Focaccia Breadsticks

One thing I love is the smell of bread cooking, especially if it has wonderful things like sun dried tomatoes, garlic, oregano and etc in it.  The is Olfactory Heaven!    I just baked up Dr. Davis' (author of Wheat Belly) Focaccia Bread recipe.  Wow... I love that smell.  I made it flat and cut it into breadsticks.  For lunch, I plan on having one with some multi-colored bell peppers and Tuscan Herb Hummus I picked up at Sam's Club last night.

I can totally see eating this with soups, salads and Shiritaki noodles with pasta sauce.  I have yet to track down Shiritaki noodles to try them.  When I do, I'll let you know what I think!  Dr. Davis suggests making bread slices from this recipe and using it for sandwiches!

Sorry but I didn't get shots of it in progress.  I only remembered my camera at the end!
I got a little distracted when I started having issues unlocking my food processor bowl to dump out the almond meal.  Weird... took me 30 minutes and then when it did become unlocked, I honestly don't know how it happened!  I must have a kitchen elf hiding somewhere!  I also tried separating eggs with my hands like the chefs do on tv... yeah... not a pretty site for the first timer.  Needless to say I was a gooey mess.  So I just decided to shuck the yellow back and forth from one half of the shell to the other until the egg whites separated completely.  After that... I was just ready to get on with it and totally forgot to take pictures.

Focaccia Bread Sticks

2 cups almond meal
1 cup shredded mozzarella or other cheese
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, finely sliced
2 large eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a food chopper or processor, pulse cheese until reduced to a small granule size consistency, similar to couscous.

In a medium bowl, combine almond meal, cheese, xanthan gum, baking soda, sea salt, rosemary, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder and sundried tomatoes and mix together.  Set aside.

Whip egg whites and cream of tartar with a mixer until stiff.  Blend in egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of olive oil at low speed.  Pour egg mixture into almond meal mixture and mix together.

Form dough into desired shape or shapes with your hand.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove and brush with remaining olive oil and sprinkle the top with some sea salt.  Return to oven and bake 15 minutes.

(Ok... the sea salt I had was kind of big and turned out to be kind of pointless so I scraped it off.  I'll be getting a smaller granule size of sea salt soon because it will taste more awesome with it on top.)

Below I cut my bread into breadstick.  They have a nice outer crunch to them, perhaps because of the use of a baking stone... not sure, but never-the-less.  They make GREAT breadsticks!