Savory Almond and Flax Breakfast Loaf with Rosemary and Olives
A dense, moist loaf of almond flour and ground flaxseed bound with eggs and yogurt, studded with chopped kalamata olives, scallion, rosemary, and a lot of coarse black pepper.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
I wanted something I could cut a slice off and eat standing up, and almost everything in that category is sweet. This one is not. It bakes into a close, moist crumb, more like a good cornbread than like sandwich bread, and it is built to be sliced thick and eaten with your hands. Forty minutes in the oven on a Sunday gives me breakfast for the first half of the week. The batter comes together in one bowl with a fork, and there is nothing to knead, prove, or wait for.
The flavor is rosemary, olive, and pepper, in that order. Fresh rosemary chopped fine goes right into the batter, and in the oven it turns from sharp and piney to something rounder and almost sweet. Chopped kalamata olives land in salty pockets you find as you go, and the scallions bake into soft green threads. I use more cracked black pepper than most people would, a full teaspoon and a half, because the almond flour is rich and something has to push against it. Warm from the oven it is very good; cold the next day it is better.
This is a make-ahead loaf and it belongs to a busy week. It slices cleanly straight from the refrigerator, which most grain-free bakes do not, and it holds four days without drying out because of the yogurt and the flaxseed. I toast slices in a dry pan for two minutes a side when I have time, which crisps the outside and warms the middle. When I do not have time, I wrap two slices in a napkin and eat them on the way out the door, which is the entire reason I started making it.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups fine almond flour
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil, plus more for the pan
- 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp fresh rosemary needles, chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp coarsely cracked black pepper
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven and line the pan: Heat the oven to 350°F. Oil an 8 by 4-inch loaf pan and line it lengthwise with a strip of parchment that hangs over both long sides, which gives you handles later. This batter is sticky and a loaf that will not come out of the pan is the only way this recipe goes wrong.
- Mix the dry ingredients: Whisk the almond flour, ground flaxseed, salt, and cracked black pepper together in a large bowl until the flax is evenly distributed and there are no pale clumps of almond flour left. Break up any lumps against the side of the bowl with the back of a spoon. Fine almond flour matters here; coarse meal makes a heavier, grittier loaf.
- Beat the wet ingredients: In a second bowl, beat the eggs hard with a fork for a full minute, until they are pale and foamy and have roughly doubled in volume. That air is the only lift this loaf gets. Whisk in the yogurt and the olive oil until smooth, with no white streaks of yogurt left.
- Fold and add the flavor: Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold with a spatula just until no dry patches remain, about twenty strokes. Fold in the olives, scallions, and rosemary with a few more. The batter will be thick, closer to a spoonable dough than a pourable batter. Scrape it into the pan and smooth the top.
- Bake and cool properly: Bake 38 to 42 minutes, until the top is deep golden and springs back when you press the center, and a skewer comes out with a crumb or two but nothing wet. Tent it with foil at thirty minutes if it is browning fast. Cool in the pan ten minutes, lift it out by the parchment, and let it cool fully on a rack before slicing, or it will crumble.
Variations
- Sun-dried tomato and thyme: Swap the olives for chopped sun-dried tomatoes and the rosemary for fresh thyme leaves, which makes a sweeter, redder loaf.
- Sesame crust: Scatter two tablespoons of sesame seeds over the top before it goes into the oven for a crackly, nutty crust.
- More heat: Fold a finely chopped jalapeno into the batter with the scallions for a loaf with a slow burn behind the pepper.
- Muffin format: Divide the batter among eight muffin cups and bake 20 to 24 minutes for individual portions that freeze even better than slices.
Storage & Leftovers
Wrapped in parchment inside a sealed container, the loaf keeps four days in the refrigerator and slices better on day two than on day one. The flaxseed holds moisture, so it does not dry out the way most grain-free bakes do. Keep it whole and cut slices as you need them rather than slicing it all at once.
It does not love the counter. Almond flour and eggs at room temperature for more than a day go sour-smelling quickly, so the refrigerator is the right place for anything you are not eating that morning. Two minutes a side in a dry skillet takes the chill off and gives you a crisp face on each slice.
It freezes well for up to three months. Slice the whole loaf first, stack the slices with squares of parchment between them, and freeze them in a bag so you can pull out one or two. They toast straight from frozen in a skillet or a toaster oven in about four minutes.
Notes & Tips
- Beat the eggs longer than feels necessary: A full minute of hard beating until they are foamy is the only lift this batter gets. Stirred in casually, the loaf comes out flat and heavy.
- Line the pan with a parchment sling: The batter is sticky and the loaf is fragile while warm. Two overhanging edges let you lift it straight out without turning it upside down.
- Chop the rosemary fine: Whole needles stay woody through a bake this short and catch in your teeth. Run the knife through them until they are almost a powder.
- Let it cool all the way: Cut warm, this crumbles into rubble. The structure sets as it cools, and an hour on a rack is the difference between slices and a pile.
- Crack the pepper coarse: Preground pepper disappears into the batter. Cracked under a pan or in a mortar, you get little bursts of heat throughout.
- Use a serrated knife: A straight blade compresses this crumb and tears it. A bread knife and a gentle sawing motion gives you clean, thick slices.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Almond flour, flaxseed, and eggs are the three things doing the structural work in this loaf. The almond flour gives it the rich, close crumb, the flaxseed holds the moisture that keeps it sliceable for days, and the eggs bind and lift the whole thing without any flour to help them.
- Almond flour is essentially ground whole almonds, which is why it brings vitamin E and magnesium along with its richness, and why a slice eats so much heavier than its size suggests. The fat in it is mostly monounsaturated, the same kind that makes almonds taste buttery.
- Ground flaxseed is quietly the reason this loaf works. It swells and holds water, which is what keeps the crumb moist on day four, and it carries a large share of the fiber here along with the plant omega-3 fat ALA.
- Kalamata olives arrive in salty, briny pockets rather than spread evenly through, and that unevenness is the point. They are cured in brine, which is where their sharpness comes from, and they bring the same monounsaturated fat that olive oil does.
- Rosemary, scallion, and a lot of cracked black pepper are what keep a rich loaf from being one flat note. Rosemary softens in the oven into something almost sweet, and the pepper stays bright and prickly right through the bake, which is why it goes in coarse.
- As you eat, chew a slice slowly enough to find the olive pieces and the sting of the pepper behind the rosemary, and notice that a loaf this close-grained asks you to slow down whether you meant to or not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use almond meal in place of almond flour?
You can, and the loaf will be heavier and speckled with skin, which some people like. Blanched fine almond flour gives you the close, even crumb this recipe is aiming at. Whatever you use, do not substitute coconut flour, which absorbs several times more liquid and will give you a dry brick.
Why is my loaf wet in the middle?
Almost always underbaking, because the top browns before the center sets. Give it the full forty minutes, cover it with foil if the top is getting dark, and test with a skewer in the middle rather than near the ends. Cooling it fully in one piece also finishes the setting.
Can I make it without eggs?
Not really, in this version. The beaten eggs are both the binder and the only thing giving the loaf any lift, and flax eggs will not do that job here. If you need an egg-free savory bake, a chickpea flour farinata is a better place to start.
Do I have to use olives?
No, though they are where a lot of the savor comes from. Chopped sun-dried tomatoes work well in the same quantity, and so do capers if you rinse them first. Left out entirely, add another half teaspoon of salt so the loaf does not taste flat.