This paleo and keto focaccia bread with actual yeast is soft, chewy and with a killer taste. i.e. no eggy business here!
Paleo & Keto Focaccia Bread 🤌
With actual yeast!
Focaccia, the Italian flatbread par excellence, is one multi-purpose bread if there ever was one. Enjoy it dipped in olive oil and balsamic for a delicious low carb and keto entree, make sandwiches out of it (i.e. panini!), or top with a myriad of options for a pizza-like dish.
And as mentioned, this is not your typical eggy or crumbly keto bread. Think less than half the amount of eggs of your typical recipe, and a few other tips and tricks to ensure killer results.
p.s. this is also a *great* yeast bread recipe for you guys that don’t consume flaxseed nor whey protein isolate (which I use in my sandwich bread and bagel recipes to get a fluffier texture).
The Deets
Making this paleo and keto focaccia is incredibly simple really. But, like with any yeasted bread, it does require you take care of a few details to ensure the best possible outcome.
And the one thing to keep in mind is that your focaccia will likely fall somewhat post bake, blame it on the lack of starch (keto flours are notoriously heavy and moist) and certain missing proteins (think gluten).
Also, given that grain free flours love to hold onto moisture, you’ll find that the exterior is not quite crispy. But if that’s your thing, simply give the slices a light toast post-bake.
The Method
The yeast in this keto focaccia ensures a wonderful texture and taste. Now, how much your focaccia will rise (and fall!) post-bake depends quite a bit on your altitude. But note that you still won’t get that gummy and wet texture here of most low carb breads. Plus, I’m baking at over 7,000 feet (Mexico City!!), so if I can make this keto focaccia work so can you.
Weigh your ingredients. This will forever be a staple recommendation for any sort of gluten free baking here at gnom-gnom. As aside from leading to less dirty dishes, it will ensure consistent results time and time again. Remember that gluten free (and particularly keto) baking is notoriously finicky, and measuring by cups is anything but accurate. And if you don’t own a baking scale, measure with cups by dropping the ingredients onto them rather than scooping them out (which often leads to overpacking).
Ingredients at room temperature. Self explanatory really, but incredibly important (particularly for the eggs). If you add cold eggs to the mix your focaccia simply won’t rise much (if at all).
Proof the yeast. This involves mixing dry active yeast with water that’s just warm to touch (between 105-110°F to be precise) and maple syrup or honey for 7 minutes until foamy. And before you scream sugar (!!) remember that the yeast will feed on such sugar to emit carbon dioxide, so it doesn’t affect the carb count much (if at all!). And yes, this is a scientific fact.
Avoid abrupt temperature changes and air drafts. Like with any yeast bread, you need to cuddle your dough. Make sure it’s able to rest undisturbed in a warm space.
Baking at high altitude? Yup, so am I (Paola here!!). I’ve tried quite a few combinations, and the one modification I will suggest is to increase your oven temperature by 25°F. You may also need to decrease the baking time by 5 minutes, but that may change from oven to oven. I’ve made this focaccia also at sea level and it does fall a bit less post bake, but it’s still awesome even if it falls a bit so don’t sweat it much.
Before rise
After rise
The Flours
I like a mixture of super fine almond flour, psyllium husk and xanthan gum best. But if paleo, substituting the xanthan gum for twice the amount of golden flaxseed meal yielded good results too, though slightly denser.
As previously mentioned, for the rise you’ll want instant dry yeast (Saf makes my *absolute* favorite– must try!) and a touch of baking powder.
Rosemary Keto Focaccia Bread (with yeast!)
Ingredients
For the keto focaccia bread
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup or inulin, or honey, to feed the yeast*
- 80 ml water lukewarm between 105-110°F
- 144 g almond flour
- 28 g psyllium husk finely ground
- 1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds**
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 13 g extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
For topping
- rosemary springs
- extra virgin olive oil
- flakey sea salt
Instructions
For the keto focaccia bread
- Pretty please check out the video for guidance (as you'll soon come to realize it's much easier than it sounds!) 😉
- Add yeast and maple syrup (to feed the yeast, see notes) to a large bowl. Heat up water to 105-110°F, and if you don't have a thermometer it should only feel lightly warm to touch. Pour water over yeast mixture, cover bowl with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 7 minutes. The mixture should be bubbly, if it isn't start again (too cold water won't activate the yeast and too hot will kill it).
- Mix your flours while the yeast is proofing. Add almond flour, psyllium husk, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt to a medium bowl and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.
- Once your yeast is proofed, add in the egg, egg whites, olive oil and vinegar. Mix with a whisk or electric mixer for a couple minutes until light and frothy. Add the flour mixture in two batches, mixing until thoroughly incorporated. You want to mix thoroughly and quickly to activate the xanthan gum, though the dough will become very thick by the end and form into a round.
