If you're on a gluten-free diet or grain-free, low carb, or paleo diet and you miss bread, this Flax Bread Recipe is just what you have been waiting for.
It's grain free and even vegan (if need be) to boot and is one of our family's favorites. It's a very forgiving recipe that you won't even need my gluten-free baking tips for :).
And if you haven't heard about how healthy flax is, then read on.
This focaccia flax bread recipe is well, just great.
We've been eating flax seeds for years, but mainly in shakes and as a substitute for eggs in baking, but this bread is a great way to get the health benefits of flax into your family.
The Benefits of Flaxseed
Flax is high in:
- omega-3 essential fatty acids
- fiber
- antioxidants
Sounds like a good idea to get you and your family to eat more of this wonderfood, right? Well here's how!
I've shared this Focaccia Flax Bread with a number of folks, and everyone has asked for the recipe. It has a nice deep flavor and pleasing texture. And it's a great bread alternative for those on gluten free diets.
Gluten free folks need to take great care not to load up on refined starches for those do damage to their already compromised digestive systems. Alternatives like this are pleasing both to the palate and also healthy for your body.
If you're not that familiar with flax seeds, there are two varieties–light and dark. The bread in the main photos here above was made with light seeds.
The light ones will (of course :-)) produce a lighter-colored bread, but from what I understand, there is no difference in nutritional value and we haven't found there to be a taste difference either.
The light (golden) flax seeds are more expensive, so save your money (unless, of course, you really need the lighter variety for some reason) and buy the dark variety. The resulting bread will look like what you can see pictured below.
By the way, any of the following links may be affiliate links. If you click on them and make a purchase, I might make a commission. Your support is much appreciated and helps keep this free resource up and running.
Serving Ideas: Top / Serve This Great Gluten-Free Flax Bread with:
- Homemade Nut or Seed Butter (and jam if you like)
- Savory Hummus
- Homemade Egg-Free Mayo with cheese, veggies, shredded carrots, etc. Makes a great sandwich! (that's what is on the sandwich in the main photo)
- Fried Egg and Cheese
- This Easy Marinara Sauce. Great for dipping!
- Nothing! Just eat it plain! I can barely keep my son out of it so this is how it mainly gets eaten in our home.
What You Will Need for this Flax Bread Recipe
- Flax Seed Meal
- Baking Powder
- Salt (I recommend Real Salt)
- Healthy Sweetener (optional: sucanat or coconut sugar would be goo options. I use xylitol or stevia extract for a candida-friendly option)
- Eggs (or equivalent alternative like Ener-G Egg Replacer.* See my Homemade Powdered Egg Replacer. For a low-carb option use a flax, chia, or gelatin egg)
- Water (use filtered water please)
- Coconut Oil (other healthy fats may be substituted)
Notes on stevia:
You can use other sweeteners for this recipe, but in case you happen to use stevia, here are some tips for its use.
Stevia is super sweet so you only need a tad. I bought these (the links are affiliate links) scoops and use the 2nd smallest as “1 scoop”, or 1/32 of a tsp.
Yes, it’s THAT sweet!
Hope you love it as much as we do.
One more thing. If you need more information on stevia–like what it is and how to measure it, read this post here.
Focaccia Flax Bread Recipe (gluten and yeast-free with grain-free and vegan options)
This Gluten-Free Flax Bread Recipe is one of our favorites. It's even a great paleo bread recipe. Tastes great with sweet or savory toppings and freezes well.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flax seed meal
- 1 Tbsp baking powder (see my Homemade Baking Powder)
- 1 teaspoon salt (I recommend Real Salt)
- 1-2 Tbsps healthy sweetener (optional: sucanat or coconut sugar would be good options. I use xylitol or 1 scoop stevia extract for a candida-friendly option)
- 5 beaten eggs (or equivalent alternative like Ener-G Egg Replacer. See my Homemade Powdered Egg Replacer. For a low-carb option use a flax, chia, or gelatin egg)
- 1/2 cup water (I recommend reverse osmosis filtered)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted (other healthy fats may be substituted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease pans (coconut oil works great!). * See below for pan selection information.
- Mix dry ingredients well -- a whisk works well.
