I approach skillet recipes that go in the oven with some trepidation, because it’s almost inevitable that someone will try to pick up the hot skillet with their bare hands. I remember in vivid detail my husband wrapping his hand around the handle of skillet I had removed from the oven only a few minutes before. It was one of those slow motion moments, where I could see him reaching for it and I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth fast enough to stop him. The single syllable “No” never seemed like such an intricate word in that millisecond of time, as my tongue and mouth tried to form it in advance of the huge mistake he was about to make. I didn’t manage it and he burned the palm of his hand quite badly. It blistered mightily and was painful for days. That was over 10 years ago and I have the whole scenario imprinted on my brain. I’ve now learned to leave the oven mitt ON the handle of the skillet once it’s removed from the oven, if only as warning to the unsuspecting soul who is simply trying to help get dinner on the table.
Third degree burns aside, this cheesy skillet bread is my new go-to low carb quick bread recipe. It’s savoury, easy to make and every single member of my family loves it. The inspiration was a recipe for skillet cornbread that I used to make on occasion. Cornbread maybe gluten-free, but it is not even remotely low carb and I was wondering if I could come up with a savoury bread that would bake up in a similar fashion. I actually took one of my own recipes from Low Carbing Among Friends, Volume 1, my Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno Bread, and modified it. Besides leaving out the bacon and jalapeno (which you could always add back in, if you like), I increased the flax, decreased the eggs, skipped the xanthan gum, and added some almond milk. It was pure gut feeling on this one, trying to get a consistency that I thought would work. I was actually worried that I’d made it too moist and I would end up with a center that wouldn’t cook through.
Thankfully, my fears were groundless. It baked up beautifully, and pouring the batter into a hot buttered skillet meant that it had a crispy browned crust. It was a perfect accompaniment to soup for dinner. I actually wasn’t going to post it right away but it suddenly occurred to me that it’s a perfect Thanksgiving side dish, and as I haven’t really put up many Thanksgiving recipes this year, it was time to make amends. So I made it a second time to get photos and it paired it with my low carb fish chowder. And I am already planning to make it again on Christmas Eve. It also occurred to me that this bread, if left to dry out, would make a great bread for stuffing. I may actually put that to the test this coming Thursday!
 
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter for the skillet
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 cup flax seed meal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 & 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaen
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 3/4 cup almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F. Add 1 tbsp butter to a 10-inch oven-proof skillet and place in oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese.
- Stir in the eggs, melted butter and almond milk until thoroughly combined.
- Remove hot skillet from oven (remember to put on your oven mitts), and swirl butter to coat sides.
- Pour batter into pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheddar.
- Bake 16 minutes, or until browned around the edges and set through the middle. Cheese on top should be nicely browned.
- Remove and let cool 15 minutes.
Notes
Serves 10. Each serving has 7.2 g of carbs and 4 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 3.2 g.
I am Carolyn, a writer, runner, mother and diabetic. I am also the evil mastermind behind this blog. I live for food. Join me in my experiments in creating delicious low carb, gluten free recipes. 
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great looking Carolyn!! I am going to try this
I don’t have much will power… but cheesy bread is probably at the top of my list (well, after cheesecake) of things I can’t resist. Now I just need to get a skillet :-/
I take that back! I thought you used a cast iron skillet! Oh! I can make this!
Just make sure it’s oven proof! We do have a cast-iron skillet but it’s huge, so I don’t use it for this kind of thing.
This looks really good Carolyn, def will give this a try! Will you cube it and let it sit a day uncovered to get it ready as a stuffing?
I think I will cube it, then dry it out the oven to help it along a bit.
What temp and how long in the over? To dry it out for stuffing? I want to try and get this ready for Thursday
I’d say 175 or 200, no higher, for a few hours. How about you try it and let me know how it works, because I haven’t gotten around to making mine yet!
Baked the bread about an hour ago and its delish!!! Now its cubed and has been sitting in the oven at 200 degree’s for about 45 min so far. I am just patiently waiting so I can make the rest of the stuffing tonight so I have almost two days for it to soak everything up. I am very excited! I will let you know how it turns out!
