AIP focaccia: bread back on the table

Bread is one of the deepest losses in the elimination phase, not because anyone needs it nutritionally, but because of what it means at a table, the tearing and sharing, the smell of it warm. This grain-free focaccia is built from cassava and coconut flour and scented with rosemary and thyme, and it gives that back. It is a normalcy food, plainly, and on a long road that matters more than people admit.

What you are making is real and grounding. Cassava flour comes from the whole cassava root, a source of carbohydrate and some resistant starch that feeds a healthier gut community, and the herbs bring aromatic compounds and a little beauty. This is not a manufactured loaf off a shelf. It is whole-food flours, water, fat, and herbs, made by your hands.

Score the top, scatter on the extra rosemary and thyme, and let the kitchen fill with that smell while it bakes. When it is cool enough to slice, tear a piece and eat it slowly, with attention. The few minutes of presence are not separate from the work you are doing. They are part of it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water, split
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup, to feed the yeast
• one 1/4-ounce packet active dry yeast
• 1 cup cassava flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1.5 teaspoons dried rosemary, plus more for the top
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, plus more for the top
• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup palm shortening, melted

Method

Stir the maple syrup into a portion of the warm water, sprinkle in the yeast, and let it sit until it foams, a few minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together the cassava flour, coconut flour, rosemary, thyme, and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the remaining warm water, the melted palm shortening, and the foamed yeast mixture. Mix to a smooth dough, then knead briefly into a ball.

Flatten the dough on a piece of parchment into a loaf about 1 inch thick. Cover it and let it rest 30 minutes in a warm spot.

Score the top, scatter on the extra rosemary and thyme, and bake at 400 F for about 35 minutes, until golden. Cassava can stay doughy in the center, so if needed lower the heat slightly and bake a little longer.

Cool fully before slicing. It keeps about 5 days wrapped in a towel in a cool, dry place.

A note on swaps and the yeast: gluten-free dough does not rise, so the yeast works mainly as flavor here. You can omit it (and the maple syrup with it), or replace it with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Coconut oil can stand in for the palm shortening, and arrowroot or tigernut flour can stand in for the coconut flour.

This is a baked bread, so it stays in the oven. An air fryer does not reliably bake a loaf of this size through the center, and an Instant Pot is not suited to it, so no appliance variation is offered.

*Adapted from asquirrelinthekitchen.com*

---

*Provenance: method rebuilt in ARM's own words from the our-words-summary of asquirrelinthekitchen.com's paleo AIP rosemary and thyme focaccia. Source file: /Users/Christopher/Documents/Claude/01-Projects/ARM/aip-source-archives/a-squirrel-in-the-kitchen/aip-bread.md. Ingredient list and bake parameters used as factual reference. No excluded ingredients in the source; all ingredients are AIP Core (cassava, coconut flour, palm shortening, and gluten-free active dry yeast are permitted, with yeast optional and flagged). Bake time and the cassava doughy-center note flagged for kitchen testing.*