This one goes out to Jen, who reminded me that of all the dry add-ons I played with, whey protein isolate is worth every additional calorie in what it contributes to stability, texture, and oh, well, nutrition too. I've posted about this variant before but it's worth reposting here, where it's not buried with a bunch of options. You're getting crappy phone pictures from yours truly, kids.
This is much less likely to sink after baking than the basic oat cake and can support twice the batter in the usual pan sizes. While I normally make two loaves out of one batch of the basic recipe, I can throw a whey protein-enhanced recipe into the same pan with no worries. If you're looking for a bread-like texture, you'll still want to prioritize baking vessels with a lower surface area, because oat cakes seem to need to climb the sides to rise well. Importantly, this batter supports heavy, wet inclusions like sauteed fruit (yep, finally tried it) and pumpkin purée (also quite successful).
01/2018 Update: Early testing indicates that rice protein can be substituted quite successfully for the whey, but the baking time may need to be increased up to 50-60 minutes. Soy protein requires further tweaking to avoid the dreaded collapse.
Current base recipe
- 45 g Oat Fiber (or 60)
- 15 g whey protein isolate (can be flavored)
- 2 T sucralose
- 2 t psyllium husks (powdered or whole)
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t glucomannan
- 1/2 t guar
- pinch salt
- optional spices
- 100g erythritol*
- 160 g water
- 92 g egg whites
- 1/2 to 1 t extract of choice
Preheat oven at 375 (convection if you have it) and lightly grease a pan of choice (1 loaf tin, 9" round, or 6 muffin cups). Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. In a slightly larger mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (including erythritol). Whisk the dry into the wet, pour into your pan.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on your pan material and size. (I prefer to go a bit over than under, which is when it is most likely to collapse).
Nutrition (1/2 recipe): 60 calories, 0.2 g fat, 15.5 carb (15g fiber), 12.3 g protein * I'm toying with reducing this amount because a) erythritol is expensive and b) a "serving" (half the recipe) of this is cutting it dangerously close to the maximum dose of erythritol for most people, which is estimated at 0.8g/kg of body weight for women and 0.66 g/kg for men, beyond which some digestive discomfort may occur. I am clearly getting away with higher doses than this because I consume it pretty regularly, but bear this in mind as you realize you can theoretically fit in your macros the whole loaf and a tub of (faux/Ha)lo Top to wash it down. Just sayin'.