I made my bread last night and will dry it out this morning. Be sure to let me know how yours turns out! I hope it turns out well, I think the flavours are perfect for stuffing.
It worked perfectly! I had to turn up the oven to 350 because it was taking too long but I just finished making the Parmesan, sausage, artichoke stuffing with this bread and oh my god is it good! Thanks for the great idea!
Awesome! My bread dried out nicely at 175 for about 3 hours so I am psyched to put it all together tomorrow.
HA HA! I did that on Friday! Because I’m a moron. I took the skillet out of the oven with an oven mitt, put it on the countertop, and then not even 2 minutes later, returned to the skillet to move it and grabbed the handle with my bare hand. I mean, it’s one thing if you grab it after someone else has removed it from the oven, but *I* was the one who did it–there’s really no excuse for that.
Anyway! This looks spectacular. You had me at cheesy.
This looks perfect! Love how cheesy it is!
That is some heavenly looking bread!
oh my gosh this looks amazing!! So cheesy and delicious!
Definitely going to make this this week. I only use unsweetened almond milk – should I compensate with a sweetener at all? And I’ll probably add back the bacon and jalepenos because I love both. What do you think about bacon grease in the pan instead of butter?
No, no sweetener. I only used unsweetened almond milk too. And yes to the bacon grease!
I am so going to make this!
I’ve never made skillet bread, but would love to give this a try – I bet it was good with your fish chowder!
This was excellent. It turned out light and fluffy on the inside, crisp and salty and cheesy on the outside, especially on the edges touching the skillet. My children loved it. My three year-old already understands that refined carbs are unhealthy but tasty, so his highest compliment is what he gave this bread for dinner tonight: “It’s so, so carby!”
BTW, I’m making your pumpkin parfaits and chipotle lime cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. Can’t wait.
So carby! That’s fantastic and high praise indeed!
Smart idea to leave the oven mitt on, I’ve burned myself one too many times forgetting that the handle was hot!
Ooooh … this does look like a great savory bread
I’m chuckling. Last night I reheated something in a cast iron skillet in the oven, set it out on the stovetop and went about getting the rest of supper ready for everyone to dig in. Although I’d warned everyone else that it’d just come out of the oven and to be careful… Somehow I ended up with a fantastic burn on my lower palm from its handle.
Chuckling…and perhaps crying at the same time? Those skillets need handles that burn red or something to let us know not to touch!
This looks so awesome, I have to try it!!!!
Oh wow, that looks so great!!! I bet it is super tasty!
I love this recipe Carolyn. It looks so comforting.
I bought a cast iron skillet handle cover for mine. I found them in a small Mennonite village we frequent in summer. They work great cuz we all do the same thing. It’s so easy to reach out and grab the handle.
11 cups of cheese? Whoa, that’s some cheesy bread.
No…that’s one and one half cups of cheese. Thanks!
This looks soooo good! I’ve never made skillet bread before and now I’m really tempted to try to make some.
This looks just great, and I’d love to try it. Just one little problem: anything salty I ever baked from almond flour has a strong marzipan-taste. Any almond flour I could get here in Germany (and there are many different options) is great for sweet things, but salty things made from it taste really weird. Is there a trick or an ingredient to get rid of this marzipan-flavour?
Wow. That never happens to me at all. Is the almond flour sweetened? You know what I suggest for this recipe? Get a bag of almonds and grind them up as finely as you can yourself (without making them almond butter!). This recipe doesn’t require a fine texture, so that should would fairly well.
No, it’s not sweetened. All nut flours here are “cold pressed” without adding anything. We can also buy ground almonds, which are regularly used for cookies. I used them already once for a bread, and you are right -there is no marzipan-taste. But the amount of calories is extreme: 100 grams of ground almonds = 650 calories, 100 grams of almond flour = 250 calories. You see, it makes a big difference, and I could use it once in a while, but I don’t want to use it for any bread, pizza and whatever salty stuff. So I hoped, there is a trick, since you use almond flour a lot.
So what could be the secret of American almond flour?
