Adventures in Cauli-Bread

I found this awesome post over at Healthylicious Housewife.  I'm not taking credit for thinking up this gem.  I was hunting for a way to make pizza crust without almond flour and without a buttload of cheese in it.  I was astounded by what I saw, and truly curious.  You HAVE to check out her blog/site!!  This woman has made buns with just cauliflower, eggs, and a bit of flax for elasticity.  Is that even possible?  Was it really that simple?  No crazy ingredients or complex instructions or food-dehydrator required??  Would it be sturdy enough without cheese to hold in my hands?  So an experiment needed to be done!!

Of course you have to follow the link and check out her site and all the other amazing recipes she has there--we need to support each other, right?!  For the full recipe, go here.

And BTW, she does this recipe again, with some tweaks, to make that cheese-free cauli-crust pizza that I was hunting for, so I will definately be trying that one, too, shortly.

 

So, in a nutshell, I puree'd 2 cups of cauliflower as fine as I could make it, not leaving any lumps.  I put it in a big bowl and mixed it with 2 eggs, 1 tbsp ground flax meal and some salt and pepper.  The mixture was very wet.









I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and heated the oven to 450 degrees.  I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop up the wet mixture and plopped it onto the parchment paper.  The original recipe didn't say how many it made, but i managed to get 8 mounds (so 4 buns) out of it.  Now, the recipe also didn't say anything about flattening the mounds out, but I just slightly rounded the corners and left them as big lumps, thinking they'd expand and flatten as they cooked.  They do not, so don't fall for this one. 



 
I popped them into the oven for 10 minutes, then flipped them over and cooked for another 5 minutes.  At the point where I had to flip them, they were already firm, bouncy little buns, and they did not stick in the slightest.  They were dry enough to pick up and handle, firm enough to hold a heavy piece of meat. 



They were just AMAZING! 



So cool, these tiny buns!!
And they continued to hold together as I added pickles and home made mayo!

Next time, I will flatten them slightly more so I have full-sized thin hamburger buns instead of sliders.  I honestly thought they'd expand.  The slider thing was just a really cool accident. 

The buns stayed moist in the middle, so hopefully flattening and maybe doubling the flax meal will make them even better.  It was just so nice to be able to hold a hamburger in my hands again.  Any caveman would agree. 

The possibilities with this are endless.  Could you make them thin enough to make grilled sandwiches?  Just pop the cooked breads with fillings back onto a griddle to toast up a bit?  Could you make them long and skinny for hot dogs and sausages?!  2 cups of cauliflower is only a 1/2 head.  If you doubled the recipe, you could make both shapes for a bbq.  You can let these little buns go cold, they won't change in consistency.  They do make the meal alittle more filling, which is a good thing!

And if you are making them for a bbq, try making my Brit Sauce to baste the burgers with as they cook and the Garlic-Basil Mayo to go with them.  The sauce will add an awesome tang that goes great with the meat and these buns......  You're welcome.