I got a bit bored of the staple winter breakfasts that I alternate between – porridge or cinnamon bagels – and decided to shake things up a bit and make a super seedy and slightly sweet loaf of bread instead. I’m rather pleased with the end result and thought you might appreciate the recipe.
It’s studded with a selection of oh-so-good-for-you (especially for your hormones) seeds, some nuts and a small amount of cranberries. It reminds me of the nut-packed dark bread my gran used to buy in her favourite bakery in Krakow. It was the kind of loaf that was crunchy with nuts and slightly sweet with added honey and we would have some more honey on top usually. I used to love that bread! I definitely inherited my love for nuts, coffee and a general sweet tooth from my late grandma.
This bread is so easy to throw together, you’ll be laughing. It requires no yeast, kneading or proofing! Thanks to buckwheat flour it’s naturally gluten-free, yet there is no need for xanthan gum (or other gums typically added to make gluten-free dough possible) either. Ground up flax (or chia) seeds hold it together just fine. If you can throw a few ingredients into a bowl and give them a good stir, you will manage on your first go, promise.
Dry-toasting nuts and seeds isn’t necessary, but it doesn’t take that much extra effort and gives the bread a deeper flavour so it’s worth it, in my opinion.
This bread is an ideal vehicle for open sandwiches, which are a thing in my native Poland (Germany and Scandinavia too, as far as I know). Both sweet and savoury toppings work well and I can personally think of a few dozen different combinations which I am going to try out in the course of the next few weeks. I hope you’ll love this recipe as much as I do!
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 140 g / 1 heaped cup buckwheat flour*
- ΒΎ tsp baking soda*
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 2 tbsp ground chia seeds or flax seeds
- 85 g / heaped Β½ cup almonds (walnuts or hazelnuts)
- 40 g / ΒΌ cup flax seeds (I used golden flax seeds), more to decorate
- 35 g / ΒΌ cup sesame seeds, more to decorate
- 65 g / Β½ cup pumpkin seeds, more to decorate
- 70 g / Β½ cup sunflower seeds, more to decorate
- 30 g / ΒΌ cup dried cranberries (dates, prunes or apricots)
- ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves (optional)*
WET INGREDIENTS
- 45 ml / 3 tbsp oil (I used mild olive oil) + more to grease the pan
- 15 ml / 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1Β½ tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 360 ml / 1Β½ cups water
- Mix the first four dry ingredients (use BAKING SODA not baking powder – video caption is incorrect!) in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Set the oven to 150Β° C / 300Β° F fan forced (or 170Β° C / 340Β° F no fan) and grease a 1kg / 2lb baking tin with a bit of oil. I also recommend lining the tin with a piece of baking paper as this bread tends to stick.
- This is an optional step, but recommended! Heat up a medium size pan on a low-medium heat. Once hot, add almonds to it. Dry roast the almonds for a few minutes until fragrant and lightly browned on both sides – move them around the pan frequently so that they don’t burn. Remove the almonds from the pan and place them on a chopping board. Add pumpkin and sunflower seeds to the pan and dry roast them together, stirring frequently.
- Chop toasted almonds up roughly and if using dates, prunes or apricots rather than cranberries, remove the stones (dates) and chop them into smaller pieces too.
- In a small mixing bowl combine all the wet ingredients.
- Add cooled-down nuts, seeds and dried fruit to the dry ingredients.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix well to combine. Let the batter rest for about 30-60 minutes so that ground chia or flax seeds (also known as a flax egg) have had a chance to activate (become jelly-like) in the added moisture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin and decorate the top with extra seeds before putting the bread in the oven.
- Bake for about 60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Let the bread cool down completely before cutting into it and use a serrated knife to cut it.
*BAKING SODA: Please ignore the fact that the video calls for baking powder (instead of baking soda). It’s a typo that we didn’t spot in time. Baking soda is the correct ingredient.