- Add wets to dries and combine well. If using eggs, make sure there aren't obvious strings of egg in the batter.
- Let batter set for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken up some (leave it too long and it gets past the point where it's easy to spread.)
- Spoon batter into pan and spread out.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, until it springs back when you touch the top and/or is visibly browned.
- Cool and cut into whatever size slices you want.
Notes:
- 4 cups of flax seeds yield about 6 – 6 1/2 cups flax meal. If you have extra after grinding, just store it in the fridge or freezer for adding to smoothies, etc.
- Eggs – If you are not a fan of eggs, using all 5 might be a bit much for you. You can try using 3-4 and substituting an egg alternative for the remaining eggs.
Pan sizes and conversion info:
One recipe will fit well in a 10×15 pan. To use 2 9×13 pans, make 1 1/2 recipes.
3 recipes covers 2 large circular baking stones.
If you really want to bake in bulk, make 4 1/2 recipes for 2 large size pizza stones and 2 9×13 pans (this is what I always do since we eat it up so quickly!)
Here are the measurements for 4 1/2 batches:
9 cups flax meal
4 1/2 T baking powder
22 eggs, or equivalent
4 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 T sweetener (using the lower measurement)
2 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups coconut oil
The baking stones really make clean up easy and there is no greasing necessary. No need to grease and clean up is a snap!
Note also that this post is one of the first ones that I put on my blog. I realize now that this recipe is on numerous sites around the internet–some with variations and some without. I do not recall where this Flax Bread Recipe came from, but obviously there are a lot of people who love it as much as we do!
How about you?
What would you serve this bread with?
Source: Web Md
Thank you Adrienne for a great recipe! It came out tasty and I like the bread keeps freshness for several days.
Flaxseed is a grain you plebeian.
Oh really? How about you don’t insult me and show me something to back that up. It’s not a grain.
And maybe next time use a real email address (assuming that your odd one isn’t valid) so that you can be accountable for your rudeness.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Grain:
a (1) : a single small hard seed (2) : a seed or fruit of a cereal grass
b : the seeds or fruits of various food plants including the cereal grasses and in commercial and statutory usage other plants (such as the soybean)
c : plants producing grain
And yes, that is my real email, though not my main email (which I don’t give out to strangers on the internet because I use it for banking, work etc.)
Hi Duncan.
Thanks for following up and sorry for making an incorrect assumption about your email. I get a bunch of rude comments from people who often hide behind emails that don’t seem to be valid. I typically check them on the internet when deciding whether I will respond or not.
This article should explain things more clearly. Grain seeds are toxic to humans in raw forms, whereas seeds are not. http://www.thealternativedaily.com/grains-vs-seeds-whats-the-scoop/
Please don’t use insults again if you wish to challenge me. I’m not perfect and am willing to change things on my blog if I am, in fact, wrong, but insults have no place here and ad hominem attacks only serve to show that the person making them likely doesn’t have a valid point to make. On the other hand, calling me a common person isn’t that bad — could be worse. I don’t think of myself as being that intelligent but I was in the honors program of a top Univ in the US and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from there so at least someone thinks I’m not stupid. Thanks again.
Oh nice, so now you’re just going to block my replies, even though you requested I back up my claims. How petty and sad.
So now it’s another rude comment and another ad hominem attack. No, I am not blocking your replies. I just responded to you. I moderate each and every comment so I don’t have rude comments and insults go up without my having the opportunity to respond.
I would appreciate it if you would apologize.
Oh, actually no, that was my honest mistake. My reply disappeared and I assumed it hadn’t gotten past the “waiting for moderation” bit. It just hadn’t loaded in. My apologies.
You beat me to it :). Thanks.
Sorry again, I read the article and it was quite interesting. You learn something new everyday! Thanks.
No problem. I appreciate the back and forth. You stretched my brain as well. There are people who call quinoa and buckwheat seeds b/c technically they are, but you don’t really want to eat them raw and their carb count mimics that of grains but not seeds. So it’s all pretty confusing. Hope to see you around again and hope you try the bread – it’s pretty good :).
