If you are looking for the best low carb yeast bread on all of the Internet, then look no further. This low carb version of traditional rye bread will knock your Keto socks off. And each slice has just 7g net carbs.
Good news.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I am about to share a recipe for the tastiest low carb rye bread on the whole entire Internet. Hands down.
That’s because my low carb bread has a certain special something that makes bread, well, bread-like.
And that something is, of course, gluten. You need yeast and you need gluten to get a low carb bread that is elastic and chewy on the inside and crusty on the outside. And I know, I know, you might be thinking that psyllium husk bread is like that. But once you’ve had a slice of my low carb rye bread, you will never go back.
But maybe the best reason to make low carb rye bread is this: real Reuben sandwiches will soon be within your reach.
Yep, soon you’ll have the rye bread, so all you’ll need is corned beef, Swiss cheese, cabbage and Russian dressing. Jasmine over at Stylish Cravings has a great recipe for Keto Reuben In A Bowl on her website. Using this recipe is an easy way to make sure that your sandwich fillings stay low carb.
So let’s get cracking!
To make this rye bread recipe, you’ll need the basic ingredients of water, salt, ground ginger, baking powder and yeast. But you’ll also need some specialty ingredients like almond flour, vital wheat gluten, erythritol sweetener and dark rye flour. Oh, and caraway seeds. You can’t have a real loaf of rye bread without caraway seeds.
Now, this low carb yeast bread is slightly higher in carbohydrates than my other yeast breads.
This rye bread has 7g net carbs per slice while my Farmer’s Bread and Ciabatta Rolls have 5g net carbs. It’s just the difference between using real dark rye flour instead of flaxseed meal. It’s a trade off, I know, but can you really make a self respecting rye bread without a little rye flour? I think not.
Ok, one more thing and then I’m done.
Please pay close attention when you are proofing the yeast. (That’s when you combine warm water, sweetener and yeast in a bowl and wait for it to ferment and become frothy.) If the yeast fails this test then it’s dead and the bread won’t rise and everyone will be unhappy. So please take care.
We have the Reuben sandwiches to think of. (Toot toot!)
Real Low Carb Rye Bread
If you are looking for the best low carb yeast bread on all of the Internet then look no further. This low carb version of traditional rye bread will knock your socks off. And each slice has just 7g net carbs.
- Prep Time: 80
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups warm (like bath water) water, divided
6 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons sugar*
2 envelopes (4 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups vital wheat gluten
2 cups super fine almond flour
1/4 cup dark rye flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup Swerve or equivalent granulated sweetener
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1/2 tablespoon melted butter to brush over the top of the dough.
Instructions
1. Liberally grease an 8, 9 or 10 inch wide glass or metal bowl with butter. Use the most rounded bowl that you have.
2. Mix together 1/2 cup warm water, sugar, ginger and yeast in a large bowl and cover the bowl with a towel. After 7-10 minutes the mixture should be frothy with small bubbles. If it is not frothy, then the yeast has died and you need to start over with new yeast.
3. Sift together remaining dry ingredients except the caraway seeds.
4. Mix together the frothy yeast mixture, 6 tablespoons melted butter and remaining 1 3/4 cup warm water.
5. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir well to combine. Mix in caraway seeds.
6. The dough should be sticky and rather wet, but you should be able to knead it. But if it’s too dry to knead then add a little water and if it’s too wet to knead you can add a little more almond flour. Knead the dough for 3 minutes.
7. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the greased bowl.
8. Preheat the oven for 2-3 minutes until it reaches 100-110 degrees. Cover the bowl with a towel and place the bowl of dough in the oven to rise for 1 hour. It will not rise very much at all. That’s ok because it will rise when you bake it. Remove the bowl from the oven. Brush the top of the dough with 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.
9. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 35-45 minutes. Loosely cover the bread with a piece of foil at minute 20 to keep the bread from browning too much. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 200 – 210 degrees F and a wooden skewer in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
10. Cool in the bowl for 10 minutes. Then place a large cutting board on top of the bowl. Invert the bowl to release the loaf from the bowl.
11. Wait until fully cooled before cutting.
Notes
*The sugar is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide in the fermentation (proofing) process, so the carbohydrate is cancelled out.
TO MAKE THIS BREAD IN A LOAF PAN:
Follow steps 1 through 8. Then take the risen bread dough out of the oven and place it on the counter. Use your fist to punch the air out of the dough, 3-4 times. Roll the dough into a loaf shape and place it in a greased loaf pan. Allow to rise for 45 more minutes. Then resume the recipe for steps 9-12.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 268
- Fat: 16
- Carbohydrates: 11
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 21
Keywords: Low Carb Rye Bread, Real Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Yeast Bread
If you liked this low carb yeast bread recipe, then you might like my recipes for Farmer’s Yeast Bread, Rustic Italian Loaf or Ciabatta Rolls.
