Do you need an easy way to hit your daily protein goals? Look no further than this protein bread!
This protein bread contains 100 calories and 9 grams of protein per slice, making it an amazing way to hit your protein goals.
If you make a sandwich with two slices of bread, that will be 200 calories and 18 grams of protein, which is basically a protein bar!
This recipe won’t compete with your favorite loaf of fresh-baked bread, because bread is just the perfect food. But considering this bread contains 9 g protein per slice, it is really good.
Once it’s toasted up, you’d never know this wasn’t regular sandwich bread.
Plus, we don’t need to let the dough rise OR knead.
Just mix, bake, and enjoy. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Ingredients Needed for Protein Bread
This protein bread comes together using just 6 ingredients, most of which you likely have already in your kitchen.
I’ll break down the ingredients you need, as well as substitutions you can possibly use for each.
Self-Rising Flour
If you’re unfamiliar with self-rising flour, it’s simply all-purpose flour that has been pre-mixed with baking powder and salt. It makes life SO easy, but you can certainly mix up your own if you need to.
Simply combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour with 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and you’ll be good to go.
If you prefer whole wheat flour you can use that to make whole wheat bread, but I don’t recommend using gluten-free flour in this recipe such as almond flour or oat flour.
Since this is a no-knead recipe, for the best results we need the vital wheat gluten in the flour. Without it, this bread will likely fall apart.
Unflavored Protein Powder
Since this is high-protein bread, we obviously need to add some protein! I use PEScience, which is a blend of casein and whey protein powder. It’s the protein I use in all my recipes, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Any unflavored protein powder should work, but the results may differ slightly. 100% whey protein will likely be great, but pea protein powder may not work quite as well. If nothing else, plant protein will definitely add some Earthy flavor to the bread.
Milk
I used skim milk in the recipe to bump up the protein content even further, and it worked really well.
However, the first time I made this recipe, I used unsweetened almond milk, and it still worked great. Obviously the recipe did not contain as much protein, but it still turned out delicious.
Any milk you have should work just fine in this recipe. I don’t recommend swapping the milk out for something like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, however, because the result will end up being too thick.
Oil
We need to use a small amount of olive oil in this recipe to help it become light and airy. Plus, the olive oil lends a really delicious flavor to the final high protein sandwich bread.
You may be tempted to skip the oil to save calories, especially if your goal is weight loss, but it is necessary for this recipe!
If you leave the oil out, it would only save about 10 calories per slice, so it ends up not making a huge difference anyway.
I love the flavor of olive oil, but the healthy fats it provides, but you can also use coconut oil or butter in its place.
Sugar
Lastly, we need a small amount of sugar in this protein bread recipe to help the final product become light and airy. You won’t taste any sweetness, but the texture really needs it.
I use a calorie-free sugar substitute, but regular sugar will work great as well.
How to Make High-Protein Bread
This protein bread doesn’t require any kneading or rising, so it’s truly as simple as mixing everything together and baking!
In a large bowl, mix up your dry ingredients.
Heat up the 2 cups of milk in the microwave for about one minute until warm, then add it to your bowl along with the olive oil.
Mix everything together until you have a very thick batter. Traditional bread is made from a yeast-risen dough, but the batter is what we’re after for this one.
This bread is going to be similar to regular wheat bread you’d buy at the grocery store, but if you prefer a little extra texture, you can also mix in some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or chia seeds.
Spray and/or line an 8×4″ loaf pan with parchment paper, then pour in your batter.
Bake the protein bread for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.
After 20 minutes, I like the remove the bread from the oven, cover it with aluminum foil, then finish baking for the final 10 minutes.
I find that this helps to prevent the outer crust from overcooking, but I did test this recipe without the foil and it still turns out!
Remove the protein bread loaf from the oven, carefully remove it from the pan, and let the loaf of bread sit for at least one hour.
Trust me, if you try to slice this bread while it’s still hot, you will not be able to slice it thin.
Once the bread fully cools, anywhere from 1-3 hours at room temperature, you’ll be able to thinly slice it into 18 slices.
If you prefer larger slices, you can certainly slice it up into fewer pieces, just like my protein banana bread recipe.
For this recipe, I found that 18 slices work perfectly to create sandwich bread.
How to Store & Reheat Protein Bread
This protein bread will stay fresh for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Since there is milk & protein powder involved, I was worried it would go bad right away, but my bread safely lasted 4 days on the counter with no issues.
If you want to store this bread any longer than that, keep it in the fridge or freezer to keep it fresh.
The next time you find yourself wanting a high-protein snack or meal, you can throw this protein bread into the toaster!
