Growing up, everyone in my family loved a good pastrami on rye bread sandwich. Back then, we simply referred to this Jewish delicacy as pastrami on rye. Of course, we made our own sandwiches at home. We also enjoyed pastrami on rye bread when we traveled to New York City each summer to see my grandparents. We loved going to the Jewish delicatessens on the Lower East Side between our trips to the Bronx, to see my Mom’s mother, and our trips to Long Island, to see my Dad’s parents.
When I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1998, I began recreating all of my favorite childhood foods, turning them into the gluten-free classics you find here today, and in my three cookbooks.
As soon as I was diagnosed, I knew I’d need to make a gluten-free rye bread. Since this low-carb bread is made with the high protein, grain-free ingredients that I’ve been using for dozens of years, we can call it a paleo rye bread as well.
You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this healthy bread recipe. It’s great toasted with leftover turkey the day after Thanksgiving. It’s also great for breakfast, toasted with butter, a side of eggs, and some avocado. That’s actually one of my favorite keto breakfasts, and some days I eat it for lunch instead.
This Dark Rye Bread recipe is based on my Flax Foccacia Bread recipe.
Dark Rye Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¾ cup brown flaxmeal
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons caraway seeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine almond flour, flax, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar
- In a small bowl combine eggs, oil, and water
- Stir wet ingredients into dry, then mix in caraway seeds
- Allow batter to sit for 2 minutes to thicken
- Transfer batter into a greased 7.5 x 3.5 inch magic line loaf pan or 7.5 x 3.75 inch fox run pan
- Bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes
- Cool 1 hour
- Serve
To store this bread, wrap in a paper towel, seal in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
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As you may notice, the pan for this bread is a bit of an odd size, it’s about 40% smaller than a traditional sized loaf pan. Originally, I baked this bread in a glass luminarc loaf pan. That was discontinued. I switched to a Magic Line loaf pan, that too was discontinued. I’ve now found and tested a new replacement for these loaf pans. I’m recommending the Fox Run loaf pan, which is not as good as the previous two pans, but good enough. The reason I don’t love it, is that the sides are not as high as the other loaf pans, and the loaf is not as tall as the ones I made in the previous pans.
Whatever you do, don’t bake this bread in a regular, traditional sized loaf pan. Because there is only enough batter for the smaller sized loaf pan that is called for in this recipe, it will only partially fill the pan and you will have a very short loaf that is not tall enough to make proper sandwiches.
Here are some of my other easy low-carb bread recipes:
Katie says
I just made this bread and it was super easy and fantastic!! It’s been a long time since I have been able to have a sandwich. Thank you!
Elana says
Katie, thanks so much for letting me this bread was super easy and fantastic!
Mary says
I made this bread according to your directions it tastes great but didn’t rise, very disappointed, what went wrong?
Elana says
Mary, thanks so much for your comment! This happens when a pan that is larger than the one called for in the recipe is used. If you use the indicated pan it will rise perfectly :-)
Michelle says
Oops …. I just made these and forgot to add the water I have already put them in the oven. I wonder how dry they will be?
Elana says
Michelle, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Maria says
Made it this weekend, and although it didn´t rise a lot the taste is great, not eggy like other paleo breads. Didn´t have caraway seeds so insted used safflower seeds. Thanks Elana for the recipe
PS. should not use apple cider vinegar to help it rise
Elana says
Maria, if you use the recommended size pan this bread will be the perfect height. Thanks for letting me know this bread is great :-)
Carole Ludwig says
This bread and your other breads look great and I want to try them. However, I am a Type 1 diabetic with no pancreas and have to be really careful about carbs. I am trying to GAIN weight so I would like to know the carbs, calories, fat and protein.
Do you have this info available? I have made your Paleo bread and was able to print out the nutritional info from your site.
Elana says
Carole, I provide nutrition info to all of the recipes in my latest book here:
http://bit.ly/2vJVyOx
There are a bunch of great bread recipes in it that I think you’ll love!
Elana
Jo-Anne Ladouceur says
Hi Elana,
Do you crush the caraway seeds?
Thank you
Elana says
Jo-Anne, thanks for your question! No, not for this recipe :-)
Alice L Goble says
I see you use baking soda and cream of tartar….that’s pretty much home made baking powder right? Can I use baking powder instead?
Elana says
Alice, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Margaret Momparler says
What ever you do, do not use baking powder with Aluminum in it.
Nirit says
Dear Elana,
I’ve been making the rye bread for many months using almond meal (which I thought was almond flour – it’s called kemah shkedim here in Israel), and it is delicious, if not perfectly textured. Recently, I found the real deal at the health food store. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it is low fat and not from blanched almonds. I tried it and had to add water because the “batter” was so thick, but it gave me a clue to how the texture is supposed to be. Apparently, some one got smart and decided to sell the leftovers after pressing out the almond oil! Not sure what to do – there’s just so much I can bear to order online to be shipped overseas. Anyway, I read your comparative descriptions of the different almond products, and it helped me understand more. Thank you for posting this delicious recipe.
Elana says
Nirit, thanks for your lovely comment! I remember living in Israel long, long ago before I was gluten-free and baking with regular kemach. I’m so happy to hear that my descriptions of almond flour are helping you understand more! Here’s that link for anyone else that may be wondering:
https://elanaspantry.com/ingredients/almond-flour/
L’hitraot!
Elana
Maura S says
Dear Nirit! I am also from Israel and I have been on lchf for more than a year now, so I have been using almond flour a lot. I will be glad to contact you directly and give you information directly. I get my almond flour grinded at the store and they have a powerful grinder that enables to get the texture we need.
Elana says
Maura, thanks for your comment! I lived in Jerusalem during my junior year of college. For proper results with my recipes use blanched almond flour. And here’s a link to all of my LCHF recipes for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/diets/keto/
L’hitraot!
Elana
Alfred says
I have read that rye have gluten. Weren’t those recipes gluten-free ?
Elana says
Alfred, thanks for your comment. If you look at the ingredients in the recipe you will find that it is 100% gluten-free :-)
Sandra Smith says
Hi Elaina,
Need nutritional info for dark rye bread. Somewhere I saw it as being over 1000 calories.
Can” t believe that, unless it is for entire loaf.
Bye the way, it is very good.
Elana says
Sandra, for more on that please go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/nutrition-information/
Have a wonderful day!
Elana
Debbie Brown says
I used a recipe calculator and divided it into 7 serving (because of the 7 in pan) and I got 153 each