The secret to American almond flour, I think, is that it’s not pressed at all. It’s just really, REALLY finely ground almonds. I’m not someone who worries about calories…the more filling the item, the less of it you eat. I suspect your “almond flour” in Europe has had much of the fat pressed out of it. Which is why it’s light on calories. And, in my humble opinion, light on healthy fats and nutrients!
Ok, now I understand. When you write “almond flour” you mean ground almonds. Here this is two different things. Ground almonds are sold in every supermarket in little 100 grams portions. It’s rather fluffy and everyone uses it for cookies. Almond flour is difficult to get. Usually you find it in shops with organic food or in health food stores. It’s as heavy as regular flour and looks about the same. Since it’s cold pressed, there is only 10-12% fat left, but – according to what they say – the flour still includes all essential fatty acids and nutrients.
Since I tend to eat too much, when I really like the taste (no matter if it’s filling), I need to keep an eye on the total amount of calories.
I guess a compromise will do: ground almonds for salty things and almond flour for sweet things.
Thanks a lot for your help. I’m still amazed about all those wonderful recipes and tried already quite a few (transforming all those “cups” into grams is not so easy though
).
I just made this last night and it was AMAAAAAAAAAZING!!
Looks yummy. But, unfortunately I don’t have a regular sized oven– just a stand-alone convection oven that wouldn’t remotely hold my cast iron skillet. Do you have any idea how to pull this off with different equipment that could fit in my oven?
Do you have an 8 inch round cake pan? That would work. Do the same thing with the butter, melting it in the pan, and be sure to swish it around so it goes up the sides before you add the batter. Then watch it a little more closely…it may cook a bit faster or slower, I am not sure.
I was wanting to make this last night, but not wanting to spend $60 on a new cast iron skillet (My skillets aren’t oven safe, and if I’m going to buy an oven safe one, I’m stubborn, it will be cast iron.) So glad you think the cake pan will work Carolyn, that’s what I was considering using. Best of all- NO HANDLES!
Yeah, I don’t like to buy special equipment either, unless I know I will use it a lot. Keep your eye on the bread, it may bake more quickly in a thinner pan like this.
I do have a cake pan, but then you have to be really careful heating it up on the stove to melt the butter– without a handle at all. I’ll try it. Thanks.
Hi Marcia…you don’t heat any of it on the stove, it’s all done in the oven. So you don’t need to worry about that!
This was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I made it for brekkie, and ate it alongside some chicken sausages! I did use einkorn flour instead of flax, and also subbed heavy cream for the almond milk! So, so, good! Can’t express that enough. Made it in our medium cast iron!
Waaaahhhhh!! My husband and son didn’t like it. I baked mine in a cast iron skillet. It didn’t look done in the center so I baked it about 7 minutes longer. Still kind of mushy in the center. I had a piece for breakfast this morning and warmed it in the microwave and I liked it. I did put it in myfitnesspal and was shocked at the calorie coune which is about 325 calories fo 1/10 and I had alittle more than that. I try to eat low carb and low sugar, but I do like to track what I eat in myfitnesspal and I still can’t let go of the “calories in calories out” philosophy to lose weight. Its scary to eat stuff with this much fat and calories. I’ll keep trying to have an open mind though. You have so many great recipes that I want to try.
Hi Pattie…I think your oven temp might be off, if it took that long to cook…next time, I’d up the temp by 25 degrees or so. Sorry your husband and son didn’t like it.
I know that most of my recipes are extremely high fat and high calorie…but it keeps you satiated for longer than other things and if you can find your way to stick with it, you will lose weight. I never started low carb to lose weight, only to control my blood sugar, but I am amazed by the changes in my body. Far more muscle and less fat, and given the amount of fat I eat, it’s amazing! And I don’t lift weights or anything, I only run, but I am more toned all over. That’s a lot of the reason I don’t give any info but carbs…I think we focus too much on the other numbers and it can derail our diet.
Just a hint on avoiding burns from a hot skillet handle. You can buy pan handle holders (like pot holders, but designed to slip onto and cover a pan handle) and leave it on while the pan is cooling. Alternatively, drape a dry dish towel over the handle for safety and/or a visual reminder.