I have made this a bunch of times over the years. I use flax eggs for the eggs. And I spread the batter in the pan and then let it set up. That way no worries about waiting too long. Finally play with adding different herbs, and if you want a yeast flavor use beer for the liquid in your flax eggs.
Oh how fun with the beer! Great tip on the spreading. I will have to try that. Thanks for sharing!
Mmmmm, this looks so wonderful – and paleo! <3 I'm always looking for bread substitutes, because it's one of the biggest things I miss while eating paleo, and this looks absolutely perfect to go with dinner!! Thanks for sharing!
I so hope you like it! It’s a fave here. In fact I need to make some soon.
I made this last night and the texture turned out great. But it has a really fishy seaweed taste to it. Did I do something wrong or is that just how a mass amount of flaxmeal taste?
Hi Jackie. Hmmm…did you mill the flax yourself or purchase it pre-milled?
I used pre-milled. I buy it from the bulk section of Sprouts. Is it hard to mill it myself?
I grind 2 cups at a time in my Vitamix. It’s easy to mill. I would think that the flax is rancid. It gets a fishy smell when it is. It goes rancid rather quickly. I hope it works for you next time.
This recipe is perfect texture for sandwiches. Tastes good. Not like white bread or anything, but definitely goo?. Just wonder if it truly needs 1 tablespoon of baking powder?
I use it regularly but might be good without?
worked with 1 teaspoon. Good texture and taste
Thanks for the recipe, I’ll try it sometime soon in a loaf pan for sandwiches.
I’m sure the bread is delicious, but I think it is important to include a warning about the dangers of flax. It has more estrogen than any other plant food, much, much more than soy, and it can cause severe hormone disruption.
Hi Judy.
Thanks for commenting. I have looked into this and have found very mixed information. I actually was advised to eat flax by my practitioner who is very smart about such things so I find this to be very confusing. Do you have some resources that you found to be particularly compelling?
Additionally, I include recipes that include dairy and xylitol and stevia and many think that there are issues w/ such foods (I have debunked the stevia concerns and one of the xylitol concerns) so I am not sure what to do as we could have concerns about everything, don’t you think? Well, maybe except for veggies — now that I think about it nightshades are often an issue. So it gets to be a muddle. Let me know what you think and thank you.
So you know if you could use chia seeds too? I don’t have flax in hand but can surely get some…just wondering.
No, that wouldn’t work. I would buy some flax :). Hope you like it!
Could you make this in muffin top pans? Does it rise any? I am new to flaxmeal and experimenting 🙂
I think you could do that. It does rise some. Enjoy! Fun idea!
Thanks for a great recipe! Easy, delicious, healthy, quick, all the things I look for in a recipe. This is a keeper and will be made again many times. ?
You are so welcome! We just finished a huge batch!
This was very good!
Yea! So glad. It’s a favorite here!
I miss the humble sammich….but I’m back in business now. This focaccia with chopped black olives and rosemary in the dough topped with daiya vegan smoked gouda and thin slices of tomato then melted/toasted in the oven….THE SAMMICH AND I ARE BACK TOGETHER! I missed you sammy!!!
YUM!!! Thanks for a fun comment :)! I need to make one now!
Hi there. This recipe sounds great. I would love to make this bread but was wondering how many carbs there are per serving. Thanx
Hi there. I haven’t calculated that and have heard there can be issues with those calculators. And it would depend on what you use for the eggs. There are very few, however. Do you have a reliable site where you could plug in the ingredients?
Would it be possible to bane this in a loaf pan? Of it is what size?
Sure you could. Just calculate the size of the pan as compared to the area of a stone and figure it out from there. It will be a very small portion of the recipe for each pan – 🙂
Oh my my !! Just made this for 2nd time and had to play with a wonderful basic recipe…felt like savory tonight so added dried minced onion, granulated garlic (next time shall be fresh!!), a good handful of heavenly dried oregano (at least 1/4cup). Also subbed 1/2 butter for coco oil which really amplified add-in flavors. Let’s just say…Divine with no guilt whatsoever!! My deepest thanks to our wholenewmom for sharing !!! Love so much about your website???
Ooh – sounds LOVELY! I was just looking at our flax seeds thinking I need to make more soon. Thank you!!!