This might be my favourite quick bread recipe of all time. Lemon flaxseed bread. The flax is there for texture and flavour, literally, this bread is bursting with flaxseed. The lemon glaze is an absolute must. Slice this one thin, thin, thin to highlight that sweet and tangy lemon glaze with each bite.
I love this lemon flaxseed bread. Love. Love. LOVE.
I make this recipe over and over and every time I am just I'm tickled, I'm so happy with the results. I prefer this bread in super thin slices. It just feel right in light and delicate slices, with just the right amount of glaze and crispy crust on each piece.
How to make sure your quick breads have a crispy and crunchy crust
For an extra crispy crust, lightly grease the baking tin with cooking spray and then dust the inside of the tin with sugar.
Baking tip! ~ spray your baking tin with cooking spray then sprinkle with sugar for a crispy and crunchy crust!
You get a crispy and caramel-ly (for sure a word) crust. Thin slices somehow make it feel like there is more crispy crust to go around. Obviously, I'm deluded. But I insist thin slices are better and make me happy. It also means you get so many more slices...
And as this is a firm loaf, thin slices are easy to pull off without breaking apart.
Flaxseed is the star in this flaxseed bread
You are likely familiar with flax-seed as an egg replacement. In this bread, flax is the star of the show.
Flaxseed is busy being the flavour and the texture here so it just doesn't have time to also be the thing that binds or the glue that holds the bread together. So to make this bread vegan I had some work to do on the original recipe.
How to make this flaxseed bread recipe vegan
The original recipe -- which I posted on the blog in the form of muffins years ago -- has eggs and buttermilk in it.
To make it vegan I swapped out the eggs for some well-mashed banana and used a little lemon juice (or vinegar) to sour some non-dairy milk instead of buttermilk.
Ingredient notes
- Because the bread already has a good amount of flax in it, I didn't want to use more flax to replace the egg .... I was afraid it would become just be too flax-y (so, obviously a real word). Mashed ripe banana worked great and the mild banana flavour is just so good with the lemon and flaxseed.
- To replace buttermilk, take a liquid measuring cup and add a tablespoon of cider vinegar or lemon juice. Then, fill the liquid measure the to required volume called for in the recipe with the non-dairy milk of your choice (use coconut, soy, rice or almond). Allow this to sit for 5-10 minutes while you get the remaining ingredients ready. Any non-dairy milk will do. Soy and coconut milk curdle nicely and are a bit thicker - like actual buttermilk.
- I like canola oil for baking, its neutral and a sustainable choice. Look for cold pressed.
Lemon Flaxseed Bread
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ cup whole flaxseeds or 6 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
- 1 medium sized banana well mashed
- 2 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour or a combination of whole wheat and white, all purpose
- 1-½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or cider vinegar
- ¾ cups soy milk - scant measure (or other non-dairy milk, like coconut)
- ¼ cup canola oil or other mild tasting, neutral oil
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Spray loaf tin with cooking spray and sprinkle the 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly inside the tin.
- Grind flaxseed and measure 6 tablespoons. (My magic bullet works great for this.)
- Combine the remaining 1 cup of sugar and banana in the bowl of a standmixer, or large bowl using a hand mixer, beat on high-speed for about 3 minutes, until creamy and sugar is well dissolved.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, flaxseed and salt. Stir well.
- In a small bowl combine soured milk, oil, lemon rind and vanilla. With the mixer running at low-speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, mixing well after each addition.
- Spoon batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool 5 minutes in the baking tin, then remove from the tin and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Cool completely before glazing.
- For glaze, combine lemon juice and powdered sugar and drizzle over top of the loaf. Allow the glaze to dry and firm up before slicing (not absolutely necessary, but helps for longer storage).
Notes
As the glaze sits, it will harden slightly making storage and slicing easier.
Use a serrated knife to slice this bread super thin.
jesusan says
This sounds very nice, not overly flaxy… (I've made a low-carb flax bread that had no flour in it, and that much flax tasted strange to me.) I love it that you make up words. Isn't it nice that the blog does not publish with the dashed red lines under those words? I'm thinking that coconut oil might add an interesting flavor to this combination.