*SPICES: If you intend to have this bread with sweet toppings, adding some ground spices and optionally increasing the amount of sweetness (to 2 tbsp maple syrup) is a nice idea. I would start with Β½ tsp cinnamon and ΒΌ tsp ground ginger and nutmeg and a good pinch of cloves. For a savoury take on this bread, nigella seeds make a nice topping and olives a great substitute for dried fruit.
Is the maple syrup necessary? Or can I switch it for something not sweet or if sweet for honey?
I would not skip it as it ads to the flavour, but it's up to you really. Sure, you can swap it out for honey if you use honey. Hope this helps! x Ania
Full honesty, I have not tried as I set out to create a gluten-free recipe from the start. It *should* work but like I say you'll need to take the risk. Ania
I need gms recipe
Gluten free bread
Thanks π
Thank you very much β‘
Thanks!
You are welcome to try, but I don't think it will work - not without some major changes to the recipe as nut flour is fatty and has different water absorbency so I am pretty sure it will behave differently in this recipe. x Ania
Do you think you could cook it in a bread maker on a gluten free (or other) setting
Unfortunately, I don't have a bread maker so I cannot be sure. Ania
I'm delighted to hear that you enjoy this recipe so much. Yes, the flaxseeds (or chia seeds) have to be ground or else they do not become gelatinous enough to hold this bread together. Yes, the fruit does add extra moisture, for sure. Thank you for taking the time to let me know that this recipe has served you well - much appreciated. Ania
Dziekujemy Aniu:))
I suppose so although I have never tried using Stevia so I cannot be 100% sure. You could also try adding some date puree. Ania
I'm so sorry but I have no experience in this matter at all so I'm not sure I am the best person to ask. Ania
I did use oat flour ( I just ground a heaping cup of rolled oats) instead of buckwheat. I left the rest of the recipe as is, and it turned out very well.
www.nourish-to-flourish.net and #barbiecohen
Thanks for your kind comment, I am glad you enjoyed this recipe although I am really perplexed by the crumbling issues you and a few others have reported (I've had lots of people tag me on Instagram where the bread looked like mine and sliced neatly). I make it regularly (both versions, with ground flax and chia) and I am absolutely sure that the amount of water is correct. I would say that crumbliness indicates something quite the opposite - sounds like the bread is too dry, which is why it crumbles. I wonder if it is an irregularity of one of the ingredients between what is available here (UK) and elsewhere. I'm really not sure tbh. Ania
Leigh
Thinking of making it more savoury adding olives, sundried tomatoes and herbs. I assume that would work?
I know it seems a daft question as the intent is to be gluten free, but would wheat flour work, and if so, the same quantity?
Yes, savoury additions will work for sure. Not sure about wheat flour as I have set out to make this bread gluten-free from the beginning so have not tested any other flours. I imagine that it would need some tweaking...Ania
Thanks a lot for this recipe, my quarantine sourdough experiment was a disaster so I was happy to find a bread recipe I could bake easily. Which was absolutely the case and the result turned out very nice and tasty. However the next day the bread has some dark green bits (!) which I am not sure are mould or some kind of oxidation. The sunflower seeds seem to be the guilty ones... I used sunflower, pumpkin, chia, flax and sesame seeds, dried apricots and hazelnuts.
Maybe I should have kept it in the fridge? I kept it at room temperature on a wood board under a tea towel . Or was it not cooked enough? The bread is moist but keeps together well so I think it was well cooked (50 min at 150Β°C fan). Hard to say but I am really sad I might have to through half of this nutty seedy bread away... Have you experimented a similar issue or had comments of this type before?
I will try it again for sure, I am a big fan of your blog and recipes in general!