Patty Donahue says
I made your recipe this weekend and only made one change. I added 1 tablespoon of fresher grated orange peel, so it was similar to a Swedish Limpa bread. Very delish. The rise on the bread was phenomenal, but it deflated (i think my oven was too hot for the rise). Still, it baked well. It’s a little more moist than a normal
Rye but it’s still very good. Toasts well. Best bread I’ve had since eating low-carb/keto. I know it is quite high carb if you are following keto, but it is a delish treat if you ease up a bit for a low carb day.
EmilyKrill says
Adding orange is a nice touch. Good idea.
Dale Olstinske says
Just made this, let me say right off the bat the flavor is awesome. I am smoking some pastrami right now to eat it with. Unfortunately though, I ran into the same issues as Brian Lamb above. When I mixed all the ingredients, the dough was way too wet, I probably ended up adding more than 1/4 cup more almond flour, but it still was still not enough as the total cook time was 1 hour 15 minutes, to reach 200° inside. I was then unable to easily get the loaf out of the glass bowl, it ended up getting a large tear on the top (bottom of bowl).
You mentioned it wouldn’t rise much while proofing, but would while cooking. I had the opposite experience, it raised considerably while proofing, but not at all while cooking, perhaps even deflated a tad.
This IS an expensive list of ingredients, but I will try again. Perhaps you have some suggestions or ideas what went wrong?
★★★
EmilyKrill says
Bread is so tricky because there are so many factors at play. There is also quite a bit of difference between brands of the bread ingredients. And it makes a difference how packed your measuring cups are with the flours. (Don’t pack it in.). If you give the recipe another try and it is still so wet you can’t easily knead it, try splitting the extra flour you add between almond flour and gluten. (So an extra 1/4 cup flour would be 2 TB almond flour and 2TB gluten. Make sure to grease the bowl very liberally. And good luck!
TJ says
Hi, if I don’t have active dry yeast, could I substitute with instant yeast, and how do I modify some of the steps to make allowances for instant yeast?
EmilyKrill says
I haven’t ever used instant yeast, but according to the Kitchn, it can be used interchangeably with active yeast. https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-active-dry-yeast-and-instant-yeast-54252
Lea says
I used 3.5 tsp instant yeast instead of active dry yeast, just mixed up all the dry ingredients and added the wet (no need to bloom the yeast). I only used 400ml warm water by the way. The only problem with this bread is I can’t stop eating it 😆
EmilyKrill says
Hahahaha. Good to know. Glad ya like it.
erica says
Bravo! I followed this to a T with only one small change – 1 1/2 tsp molasses instead of sugar for the yeast to feed on (it’s all i had on hand). It cooked in my glass pyrex bowl perfectly with a beautiful crust on all sides. Perfect texture and flavor. Great with kosher realsalt on top and a slab of kerrygold butter… can’t wait to try it toasted.
Thanks for bringing my low carb fish fry dreams to life!
★★★★★
EmilyKrill says
Yum, molasses sounds great in this.
Mary Morello Manello says
Hello and thanks for your diligent work! Can I make this in my bread machine? I bought a bread machine to make Keto King’s Bread Machine bread and it’s to DIE FOR. (only 2 carbs per slice). Seeing your rye bread recipe has me wanting to try it! Thanks!
EmilyKrill says
You know, I have never used a bread machine, so I’m not sure if you could make this rye bread with one. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.
Mary Kasner says
I made this in the bread machine and it is mushy. So disappointed that it didn’t work out. I’ve converted recipes before with no issues. Not sure what happened.
EmilyKrill says
Oh dear. I have never used a bread machine, so I don’t have any advice to offer, I’m afraid.
Mike A says
Would love to be able to have rye bread. Caraway seeds add a lot to the taste. But I am hesitant about the sweetener due to GI concerns. Is the granulated artificial sweetener critical to the recipe?
EmilyKrill says
Not at all. The sweetener adds to the flavor of the rye bread, but is not necessary for the recipe to work.
You might want to try another recipe of mine if you like rye bread. It’s a pumpernickel bagel that uses Fathead mozzarella cheese dough instead of the yeast bread dough used in this recipe. It’s a quicker way to get your rye bread fix. https://www.resolutioneats.com/blog/pumpernickel-bagel/
Brian Lamb says
Has anyone else made this bread? Everyone talks about how good it looks and wanting to make it, but I don’t see anyone commenting on actually making it. I tried it this past weekend and it didn’t turn out well, it might have been my bad but couple of things seemed off. I followed the recipe and I was left with an overly wet loaf that was a bit sour. Let me add that I used to make sourdough loaves when I wasn’t low carb and they came out perfect. I also want to add that I use my oven regularly, so I know it works properly.
