HALLELUJAH: Homemade Crackers with Hemp & Flax

Oh Gee Whiz

 i had a bee in my bonnet about crackers. 

I love them, but almost NEVER buy store bought because they are expensive and taste really processed to me. Plus I really can't stop eating them when they are around.


I ran across this recipe when I was trolling for all things HEMP SEED related. I can't tell you how worth it is to go buy a bag of Hulled hemp seeds and a box of Quinoa flakes at the health food store. I can't stop cooking with them and they jack up MANY recipes with a huge list of benefits...including added protein.

That being said, i didn't have high hopes. They just seemed way too easy. Except for the rolling. I'm not fond of the rolling pin....so all bets were off.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I haven't cooked as much. But this morning when it was cloudy and my bad arm was going to keep me out of the garden for the most part (SAD FACE), I decided it was recipe day.

This is the first thing I tried, and boy 'm I glad!

The PS is these also happen to be PALEO as well as GF.. Not lowfat by any stretch of the imagination...But they are made with the wondrous coconut oil, which is VERY VERY good for you.

And yes, some of them were shaped like small elf boots. 

What can I say?

OMG: Homemade Crackers with Hemp & Flax

Ingredients

• 2 egg white
• 2 tbs coconut flour
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup ground flax meal  (Easy to make from flax seeds ground finely in a mill)
• 4 Tablespoons shelled hemp seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or possibly a bit less.
• 4 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/8 each Garlic & Onion powder
• 2 pinches rosemary, i ground it up...

1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour coconut oil and the egg white into the dry ingredients and mix well, add a bit more flour if it seems to crumbly...but not much! When you get this mixture together it really looks as if there is NO WAY they will stick together....but they do.
3. IMPORTANT: These are extremely easy to roll BUT, They are also fragile. Its tempting to roll them out extremely thinly, which adds up to a million rounds of re-rolling. Focus on making them dense as opposed to super thin.  I learned that the ones which had the most DOWNWARD pressure with the pin, were the easiest to cut out. Use a cookie or pizza cutter to cut and Don't go nuts.
4. Roll the crackers out thinly between two sheets of parchment paper.
5. Bake for 25 minutes and them eye them until they until they are getting brown all over..
6. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
7. Makes about 200 small elf sized crackers :)

FAMILY TALLY: Only 2 of us were home, but we thought them delightful!

NOTHING VENTURED: Almond Floor Snickerdoodles

FAIL #1 

These lovely cookies were supposed to look like this...

And definitely NOT like this. ...

                                   

Ok we overcooked them, clearly.

I left the man in charge with instructions that they were to spread out into beautiful round disks of cinnamon and sugar. 

This never took place, and while we were waiting... they stepped into overdone.

In my defense I did EVERYTHING the recipe asked, except substitute 1/2 cup of the almond flour with coconut flour. That's it!!!

They actually tasted kinda ok, but not great, and had the consistency of a hard moth ball (I would guess.)

Will retry as these seemed like they were going to be quite good, and I can't let go.

Almond Flour Snickerdoodles 

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

32 mins

Soft, chewy cookies with a nutty flavor dusted in cinnamon and sugar. Yum!

Serves: 2 dozen

Ingredients

For the cookies:

• ½ cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup palm shortening (or regular shortening)
• ½ cup evaporated cane juice ( or white sugar)
• ¼ cup coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 cups blanched almond flour (see note below)

For the topping:

• ¼ cup coconut palm sugar (or white sugar)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the butter, shortening, evaporated cane juice (or white sugar), and coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar) in a large bowl until very creamy. Add the vanilla and eggs, mixing until well incorporated. Mix in the baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the almond flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Mix together the remaining coconut palm sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl or shallow dish. Roll the cookie dough into 1½ tablespoon rounds, then roll to coat in the sugar mixture. Drop the coated dough onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake 11-13 minutes, or until golden brown around edges. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Notes

To make these cookies paleo you can use all coconut palm sugar but the cookies will be darker. You can use almond meal in place of blanched almond flour for this recipe with great results!

Family tally: we thought they sucked, but that didnt stop us from eating them. Desperate!