Easy Chocolate Cinnamon Bread

Optionally fermented almond flour and honey sweetened, Easy Chocolate Bread served with Cinnamon Honey Butter is both an indulgent and reasonably healthful version of chocolate cake.

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Pumpkin bread is wonderful. Most people love it, and it tastes like fall, but you can make it any time of year, really. But what if you want a different fall treat? And you want it to be low in sugar, easy to digest, gluten free, and reasonably good for you? That is when you make an easy Chocolate Cinnamon Bread!

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I don’t mean to malign pumpkin bread, or banana bread, or apple bread. They are lovely treats anytime. However, variety can add a zesty spice to life, and spiced chocolate bread definitely adds a certain zing to your fall treat lineup.

To make this easier to digest (and GAPS friendly for those on full GAPS that have added chocolate successfully), I like to ferment the almond flour for a day or two with yogurt or kefir. Whey would also work. You don’t have to do this. Thankfully, the recipe works just fine if you simply mix all the ingredients together at once. No need for an extended chocolate bread emergency!

The addition of cinnamon might seem unusual, but it is delicious! Very cozy and warming. It takes quite a bit of cinnamon to shine through the strong chocolate flavor. Other spices could accompany the cinnamon, such as cloves or ginger, or maybe a pumpkin spice blend.

This is neither bread nor cake. It is not sweet at all, but it is more like a dessert than actual bread. I like to slice it and serve it with a high quality, grass fed butter flavored with a bit of honey and cinnamon. Like frosting, only better! You could certainly skip that part. (But you don’t want to.)

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How to Ferment Almond Flour (and why you might want to)

1. Measure out your flour into a bowl. This recipe calls for 2 cups.
2. Stir in kefir or yogurt (some people use whey) so that the flour is coated and slightly moist. I used 1/2 Cup of home fermented kefir. It won’t be wet, but will look sort of crumbly.
3. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for a day or two. In the pictures, I left it for two days. It will have a deep, fermented taste after two days. I find the taste much less after just one day. In a pinch, I might do just half a day, especially if I have not planned far enough in advance.
4. If you don’t use your fermented flour right away, you can refrigerate it for up to a week, tightly covered, before you use it. I always use it much sooner that that! It will ferment a bit more in the refrigerator, but not nearly as much as at room temperature.

While there is some planning involved in baking with fermented flour, it takes only a few minutes of hands-on time.

But why would you want to ferment almond flour?

• to reduce phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, which are naturally present to protect the nuts but also damaging to our guts
• to make it easier to digest
• to make the nutrients more available
• to make the baked good made from it a bit lighter– almond flour can lead to somewhat dense treats, but fermented almond flour makes fluffier ones
• read more about almond flour fermenting here!

I don’t use almond flour every day, or even every week. I don’t consider it to be a particularly beneficial part of our diet, but we do like our treats! Almond flour is more of a special occasion item.

If you are allergic to almond, fermenting will not solve that problem! Don’t use this recipe for anyone with almond allergy!

If you don’t tolerate almonds well even if fermented, soaked, sprouted, etc., then you may just need to try other solutions for making baked goods, like other nut flours, coconut, etc. Pay attention to your body, as symptoms come up for a reason.

If you are sensitive to oxalates, almonds may not be a good choice. Fermenting improves some downsides to almonds, but not oxalates.

However, if you have a slight intolerance to baked goods with almond flour, you may find that fermenting first helps you consume them comfortably on occasion. This is the case for my son who was allergic to almond until he was on GAPS for six months. He no longer has an allergic reaction to almond, but he feels better if the almonds have been soaked and dried, the almond flour is fermented, and he doesn’t consume large quantities. Almond butter is out!

How to make Easy Chocolate Cinnamon Bread

If desired, mix the almond flour with yogurt or kefir. Cover and leave on the counter for a day or two. It will look dry and have a white crust (probably), and that is just fine.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake.

When a toothpick inserted into the loaf emerges with no more than a crumb or two, take out, cool, and remove from pan.

Slice and serve with cinnamon honey butter!

Make It Your Way!

1. In a hurry? You don’t strictly need to ferment the flour first. You can just mix it all together and bake.
2. Add other warming spices besides cinnamon. Consider cloves, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, or cardamom.
3. Add some extras. Perhaps chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or a chopped chocolate bar?

What do you think would make the best add-ins to this chocolate loaf?