make my muscles twitch. With things like sorbitol and malitol it’s my eyelids (I shall never eat those ever ever if I can help it), with erythritol (tested using Halo Top and quest bars many times, might test again soon) it’s just little twitches in the muscles in my legs and stomach.
Nobody else has ever described this. I’ve googled the crap out of it. Dosage matters – if I eat a little one day a week I’m good, more than that I’m twitching.
It’s ok, though. I like most stuff plain without sweetner.
I am fairly new to Keto and wondered if there was a specific reason you used swerve instead of just erythritol?
Thanks for the awesome recipes, I have been going through your site and plan some serioud food prep!
Mixing stevia and erythritol is a great blend because they tend to mask the negatives about each other. (Stevia can be bitter, and erythritol can be minty.) Sometimes it’s just simpler to buy them already mixed together. I’ve made similar loaves to this with pure erythritol and had no issues, so I think you could do that too.
I couldn’t find my loaf pan so I am making muffins. They are rising beautifully and I can not wait to surprise my family with them for breakfast! Thank you for your great recipes, Craig!
…update on the muffin version. awesome. just, awesome. sliced in half and pan toasted in a little butter. oh man.
Glad to hear they came out good!
I’ve tried this recipe twice and my bread never rises past an inch in height. Do you refill the container with water at all?
I don’t refill the container with water. It should gone by the time it finishes. Mine does drop some after baking, but it should rise more than an inch in total height. Make sure you’re folding in the egg whites enough I would say. If your loaf pan is bigger than standard size, that could also be a reason.
What is the purpose of the psyllium husk powder? I see it in a lot of baked recipes and it’s pretty high carb count. Is it necessary for adding fiber to the dough?
It’s not necessary for adding fiber, but the net carb count is almost zero. I use it in baked goods to give that chewy texture that normal flour gives (what you get in bread when you take a bite and pull it away – that chewiness).
FANTASTIC recipe! I made ten amazing muffins with a cold butter/walnut/cinnamon streusel on top. I read all the comments ahead of time, so I had an idea of some issues people were having – and here’s some ideas.
I haven’t used whipped egg whites in ages, but I did recall that there’s some fine tuning to it. So I did a little research – You should leave your eggs out at room temperature for at least an hour before you whip them. All your mixing gear should also be at room temperature- this should help make your egg whites stiffen up perfectly. Also, the whipped egg whites should be used immediately, once they separate, they’re ruined.
Someone asked about high altitude – and I’m glad they did, because, I live at about 4500 ft, and while I don’t adjust most recipes, I’ve found that baking with nut flours has been a little different – and I was getting a lot of of overly browned, dry items. Again, did a little research, and I used the formula of subtracting 1 degree of temperature for every 500 ft in elevation. So I baked these at 340 – and they turned out perfect. (I don’t think that formula would apply to yeast breads or other baking items). I will be taking off ten degrees on my low-carb baking from here on out.
I used 1/4 cups of batter in 10 muffin cups, baked for about 30 minutes. I added the cinnamon streusel topping about half way through. Seriously yummy!
Muffins sound awesome – and that strudel on top sounds amazing. I might have to try this one for myself and make a recipe for it for the site 🙂
I didn’t know that about high altitude baking, so I’ll be sure to share that info. if anyone asks me again – thanks!
I didn’t know that about high-altitude either. I’m in Denver…so I need to do that! Thanks for the tip!
Totally delicious. Perfect. Loved it. I added a few walnuts on top.
Loved it! Soo delicious! I do have a problem though. My bread didn’t rise at all. Not even a cm. At the end i baked it almost for 2h on 175C to get it done. I don’t know where it failed. I followed the recipe, egg whites were really stiff, put water bath as described, the only thing i changed was Swerve. I used the same amount of Sukrin. ( erithrol) Could that be the cause? Should the crust be crispy? My wasnt :(. Thanks!
The crust wasn’t very crispy for me either, but I have a bit of raising happen in mine (though generally keto foods deflate soon after they’re out of the oven). The part where you mixed your egg whites in might be the culprit – and really the only part of the recipe I can see things going wrong in. Either way, I’m glad to hear you liked it!
I failed at this so hard. My bread did not rise at all either.I did everything to the point.I even used the same sweetener you did. I used kind of a lot of cream of tartar though, you think thats the problem?
I’m not too sure to be honest. I’ve had a lot of people have weird results with the recipe – where mine was fine. It’s not going to raise much in general, but you should get some raising going on (and sticking after cooling).
Yep mine did not stick at all. It just slid out. And no rising at all either. 🙁
It did taste good though, just not fluffy looking like your picture lol.
Hi Craig! Out of curiosity, why specifically the carton coconut milk, as opposed to a 0 carb canned?
Also, totally delicious, though I did loose all my beautiful rise when it cooled :/
To be honest – I’ve never heard of 0 carb canned coconut milk, which is why I recommend the carton. All of the canned brands I’ve found have minimum 4g carbs per cup. It seems like the rise has been lost by most. I’m not sure what kept mine puffed well, but I know some of my rise was lost as well.
Regardless of losing the poof, it was still delicious!
And re: cocounut milk, totally makes sense 😀
Gotcha – glad you like it either way 😀
Is there something that can be used in place of Psyllium Husk Powder because of a sensitivity to it?
You could try 2-3 tbsp. of coconut flour, but the texture from psyllium is something that I haven’t been able to replicate otherwise.
I made this tonight. It didn’t rise at all, but it still tastes awesome! It made my whole house smell like Thanksgiving lol
I’m glad you liked it!
Can I use a different sweetener? I
Hi Katie, I would use an erythritol based substitute if possible. I’m not sure how it will turn out using another type.
I don’t have coconut milk. Could I sub it out for heavy whipping cream or almond milk?
Hi Abby! You could sub it with either.
i made this this afternoon and mine did not rise AT ALL! i followed the recipe to a T with the exception of baking using convection back for the 70 minutes. i want to retry any ideas where i went wrong?
Convection oven can cause things not to rise the way you would expect, unfortunately! 🙂
Woo turned out great! I used mashed Kabocha squash instead of pumpkin, used just a tsp of swerve, almost doubled the salt and used fresh chopped rosemary instead of pumpkin spices. So good!!! It didn’t rise a lot but was nice and fluffy and had a great texture. Thanks for this recipe 🙂 https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
That looks so lovely!
Hi, is the pumpkin puree used spiced or plain?
Will something like this work? —-> https://www.allrecipes.com/…
Something like that should work, just double check the type of pumpkin that you’re pureeing and make sure that it’s within your macros.
I do not recommend this. No matter what you do its not bread. I think there is way too much psyllium husk powder. Or something idk. But its way too chewy.