- Line a 10-inch skillet or dish with parchment paper and grease with olive oil (so the dough doesn't stick while you spread it). Dip a spatula (or your fingers) in water and spread the dough until even in thickness. With your fingers wet, make indentations in the dough. Fill some of the indentations with rosemary springs and some more on top, follow with a generous drizzle of olive oil and some flakey sea salt. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm draft-free space for about an hour until lighter in texture. You don't want the dough to double, but it will puff up noticeably (see pictures for reference).
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C while the dough is proofing. And if you're baking at high altitude, you'll want to bake it at 375°F/190°C.
- Transfer the skillet gently into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, covering with a foil dome at minute 10 to avoid excessive browning. Just be sure that the foil isn't resting directly on the focaccia (i.e. we rest it over the edges of the parchment paper).
- Allow the focaccia to cool completely for best texture, as the bread will continue to cook while cooling resulting in a better crumb. But if you can't hold your horses, at least give it 15 minutes before digging in (just note that texture will not be ideal, so we prefer to wait even if we have to reheat!).
- Keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple days, giving it a light toast before serving again.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Can I bake this on a pizza stone?
Please do!! And report back if you do, I’ve been wanting to try it 🙂
Tried, true and delectable!
🙂
Can using sugar instead of home or maple syrup work. If yes, how much of sugar
Sugar works, too. Use the same amount as the maple syrup.
I can’t find a brand of psyllium husk that doesn’t turn everything purple. I’m fed up with awful looking food. I know the taste is unaffected but I don’t like serving everything purple. I’m in uk which brand can anyone recommend. Thanks
go to Natural Grocers and get it in their bulk section
This focaccia was absolutely delicious! Not exactly the same texture as a gluten-filled focaccia, but very delicious in its own right nonetheless! I doubled the recipe for a 9 x 13″ pan. I added extra rosemary to the dough itself instead of just on top, about 1/2 teaspoon extra of kosher salt in the dough, along with a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and few good grinds of fresh pepper. I also ground my psyllium husks into a very fine powder (in my spice grinder) to avoid the sandy grit texture, which mostly worked; I only had a teensy sensation of grittiness in a few of my bites. The yeast makes the real difference here! The dough puffed up nicely while it proofed and was perfectly golden brown when I took it out of the oven. After it cooled I sliced it into batons and toasted them until crisp to serve with various dips and spreads like babagaoush and olive tapenade. This was the first time I’ve served keto food to a group of people outside my family and not one of us felt like we were suffering or deprived because of eating keto! The focaccia was so good that I was accused of it being NOT keto! I have made dozens of different keto breads, focaccia and tortillas from many different websites, but your recipes are by far the best. Weighing (by grams) produces super reliable results and the quality of the ingredients in your recipes produce truly satisfying recipes. Thank you for creating such great recipes; not one of them has failed me, so please know that I’m indebted to you for helping me stay the course with this way of eating!
Noticing your all caps comment on the syrup/honey, I’m going to do the same. I LOVE THIS BREAD!!! I’ve been keto-ish for a little over 3 years and enjoy cooking and baking, yet have shied away from yeast baking. This is the best bread recipe I’ve found on any website. It has something of a light pumpernickel-rye flavor to me. I’m going to try using caraway seeds next time with kosher salt on top to try to bring out more of that flavor. I believe this recipe can be super versatile and adaptable for so many things. Thank you for helping me get past my fear of yeast.
this bread was SO good. definitely rivals my favorite non-keto focaccia, even my non-keto, bread-loving boyfriend loved this recipe and asked me to make it again.
I have made so many keto bread and bagel recipes and I’m getting really sick of everything being made of cheese or tasting like eggs so this was a win for that, but it was also really good. In general, a big fan of recipes on this site but I was so impressed by this one I had to write a review.
I did have to substitute coconut flour for the psyllium husk powder and it still turned out very well.
Hello!! LOVE THIS RECIPE!! For the nutritional information, what is a serving size and how many servings for this recipe? Can you please post!!
Thank you for the deliciousness!
I’ve made these a few times and they’re awesome. Just one question, would cold rising the dough overnight improve it or am I just wasting time and possibly ingredients?
I just made this today and it is fantastic! I love the yeast flavor so next time I’m going to add a little more yeast. Instead of rosemary I used jalapeño and sun dried tomatoes on mine. I also got about 16 slices out of this because I like smaller pieces. I’m going to slice some tomatoes and put on bread along with fresh mozzarella cheese and put under the broiler for a minute or two. You can do so much with this recipe! Thank you ever so much…Kathy Harlan
I do not have psyllium husks (back ordered). Can I use anything else to substitute like flax seed?