When I toasted this bread the next day after baking it, I was really impressed by how soft and chewy it became.
I toasted this protein bread with a little bit of strawberry jelly, and it was a delicious high-protein snack.
And of course, it makes amazing sandwiches for high protein diets as well.
This breakfast sandwich (with 2 eggs and 1 slice of fat-free American cheese) had just 365 calories and an impressive 34 grams of protein! This may just be my new favorite thing to eat in the morning after my workouts.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Since you clearly love bread, I have some other delicious recipes that you are sure to love. While I have plenty of recipes on my blog that cater to a keto diet, these recipes are not that. We want bread, and with that comes some carbs.
But we love carbs.
- Light & Moist High-Protein Banana Bread
- Healthy Everything Bagel Pull Apart Bread
- Quick & Easy Protein Bagels with 19g Protein
- How To Make Homemade Pizza With Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough
- Brioche French Toast Breakfast Sandwich
- Healthier Stuffed Breakfast Bagel Bombs
High Protein Bread Recipe (No Kneading Required)
This protein bread contains just 100 calories per slice but packs 9 grams of protein! Plus, there is no kneading required, so it's incredibly easy to make your own loaf of protein bread.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Warm Skim Milk (notes on different kinds to use below)
- 240g (2 Cups) Self-Rising Flour
- 150g (5 Scoops) Unflavored Whey/Casein Blend Protein Powder (code "Matt" saves 10% on PEScience)
- 15g Sugar Substitute or Regular Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Additional Baking Powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
- Mix together your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Warm your milk in the microwave for about 1 minute so it is warm but not boiling, then add the warmed milk and olive oil to your bowl. Mix until it becomes a thick batter.
- Spray an 8x4” loaf pan with nonstick spray or line it with parchment paper and add the batter.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, cover it with foil, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Covering the bread helps to prevent the outer crust from becoming overcooked and too dense, but if you skip this step it will still turn out.
- Remove the bread from the oven. Carefully remove the loaf from the pan and onto a plate or cooling rack.
- Allow the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing. The bread firms up while it cools, so if you try to cut into it too soon, you will not be able to thinly slice the bread. Anywhere from 1-3 hours works really well.
- Cut the bread into 18 slices (or fewer if you prefer larger slices) and enjoy!
- Store leftovers in an airtight container. I've found that it stays fresh for a few days, but if you want to store leftovers beyond that, keep your bread stored in the fridge to keep it fresh longer and toast it when ready to eat.
Notes
- How to make your own self-rising flour: Mix together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.
- I used skim milk to bring the protein content up. In the original version of this recipe with less protein, I used unsweetened almond milk and it worked great, so you can go that route.
- The olive oil is absolutely necessary or else this will be TOO dry. Plus, when you divide this up into 18 slices, eliminating the oil only saves 10 calories per slice.
- If you want this bread to be lighter and airier, reduce the protein powder to just 90g (3 scoops) and use 270g self-rising flour. This will reduce the overall protein content, but it makes the bread less dense and more like regular sandwich bread.
- The unflavored protein I use is a blend of whey & casein protein, and I don't know for sure how other types of protein powder will work in this recipe.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 18 Serving Size 1 SliceAmount Per Serving Calories 100Total Fat 2gCarbohydrates 11gProtein 9g
Fox
Saturday 27th of January 2024
Quite like it. Made and consumed mine just now and I think it came very close to what i can see in the pics. one issue I found is that the crust develops very quickly preventing the bread rising a bit more, making it more compact than it needs to be. At lest it did in my case. Thinking about splitting the dough in two portions and make two smaller loafs. It would be easier to ration and also i think they might get fluffier
Kathy Sissel
Wednesday 1st of November 2023
Could I use oat flour for this recipe ?
Matt
Monday 20th of November 2023
Unfortunately without the gluten it wouldn't work for this one
Jeff
Sunday 13th of August 2023
Could you add yeast to make it a bit lighter
Cathy
Sunday 11th of June 2023
Has anyone tried making rolls from this? Like dinner roll-sized rolls? I'm wondering if there is a difference in texture, or any critical steps in cooking that have to change?
Matt
Monday 19th of June 2023
I haven't tried it, but it would be tough with this recipe since it essentially starts out as a batter vs a dough, so there would be no real way to form them into rolls
Tony
Friday 10th of March 2023
Could French toast be made with this? Is it absorbent enough to soak up egg whites / eggs?
Robyn Calkins
Saturday 11th of March 2023
@Matt, looking forward to hearing how French toast goes! This bread excites me as I’m not able to have yeast and this looks great
Matt
Saturday 11th of March 2023
I'm gonna try this today and get back to you! I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'll let you know for sure.