I came across this stuff known as 'oopsie bread' which is intended to serve as a low-carbohydrate alternative to real bread. You can see
an example recipe here, but in a nutshell, the idea is: blend egg yolks with cream cheese and a bit of baking powder, then fold in some egg whites that have been beaten until stiff, then bake the resulting mixture for about 25 minutes. You get these "rolls" (though it seems they collapse pretty often) that are a workable substitute for bread in a number of situations - sandwiches, burger buns, etc.
I made a batch of 6 tonight, and they're quite interesting; they do have a surprisingly bread-like appearance, and somewhat texture though much lighter, and the taste is bland. So I'm going to continue experimenting, but I had a few questions that maybe someone here can help me with.
- I get that the basic idea here is to create an airy, bread-like structure through beating the egg whites, and then "setting" that structure with heat. I figure the cream cheese and egg yolks add fat that gives it a bit of stability and flavour, as well as being the stuff that turns golden on the 'crust.' First question: have I made any mistakes so far?
- What does the baking powder actually do? I'm guessing it does nothing without heat, but what does it do as the bake begins?
- Some recipes use cream of tartar rather than baking powder. Baking powder is really just "cream of tartar + baking soda" premixed, right? So does this imply that baking soda actually does nothing useful in this context, if cream of tartar is sufficient? (I've seen one vague comment about how 'the acid stabilises the protein matrix...')
- Does the cream cheese provide much other than a source of fat? If not, would other sources of fat work - for example, what if I just used an equivalent weight of melted butter?
- Any thoughts on how to stop the rolls from collapsing? I was thinking maybe to try drying them on the counter before baking, similar to macarons; or, alternatively, to give them a dusting with something like parmesan before they go in, then try giving them a broil at the end of the bake in the hope of getting the parmesan to form some kind of 'shell' that could hold it up. All very hand wavy for now though...
As I say, I'll keep experimenting and check out a few of these possibilities myself, but it'd be cool to know what you folks think. The more I understand about what's actually happening inside the food, the more interesting questions I can ask. The science of baking is still pretty mystical to me...
