Updated May 27, 2024

This easy, no-knead flax bread is a unicorn of a recipe. It’s friendly to so many different special diets, including gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, paleo, candida, and keto, and yet somehow is not only edible, but quite tasty.

I came across this recipe because I was determined to find a palatable bread for my husband who was eating a very restricted diet for a few months. The bread couldn’t contain gluten, yeast, sugar of any kind, or dairy. It’s already challenging to make a good gluten-free bread. But a bread without yeast? That’s tricky. Then throw in the dairy and sugar part and whew. Slim pickings. I tried a few recipes that I immediately discarded, but in the end I found this flax bread winner which contains none of the above.

Keep in mind with the above restrictions, you’re not going to get a bread that’s crusty and artisanal and really anything like what you might imagine when you think of typical bread. But when your diet is restricted, and you come across a recipe like this, it’s absolutely heavenly.

The original recipe was called Focaccia Flax Bread but I couldn’t quite bring myself to call it focaccia, since it’s so far from the real thing. It’s low, so similar in height to focaccia, but it’s also not really a flat bread. Maybe we can just call it a low bread?? Needless to say, I went with simple “flax bread”.

It also happens to be fabulously easy, which is a bonus. In less than 30 minutes you can have this bread hot out of the oven!

The flour in this bread is flax meal, although you can mix it up and use other GF flours, as well; the leavening is baking powder (use baking powder without cornstarch to be paleo-friendly), the fat is coconut oil or really any non-dairy fat you choose. There’s also optional xylitol as a sweetener, which before this recipe I had never used. Sometimes I add it, sometimes I don’t, but I’ve found I rather enjoy using xylitol. It wasn’t as expensive as I had anticipated, it looks very similar to granulated sugar, it doesn’t have a weird taste to it like some sugar substitutes can, and it doesn’t feel as evil as say, aspartame.

If you’re a normal carb-ivore, I won’t try and sell this bread to you as “OMG you’ll never eat real bread again!” because that’s just silly. If you can eat real bread, eat real bread! I’m a normal carb-ivore and I find this bread tasty, but it certainly won’t replace my love of baguettes. But if you’re not able to eat normal bread, whether for a short time or indefinitely, I really hope this recipe brings some tastiness into your life!

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Recipe adapted from whole new mom

Flax Bread

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 1 cup / 180g flax meal

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp - 1 Tbsp / 5-15g xylitol, optional

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup / 119g water

• 1/3 cup / 74g coconut oil, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C. Grease an 8x8in / 20x20cm square pan or 8in / 20cm round cake pan.

1. In a medium bowl, combine flax meal, baking powder, and xylitol, if using.

2. In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add eggs to dry mixture along with water and coconut oil; mix until well combined.

3. Let sit for a few minutes to thicken up slightly, then pour and spread into prepared pan.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes or until turning golden-brown and bread is springy to the touch.

Jenny’s Notes:

• To make this bread paleo, use baking powder that doesn’t include cornstarch in it.

• You can make your own flax meal by grinding flax seeds in a food processor or coffee/spice grinder. Quick and easy! I do this every time.

• Other GF flours can be substituted for part of the flaxmeal. I like to substitute about 25% (so 1/4 cup in this recipe) of the flax meal for buckwheat flour.

• Really any fat can be used instead of coconut oil, choose your preference!