Flax Bread Focaccia

 

Chris, on my EPOC team, sent this out for us to try. It's really quite good, especially with some almond butter or sun butter!  I made the bread pictured today, 2/6, and the smells in my house are wonderful - can't wait for it to cool down!!

Origninal recipe source

This is called "focaccia" because it is baked in that style -- flat on a sheet pan, and then cut up into whatever sized pieces you want. It works for toast, sandwiches, and other bready uses. It is "rough" in texture like heavy whole grain breads. Since it isn't made with wheat, it doesn't have the same kind of grain as wheat breads, but the carb in flax is almost all fiber. Flax is very useful on a low carb diet, as well as being amazingly good for you.

Ingredients:
2 cups flax seed meal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 Raw honey (note: recipe calls for 1-2 Tbs sugar equivalent from artificial sweetener, which I don't use)
5 beaten eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare pan (a 10X15 pan with sides works best) with oiled parchment paper or a silicone mat.

1) Mix dry ingredients well -- a whisk works great for this.

2) Add wet to dry, and combine well. Make sure there aren't obvious strings of egg white hanging out in the batter.

3) 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.)

4) Pour batter onto pan. Because it's going to tend to mound in the middle, you'll get a more even thickness if you spread it away from the center somewhat, in roughly a rectangle an inch or two from the sides of the pan (you can go all the way to the edge, but it will be thinner).

5) Bake for about 20 minutes, until it springs back when you touch the top and/or is visibly browning even more than flax already is.  Note: I find that it takes closer to 30min in my oven set to 350...maybe my oven is off.

6) Cool and cut into whatever size slices you want. You don't need a sharp knife; I usually just cut it with a spatula.

Nutritional Information:
Each of 12 servings has less than a gram of effective carbohydrate (.7 grams to be exact)
5 grams fiber
6 grams protein
185 calories.