I love seed crackers, in fact the thing I missed the most when I discovered that I needed to live grain and dairy free was crackers, that savoury crunch, and no, carrot and celery sticks do not give the same pleasure. I roll these thin, so that they are dippers like a corn chip, but if you wanted to used them more like a loading cracker, like a ryvita or vita wheat, just roll them thicker, though you will need to be very, very sure that they are fully dry before you take them out of the oven.
Don’t they look great? And an excellent way for those of us on food restrictions to get a hit of fibre, lots of vitamins and minerals and beneficial fats and oils.
Ingredients
Makes about 450g
125g pepita
260g linseed
55g chia seed
70g sesame seed
16g salt
380ml water
5 g dried chive
10g garlic powder
First and very importantly. Do not be tempted to use linseed meal here, you have no way of knowing when it was ground and it will turn your crackers rancid. I have kept these crackers in air tight containers with a desiccant for up to five months, the ones I trialled with linseed meal went nasty in three weeks.
Grind your linseeds and pepita in a high speed blender until they form a meal, I used my NutriBullet for this, it takes a few batches to get all this done. Combine with all other ingredients, stirring very well to disperse the salt and flavourings.
Leave that to sit for half an hour while the chia and linseeds soak up the moisture, then place a piece of baking paper as big as your baking tray on your bench, spoon on enough mix to roll out to the edges and be as thick or thin as you want the crackers, this will take a bit of figuring out on your part as it will depend on how thick you want the crackers, for me, I get three 35x25cm trays out of this, but it will depend on the size of your oven and what you want the crackers for. Lay another sheet of baking paper over the top, roll out to the edges with a rolling pin, don’t worry about being tidy and making a rectangle, it is the thickness we are interested in, not the edges.
Lift off the top layer of baking paper and then cut through the mix with either a pizza roller or score with a knife, or you can leave them whole and break them when they are done. Slide the baking paper with the crackers on onto the tray and into the oven, repeat until all of your mix is used up.
Set the oven at a very low heat, I use about 50 degrees fan forced, for at least twelve hours or until they are quite dry and crisp, don’t go too hot or your crackers will be bitter, cooler and longer is better. Best way is to put them on before you go to bed and get them out in the morning. Allow to cool fully on the trays before you put them away, and do pop a desiccant in with them if you have one, it helps keep them for longer, if you take vitamins or mineral supplements at all there should be a packet or tube in there.
You can change these to any flavour you want, I love a black pepper one or a chilli one, if you make them to my recipe please send me a photo for my Hall of Fame!