I love snacking. For me, it can be as satisfying as a full sit down meal. It’s just a shot of flavor and a nice light feeling in the stomach — sometimes late in the morning or mid-afternoon. It also doesn’t come with the prep time, the dishes, or to be honest the huge amount of forethought that is sometimes required of a big meal. As a kid, I was all about cheese and crackers (those awful little packets of crackers and cheese whipped cheese spread from the supermarket) or peanut butter and crackers. As I got older it was more about crackers and salami, crackers and tapenade, or my all time favorite crackers and pesto.
There are a number of store bought gluten-free crackers on the market and trust me, I’ve tried them all. Unfortunately for me, they don’t fit in too well with my grain-free diet as almost all of them are rice-based or corn-based. So, I’ve moved on to making my own, including trying these recipes from Elana’s Pantry, Zenbelly, and Food Renegade.
This recipe Homemade Flax and Hemp Seed Crackers from Sylvie Shirazi of Gourmande in the Kitchen caught my eye because it uses seemingly every grain-free flour out there, including almond meal, flax meal, hemp seed, and coconut flour. With all of that holding these together, I can only imagine that they’ll be full of flavor and something that will hold up to virtually any dip.
I was aiming for a cracker with a little heft, nice and hearty with a toasty nutty flavor. I wanted a rustic cracker, simple and straightforward, grain-free and gluten-free as well and, of course, it had to be easy to make.
After much testing and tweaking, I came up with these Flax and Hemp Seed Crackers. They are pleasantly nutty, crisp and utterly habit forming. Delivering a robust share of flavor for such a small package, they are just the thing for nibbling on.
The crackers get their satisfying toasty nutty flavor from a combination of ground almonds, flax and hemp seeds. The almonds and flax are finely ground but the shelled hemp seeds are left whole. Rolled out thinly they are slowly baked in a low oven until dried and crisp…
