You are going to love this easy-to-throw-together Honey, Chive, and Goat Cheese Bread. The recipe is loosely based on beer bread recipes out there, with some tasty additions thrown into the mix.
I love having recipes for quick (non-yeast) breads in my back pocket, so any time I can come up with a new low sodium version, I am a happy camper. I had been noodling over this recipe for a while and used different beer bread recipes as a starting point for this yummy goat cheese bread.
Aside: Short lesson on self-rising flour
Many beer bread recipes out there tout the fact that they are only 3 or 4 ingredients. The problem with that (for those on a low sodium diet) is that one of the 3 or 4 ingredients is usually self-rising flour. Why is this a problem? Self-rising flour is actually three ingredients mixed together – all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Since baking powder and salt are very high in sodium, self-rising flour is off limits. Where all-purpose flour is almost sodium-free (less than 1 mg sodium per quarter cup), self-rising flour is very high in sodium (nearly 400 mg sodium per quarter cup).
But have no fear – we can replace self-rising flour in recipes with an equivalent amount of all-purpose flour and some sodium-free baking powder. From there, we toss in some yummy additions (chives, goat cheese, and honey in this case) and bake. Even though this bread takes a while to bake (about an hour), you don’t have to wait for dough to rise, which means it is something you can toss together for a weeknight dinner.
Want to check out other quick, weeknight-friendly breads? Check out these other low sodium recipes:
Honey, Chive, and Goat Cheese Bread
SODIUM COUNT: 14 mg sodium per slice; 180 mg in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 13 slices 1x
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp sodium-free baking powder ((like Hain))
- 4 ounces goat cheese* ((crumbled))
- 1 Tbsp fresh chopped chives ((you can use dried chives in a pinch))
- 4 Tbsp honey
- 12 ounces beer ((whatever you have – I’ve used ale and lager with good results))
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. prepare a 9″ bread pan by spraying it with cooking spray.
- Stir the baking powder into the flour until it is thoroughly combined.
- Gently stir the chives and crumbled goat cheese into the dry ingredients.
- Add the honey and beer and stir until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and drizzle the melted butter on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before placing it on a cooling rack to cool. You can eat the loaf while it is warm if it is too tempting to let cool completely. But bread if much easier to slice as it cools, so be careful when you are cutting the bread!
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 13 servings (1 slice of bread per serving)
Sodium: 13.8 mg, Calories: 166.7, Total Fat: 2.7 g, Saturated Fat: 1.7 g, Cholesterol: 8.5 mg, Carbohydrates: 28.7 g, Fiber: 0.8 g, Sugar: 5.4 g, Protein: 4.7 g.
*I used Silver Goat cheese for the nutrition, which has 40 mg sodium per ounce. Goat cheese typically ranges from 35-90 mg sodium per ounce. Read your label to make sure that you are getting a goat cheese in that range. If you were to use goat cheese at the higher end of that range (90 mg sodium per ounce), it would increase the sodium in the loaf by 200 mg total. This would make each slice have about 30 mg sodium per slice.
This bread is great. I make it and slice it up then store it in the freezer. When I want a piece I just pull it out and warm it up with some unsalted butter in a skillet.
★★★★★
So glad you like it! I haven’t tried freezing it, but that is a great idea.
Kathy,
Where do you purchase your goat cheese?
Our favorite goat cheese is Silver Goat, which is sold at Trader Joe’s (for flavor and sodium content). If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area, our next favorite is Montchevre brand, which I can find in most major grocery stores. Our third pick (and what we tend to resort to since we don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby) is the Kirkland brand from Costco. The price is great, the flavor is pretty good, but the sodium is about 90 mg per ounce (compared to ~35 for Silver Goat and montchevre). So it is not great for sodium when compared to others and we need to be careful with how much we use.
I have a 4 ounce log of herbed goat cheese in my fridge. Do you think that would work?
I think it would work great! The herbed goat cheese may have more sodium than plain goat cheese, so you may want to check that out first. For reference, the nutritional info on this recipe reflects goat cheese with 40 mg sodium per ounce.
Would love to try this recipe. Bread is one of my wife’s favor foods in the world but of course,sodium. She also as to watch her sugar so is there a substitute for the honey in the recipe? Would really like to surprise her with a loaf
How sweet of you! I have only tested this recipe with honey, and I’m not sure if there’s a good substitute. The recipe is fairly forgiving so you may be able to greatly reduce the honey and still have a delicious loaf. The loaf as-is is a bit on the sweet side, so reducing the honey would make it more savory. Or you could try using your favorite sugar substitute. Best of luck!
Thank you will try reducing the honey and see what happens
Did reduce the honey about half came out great. Didn’t mess with her numbers. Will need to be on the look out for lower sodium cheese but otherwise great recipe.
Doubled the recipe gave my sister,who’s not on any restrictions,the other loaf. Got rave reviews
Love this site
Another 40mg/oz goat cheese is La Bonne Vie, generally available in grocery stores. (My nearest Trader Joe’s is 200 miles and two states away.) Have you by chance tried this bread with the Ener-G baking powder? I’ve read that it doesn’t always substitute well and you use double the amount. I haven’t tried too many recipes with it yet. Since I’m cooking for my mother on dialysis, I tend to avoid ingredients with additional potassium and don’t keep the Hain baking powder around.
Thanks for the tip on the goat cheese. I have not tried it with the Ener-G baking powder. I didn’t have great luck with the Ener-G baking soda, so I haven’t tried the baking powder.
It seems, that while great for dialysis patients with no sodium or potassium, using the Ener-G substitutes is hit or miss. I guess I’ll just have to experiment. I’ll have to plug some recipes into a calculator and see how much difference the 70mg potassium per 1/8 tsp actually makes per serving. Thanks
Use the enrg .works well if you double the amount
★★★★★
The recipe notes a 9×13 pan, but that would be a sheet cake pan. What size do you use for this recipe? Thanks!
Good catch! I use a 9” bread pan.