First, the recipe calls for 2 packets or 4.5 tsps of yeast. I am not sure about that conversion. I know what the internet says about weight of yeast and packet equivalencies but the yeast packets I used held approximately 1.5 tsps per pouch. Two packets would have put me at 3 tsps. So I went with more rather than less and measured out 4.5 tsps. It should have made my loaf bigger and albeit yeastier. I got the sourish taste off it, but no extra rise, so not sure what the measurement is actually supposed to be.
Next, I baked it in an 8.5 inch metal bowl. At 20 minutes, the dough was still very wet with no noticeable browning. I waited a bit longer to cover it to try to get some color, to no avail. At 30 minutes I covered it. It then became a waiting game. My loaf didn’t come to 200 degrees for approximately an hour and10 minutes. It was still underdone and wet, even though I let it get to 205. I want to try it again, but these things get expensive.
★★
EmilyKrill says
Oh dear. Sorry that you don’t like the bread. You are right, these are expensive ingredients to waste. But I’d be happy to address the issues you had.
I’m not sure where you got the 1 1/2 tsp yeast number, but you can go right to the source for that measurement. https://redstaryeast.com/yeast-baking-lessons/yeast-types-usage/active-dry-yeast/ . Sounds like you ended up using the recipe amount of 4 1/2 teaspoons, and the yeast bread rose just like it should have.
As to the moisture in the bread, I think of it as a feature rather than a bug. Low carb almond flour bread can be bone dry, so this recipe is meant to be different than that. You can try two fixes though. The easiest thing to do is just toast the bread before you eat it. You can try adding less water, but I don’t think the dough will hold together for you.
The bake time question is harder to answer because, like people, every loaf of bread is different. Bread is kind of famously fickle. So you were right to go by internal temperature rather than the listed average cook time. The bread should not have been underdone at that temperature, but if you do try to make this bread again, you should wait until it reaches between 210-220 degrees.
I do hope you’ll try another bread recipe. I actually have quite a few on my site. Here’s that link. And I probably shouldn’t say this, but if you are just jonesing for real yeast bread, you should try the one that ThinSlim Foods makes called Zero Carb Bread. You can buy it here. For low carb bread, it is surprisingly good.
Ok, that’s all I’ve got. Hope this helps.
Brian Lamb says
Thanks for your reply. It was in depth, thoughtful, and very polite.
I don’t mind if this response isn’t published, but I am hoping for more insights. I wound up not eating the bread that I made because I had also just smoked off 7lbs of pastrami and didn’t want to ruin the pastrami experience.
So just a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.
1. Should the yeast be by weight or volume? If I get 4.5 tsps in actual measuring spoon measurements, that is where it should be, correct?
2. I am wondering if less water, as long as the dough holds together, might be the way to go. I am “positive” that I measured the water correctly, but maybe the water content caused it to take longer to bake off?
3. Have you tried “sola” bread? I was thinking about ordering a couple of loaves of that to give it a shot. It gets good reviews.
Thanks again for responding.
EmilyKrill says
No problem. I like answering questions. (And I admire your commitment to smoked pastrami, BTW.)
1. A lot of people, especially in Europe, bake using weight instead of volume, because there are less variables that way. That’s because the weight might be different if you packed the ingredients into the measuring cup, for instance. The amount of yeast in this recipe is so small though, that I don’t think there is any chance that the volume measurement and the weight measurement would be any different. But the weight of 4 1/2 tsp yeast is 1 1/3 oz. Here’s a link to a yeast conversion chart.
2. It definitely sounds like the water content was a little too high. You can measure your bread ingredients perfectly, but the dough still might be too wet or too dry. You kind of need to go by feel. That’s why the instructions read, “The dough should be sticky and rather wet, but you should be able to knead it. But if it’s too dry to knead then add a little water and if it’s too wet to knead you can add a little more almond flour.”
3. I’ve never heard of Sola bread before today, but I’m very curious about it now. Do you mind checking back in if you give it a try?
Carol says
My favourite sandwich is the patty melt! Now I can have it again!! God bless you!
EmilyKrill says
Any time!
Tisha says
I definitely need a low carb bread on hand!!! This is a great recipe!
★★★★★
EmilyKrill says
Thanks!
Urvashee says
whoah. Rye bread is seriously my favorite kind of bread. Rye bread toast with butter is like a comfort food to me. Nice to see that I may have a low carb option! Thanks.
★★★★★
EmilyKrill says
Rye bread is so good. It’s my fav too.
Sharon says
This rye bread that is low carb looks delicious. You’re right that it’s perfect for Reuben sandwiches.
★★★★★
EmilyKrill says
Thanks!
Elaine says
Rye bread recipes are not something you see often, so I was really excited when I stumbled upon this low carb rye bread recipe of yours. It looks absolutely delightful and something I can’t wait to try!
★★★★★
EmilyKrill says
Great! I hope you like the recipe.
Rosa says
Umm yes please!! I didn’t think low carb and bread could be in the same sentence. Life changing!
★★★★★