I am absolutely sure it is not mould - it's too soon for it to develop, I am pretty sure. I have had a similar experience and it's to do with certain types (not all) of pumpkin seeds, which seem to dye the surrounding areas of the bread. They tend to be very dark green when raw while some others I've purchased in the past are a bit of a duller colour. I am pretty sure that's it. I am having the same bread for breakfast this week and I keep it on the counter too. In my experience it tends to go stale before the mould sets in. Hope that helps! Ania
It's really hard for me to say as I have not tried using this kind of flour in this context. Each flour has different absorbency level so it may be that the amount of water needed to make the bread work with buckwheat flour is too much for the flour you are using. The desired result is that the bread is fairy moist (I enjoy it well toasted) but not like a cake - that sounds too wet. Hope this helps a little! Ania
Thanks for letting me know. I am puzzled. I cannot figure it out at all. I assume you also used baking soda (not baking powder)? That's the only other thing I can think of - that maybe baking powder makes it crumbly as we did make that mistake when captioning the video, but it is explained in the recipe so I am sure you didn't. Gosh, I really don't know.
I really loved this bread. I used raisins as I didn't have any cranberries. Delicious. I don't understand people's comments about the bread being crumbly because it isn't crumbly at all in my opinion. But you do have to read the recipe quite closely as you may miss out some ingredients or not notice that the bread contains both ground flaxseeds and whole flaxseeds. I'm really happy to find a gluten free bread recipe that doesn't crumble. I'm definitely going to try the savoury version with olives next. I guess with the savoury version I shouldn't add the tablespoon of maple syrup? Thanks for the amazing recipe
Thank you so much for your kind words, I am so glad you've had no issues and that you enjoy it as much as I do. I would still include maple syrup as it's not like it renders the bread sweet, it simply takes the edge off (it neutralises the acid needed to help it rise). Ania
I'm sorry to hear that, but I have made this bread 3 times recently and it held together absolutely fine so I am 100% sure the recipe is solid. Did you use GROUND chia as well as whole chia? It is ground chia that behave like an egg white in conjunction with and bind the loaf together. Whole chia is added just for extra nutrition. Another option is that it has been overcooked, which would render it dry and crumbly too I imagine - if the oven runs hotter than the temperature indicated on the dial or if the loaf was baked past the point of being done. Finally, did you use buckwheat flour or made any flour swaps - that would certainly affect the final texture. Please let me know as I am keen to get to the bottom of this issue as like I say, I retested it again recently with success. Ania
I'm so sorry to hear that you have had issues. I have made this recipe many times and my husband, who is not a very experienced cook, made it for our video (which you can see in the post) so I am confident that the recipe does work. I would make it again for us in fact but due to the crisis I cannot get hold of any buckwheat flour. I can think of two things I could have possibly caused the issues you are describing - did you put ground up chia seeds in the batter? did you allow the batter to rest for at least 30 minutes before putting it in the oven? Cheers! Ania
This looks like a great recipe. My husband discovered last year that he is gluten intolerant. We are having to completely change the way we eat. I find gluten free bread so expensive in the supermarkets and thought I'd try baking my own. Could I completely leave the fruit out of this recipe? Would it still work? To be more savoury I would go with olives, but sadly my husband doesn't like them.
Thanks,
Lynsey
Sure, not a problem at all - feel free to skip, it will not affect the bread at all. You could always sub more nuts or seeds of your choice. Hope that helps! Ania
Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
How do you recommend storing the bread? On the counter? Fridge? or freezer?
And how long do you think this bread would last if stored in the fridge?
Thanks in avance,
Alexandra
I am sorry but I don't have a way to provide nutritional information on my website at the moment, but there are lots of phone apps out there that do just that (Cronometer is one I am aware of). Cheers! Ania
I haven't tried, but I am pretty certain you could replace it with 3 tbsp tahini, almond or sunflower butter, for example. Hope that helps! Ania
thank you for your reply!
I have waited until the next day before I cut it to have a slice. It is almost too moist and I think that's why it crumbles away. So what I'm thinking now is either I should have left it in the oven a little bit longer OR I used the wrong flaxseed component? I used Linwoods organic milled flaxseed, when there is probably a big difference between that one and flaxseed meal? It's probably too coarse to soak up all the water? I kind of hope that's what it is. I'd rather be a little silly than still not know what I've done wrong :)
Thank you for your help Ania! Really appreciate it!
