Low-Carb Flax Bread with Psyllium

For ages I’ve been trying to find a bread that is gluten free, high in fibre whilst low carb and fits with a lower carb diet, whilst also being tasty and easy to prepare!

I think I’ve now found a solution: this is made with ground flax and psyllium (work wonders on the gut), with tapioca flour (or buckwheat flour). You can change the ratio’s of flax to flour depending on how dense / low carb you want to the bread to be. If you choose to go without flour altogether then it can fit in a keto type diet. Using baking powder and apple cider vinegar helps it to rise, giving a nice moist loaf.

You can adjust the ratio of flax to tapioca – less tapioca gives a more dense, lower carb loaf, fitting better with a keto style way of eating. Increasing the tapioca gives a lighter loaf. You can also use Buckwheat flour instead of the tapioca flour (usually buckwheat can be found in a super market whereas for Tapioca you’ll need to go online or a health food store).

Ingredients

• 200 g ground flaxseed

• 50g tapioca or buckwheat flour  

• 20 g psyllium powder 

• 2 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 400 ml water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).

2. Line a 1 lb loaf tin with baking paper.

3. Grind the whole linseeds in a strong blender until you have a fine powder. 

4. Mix together the ground flaxseed, tapioca flour, baking powder and salt.

5. Add the 400ml water to the psyllium powder, stirring vigorously, then leave to set for 5 minutes, it should form a gel. 

6. Stir the apple cider vinegar with the gel. 

7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

8. Leave to stand for 5–10 minutes to allow the flax and psyllium to absorb the water.

9. Transfer to the loaf tin and smooth the surface with damp hands or a wet spatula.

10. Bake for 60–70 minutes.

11. Remove from the tin and cool completely before slicing.

Notes

• If the dough seems very stiff after resting, add another 20–30 ml of water.

• If it’s too wet to shape, add 10–15 g more ground flax.

• This bread is at its best toasted and freezes well.

• You can try with boiling water instead of room temperature water

• You can substitute the tapioca for buckwheat flour or change the ratio of flax to flour, I sometimes use 150g flax and 100g tapioca or buckwheat. 

S