Thursday, January 14, 2010

Dehydrator Flax Bread

This recipe comes from the Hallelujah Acres magazine, Health News. I was pleased, when I made this the other day, how well it turned out. Flexible enough to be used as a wrap if not dried too crispy. And yet can still be dried a little more for a less flexible option.

No grain, no gluten, no yeast. The term "bread" meaning more about how you use it than what it contains. High in fiber, raw, and high in omega-3 fatty acids, it helps sweep out your colon for better health. Great as a new addition in our house. I can't wait to play with the recipe a little to have other flavor options. Spread with a little raw nut butter and roll it up. Mmmm.

Flax Bread

Mix together, making sure there are no lumps of raisins sticking together and set aside:
2 cups ground flax seeds
1 cup raisins

Put into blender separately:
2 cups water
2 apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Stir all ingredients together. Let stand for about 30 minutes. Spoon 1/3 of the mixture onto a teflex sheet for your dehydrator. Spread it out with a spatula (approx. 1/8" thick, without holes). Push any raisins on the edges more into the center. Repeat with the other portions of the mixture.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees F. for at least 2 hours. Then flip bread over onto the mesh sheet and peel away the teflex sheet from the bread. Leave bread in for another 2 hours depending on how dry you like your bread (make sure there are no more wet looking areas). The thicker the bread, the longer it will take to dehydrate. Don't let it get too crispy. If left more flexible, you can use it as a wrap.

My notes: I put the mixture on parchment paper, as I don't own the teflex sheets (yet) for my Excalibur food dehydrator. I didn't follow the 1/3 mixture idea in the recipe, but rather did more "individual bread slices" amount by eyeballing it (about 4x5" size roughly). This to me was helpful, because when I went to flip them over, some needed more drying time than others. Made this way, you can get about 12 "slices" from one batch.

Initially, I thought it would have a more cinnamon raisin bread flavor. It is not that strongly flavored. It did smell good when dehydrating though. Next time I might add more cinnamon. Pleasantly sweet without overpowering in that department.

I used the darker brown flax seeds, so it looked more like a dark bread. If you used the golden flax seeds, it would be lighter in color. Hard to tell it's made out of flax seeds once you eat it. A plus for people not into the "health" aspect of this bread. Taste? Great!

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