Hmm, this is really puzzling. Are you able to try chia seeds next time? Or perhaps mix the flaxseed meal with a little water first and allow it to sit for a while so that it turns into a gel-like consistency before adding to the mixture. I've never used Linwoods milled flaxseed myself so I cannot comment on its efficacy, I'm afraid, but it should work just like ground flaxseed, I imagine. Hope we can get to the bottom of this! Ania
My bread came out quite crumbly though, still very moist, but I wasn't really able to have "slices" of bread. I do think I followed the recipe religiously, but the crumble would suggest that either I used too much water or too little flaxseed meal? Is that correct? Any ideas? I'm a newbie at gluten free baking, but it's a lot of fun to experiment :)
All the best, Lydia
I am so happy to hear that you like this bread! Hmm, crumbly and moist is a bit of a puzzle - I would suggest that it was baked for too long / at too high temp (ovens vary a lot so it may be that yours burns hotter than mine) if it was crumbly, but then you say it is moist so it cannot be that. Did you wait with cutting it until it was cold and I find that using a serrated knife gives me very neat slices. Is your ground flaxseed fresh - can you make a flax egg with it? I have never had it crumble so I am not sure what to suggest. I will try to make it in the next few weeks and see if I can come up with something - I will get back in touch if I do. Sorry I cannot be of any more help. Ania
Thx
Pam
I'm so sorry to here that you are battling gastrointestinal issues and I hope that things will approve soon. I am not sure whether almond meal would work in this case to be honest as it behaves quite differently to buckwheat flour. It is certainly worth trying, but I am unable to reassure you here as I simply don't know. Sorry I cannot be of any help this time. Ania
I haven't tried using any of these flours here and I know that some of them, like coconut for example, are much more absorbent so some other tweaks to the recipe would most likely be required. You'll need to experiment yourself. Sorry I cannot be of any more help x Ania
I was pressed for time so didnβt get a chance to let the batter rest - just soaked the chia and flax seeds in 1,5 c water while i was toasting the nuts & seeds and it worked well for me.
Looking forward to experimenting with different fillings. Today i used almonds, hazelnuts, dates, goji berries and cocoa nibs. Yum!
Thank you for your reply, I will try with the egg substitute first how many eggs do you think the flax seeds constitute as I imagine some is just seeds which I would have to add another seed in place of.
Hope that makes sense.
Melanie
Not sure I follow, but 1 flax egg is 1 tbsp of ground up flax to 3 tbsp of water. However in this recipe, I simply added dry flax directly into the mix and let it stand for a bit. Hope that helps and that your substitute works well! Ania
Love the look of this bread but have quiet a few allergies ( wheat, gluten, egg, dairy, rapeseed to name a few plus several spices and meat) from this recipe flax and chia seeds, just recovering from very bad allergic reaction to chia seeds. I did have a mild reaction to flax seeds but don't want to chance after the chia seeds. I am also allergic to cloves and nutmeg. The spices won't be a problem I am sure leaving them out won't be a problem but what could I replace the chia and flax seeds with. I gather it is for binding ingredients, I do use a egg substitute Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg Substitute which is 10 g of powder to 115 ml ice cold water = 1 egg. (looks like beaten egg).
With all the allergies get stuck with not the nicest of gluten free bread as a lot have egg added as a binding agent ie Schar
Any suggestions would be great.
Found your site by chance and am looking forward to trying a lot of your lovely recipes problem is where to start. And when I start not putting on massive amounts of weight that has taken me years to lose.
Melanie
I am sorry to hear about all your allergies, I can only imagine how difficult this must be for you. I've never tried the egg substitute you mention, but it's definitely worth a shot. Other than that the only other thing I can think of (apart from chia or flax seeds) is thick (reduced on the stove so that it resembles an egg white) aquafaba, however I have not tried it in this recipe. Some blended silken tofu may work too, but it will change the texture of this bread for sure. It requires a bit of experimentation, I'm afraid. Hope that helps and the best of luck! Ania