I didn’t have psyllium husk either, so I used ground flax & chia seeds (equal parts) and it turned out great! I spread it out to be a little thinner, & baked it just 25 minutes, & it was delicious!
I replaced a third of the almond flour with half whey isolate and half pea isolate, and it turned out great! It tasted like regular focaccia.
This was the most awesome bread I have ever tasted on a keto diet.. looking forward to trying your other recipes 😊
Very nice mousse, but it definitely was not set after 30 minutes in the fridge. Added a tbsp of rum to chocolate mix and lightened it with 1/4 of the whipped cream before mixing the chocolate and whipped cream together.
Do you think you could freeze this bread to make it ahead of time?
This is my first comment after making so many of your recipes!! They are all amazing but this focaccia was over the top!! I cannot believe it is low-carb. We baked it in a quarter sheet pan and used them for open face meatball sandwiches! I would use this bread for sandwiches, easy pizza crust, etc. can’t wait to try your other bread recipes. Thank you, thank you!
Oh my god! I just finished making this and it is a game changer for me! I smothered mine with about 1/4 cup melted butter, a little garlic from a tube and some oregano…I also added about a handful of mozzarella at the stage I had to put foil on it! It was seriously amazing! Turned out perfect! I found my new love!!!
Just baked a batch. The texture was slightly harder and dryer than I liked (but I think it’s because I didn’t measure out properly). Taste was quite bland; I should totally try what you did!
I made this today. It came out grey. The bottom was golden and it was cooked as expected. Just not the nice white/brown from the video. It looked normal through rising – just baked weird.
I followed the recipe by weight and used powdered psylliom husk.
Mine came out the same color? I haven’t tasted it just yet. But I added some olives, I thought maybe that’s why the color changed. Is it a chemical reaction?
I’ve made this recipe and the sandwich bread recipe, but in both cases my dough isn’t rising enough 🙁 I proofed my yeast and it was nice and bubbly. I measure all ingredients with a digital scale. I just can’t figure out where I’m wrong.
How important is it to use apple cider vinegar? I have many other vinegars, balsamic, red wine, rice, white but no cider.
Just use white Terru! Will have the same effect xo!
I for the life of me cannot get this batter to make a dough by hand! I’ve done it twice now and wasted expensive ingredients. I’m convinced it isn’t real! What could be going wrong? How long would I have to work the better by whisking to get it to dough? I keep adding almond flour to get it to the consistency I see in the videos, but that makes it so dry when baked. Ugh! So frustrating!
These doughs need at least a hand mixer… but the consistency shouldn’t be so off. Are you weighing the ingredients? I mean, def real don’t know what to tell you 🤷♀️
You’re definitely right about the hand mixer. I went out and got one since I was JONESING for focaccia on this keto diet! Apologies for the frustration. I assumed when the recipe said “Mix with a whisk or an electric mixer”, I could do it by hand (which is how I do all my baking including peaking egg whites because that’s how my grandmother taught me). Perhaps omit that part going forward so there isn’t confusion? The NEW final result was amazing. Thanks again.
Is there a substitution for almond flour for those of us that are allergic to almonds?
Is there a recipe that uses the leftover yolks?
Yes, there is. Google, wide mouth mason jar mayonnaise recipe.
Hollandaise sauce!
Custard!
I’m in love with your breads. they’re always a great success.
Any idea what i can use in place of the egg whites? any idea what recipes to make to use the yolks. thanks
I have recently read that aquafaba, the broth from cooked chick peas is a suitable sub for egg whites.
apparently 1 egg can be replaced by 1 tablespoon of the liquid found in the bottom of canned legumes, like chickpeas.
This was amazing, fragrant and legit focaccia texture! My sub was Pamela’s gf not xanthum not guar baking binder plus a bit of garlic powder. Used that instead of psyllium husks
and xanthum gum. 2 Tb of that and 1 tsp flax meal!
Loved by my whole family including the non-keto peeps. I’m finding little tricks for proofing the yeast and cooking in our particular oven that means it gets better and better each time! Over the moon to have found this amazing goldmine of fabulous keto recipes that actually work the way they say they will and taste amazing!
I LOVE the taste and overall texture of this bread but it came out also pretty gritty like I added some powdered sand. I did see that someone else also said this so I made sure to get very finely ground psyllium husks. I may have to try ground flax next to see if it gets rid of that grit. But again – over all it was awesome and your recipes are awesome! thanks x
Before going Keto, my hobby was baking artisan breads. This recipe was so satisfying to make after not making focaccia for years! The yeast smell is amazing and welcoming. I liked it best the next day made into “eggs in a basket”!
This message is for Lucia who asked why it felt like “sand” in her bread. It’s the psyllium husks. Try a different brand and grind it very fine. This should work.
Great recipe!