Easy 4-Ingredient Keto Mug Bread

I’ve done lots of keto mug bread experiments. I posted one recipe, which was pretty close to this one, on Facebook a couple of years ago. But that recipe contained flaxseed, which I don’t use anymore because there are so many problems with it (see below!), so I use chia seeds in this recipe instead. They lend a delicious crunch to this easy-to-make 90-second keto bread.

Tips for making the Easy Keto Mug Bread

Four simple ingredients and no complicated processes: basically, nothing can go wrong when you’re preparing this bread. It’s so easy that even your kids can make it! Also, if you’re cooking for one, this mug bread makes a perfect one-serving recipe (are you bored to death of those mammoth recipes that “the whole family will love”? Me too. How often does a whole family eat keto, anyway? Not very, I bet.)

One thing I found that’s quite funny is this: the faster you work, the fluffier your bread will be. So, just quickly mix all the ingredients together, pour the batter into the form and bake as soon as you can. (If you wait to bake it, the batter will get stiffer and the baked bread denser.)

But let’s take a quick look at how to make this bread. Well, when I say “quick”… you certainly know my version of “quick”! There’ll be a bunch of photos showing you how to make this bread, followed by a lengthy description of how I ended up with this recipe before you actually get the recipe itself… oh well, that’s my style, and I’ll stick to it. Sorry, not sorry!

So, finally, let’s start:

Have all the ingredients ready.

 
Combine the almond flour…

 
…chia seeds (I always use white chia seeds; they are beautiful!)…

 
…baking powder…

 
…and the salt (if using it) it in a small cup.

 
Mix well with a spoon…

 
…so that there are no lumps.

 
Add the egg.

 
Mix again well with the spoon…

 
…until smooth. Be careful that no lumps are stuck to the spoon. If there are, gently remove them and mix them into the batter.

 
Pour the batter into a small microwave-safe cup or mug.

 
Ready to the oven.

 
Nuke on high for 90 seconds, or until done.

 
Adjust the total baking time according to your microwave oven. You might want to check for doneness after one minute and adjust the remaining time accordingly.

 
Let cool slightly…

 
…remove from the mug…

 
…slice as you like…

 
…and serve. I love topping warm bread with a good pat of butter!

My Keto Mug Bread experiments

Like I said, I’ve done keto mug bread experiments for many years. Some of them were brilliant, and some of them—well, they ended up in the trash (yes, I’m ashamed!). But I was so happy with my tortilla recipe and the Two-Minute Mile-High English Muffin in a Mug recipe (which you’ll find in my Low Sugar, So Simple book on page 56) that I hadn’t done any keto mug bread experiments for a year or so. My son loves a tortilla, simply filled with cheese, as his school snack.

But then I decided I wanted something different for a change, so I started going through my old mug bread recipes. The best one, according to my notes, was the recipe that I posted on Facebook on 20th October 2014. Almost four years ago! Time flies.

The recipe had one flaw, though: it used flaxseed. These days, I would never use flaxseed myself, nor would I recommend it to anybody. Flaxseed has a lot of downsides. Where to start? First of all, they contain cyanide (actually, a cyanogenic glycoside called linamarin). Even though there are no reported cyanide poisonings from flaxseed, there is no good reason why you should expose yourself to it. Moreover, flaxseed tends to gather heavy metals — such as cadmium, one of the most toxic elements to which you can be exposed — that accumulate in your body and impair the normal function of your cells, which means that you might be more prone to kidney disorders, heart disease, osteoporosis, different cancers or neural disorders. Flaxseed also contain phytoestrogens (lignans) that mimic the female hormone estrogen. And that’s not the only reason that men shouldn’t eat flax: ground flaxseed also increases the amount of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which means that there is less free testosterone in your bloodstream, as the SHBG tends to bind testosterone more eagerly than, for example, estrogen. And you probably already know that low testosterone levels in men lead to low libido, impotence, muscle loss, insomnia, depression, or simply getting fat around the middle.

And those are very good reasons to avoid flax, whether you’re male or female!

But what to use in place of flax to get that same binding effect? The answer is surprisingly simple: chia seeds. They have far fewer disadvantages than flax, and they are good for your stomach, too! (Actually, you can replace flaxseed with chia seeds in just about any recipe.)

So, I took the old recipe and replaced the ground flaxseed with whole chia seeds, just to see how it would work, and to find out whether the whole chia seeds would lend it a nice crunch.

I followed the instructions and even used the same small form I had used in the photo of that Facebook post. Well, the result was quite nice:

The old recipe contained also 1 teaspoon coconut flour. That didn’t sound like very much, so I decided to see what would happen if I left out the coconut flour. I remember I added the coconut flour to the old recipe for a better texture, but now that I had the chia seeds, maybe the texture would be fine without it.

Well, to my surprise, the bread rose more! Here is a photo of it:

 
Then I wanted to know what would happen if I used 2 teaspoons chia seeds instead of 1 teaspoon. Now that I was omitting the coconut flour, I could add more dry stuff, right?

This version became fluffy, even better than the first one with the coconut flour. This is how it looked:

 
I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, the second version was a real winner. It simply had the best shape and looked fluffiest.

For the old recipe, I had used a microwave oven with 1000 watts. Nowadays I have a new one (you can read more about how I got it here) that has a maximum power of 800 watts. But to my surprise (again!), the ideal baking time was 90 seconds in both ovens.

Naturally, I had to do a taste test as well. The first version with coconut flour tasted—well, too floury and slightly dry. The second version was tasty and fluffy. The third version, with 2 teaspoons chia seeds, was just a tad heavy on the chia, in my opinion. It was also denser than the second version, which had just 1 teaspoon.

It was as clear as day: the second version was the obvious winner when it came to both presentation and taste!

I was especially happy that all the versions held together really well. Look at the beautiful slices you can make:

 
And finally, the recipe. Enjoy!