It was just a regular day, I was going about my business getting some work done and then I remembered that nut free snacks for my son needed to be made, for him to take to kindy. We’re gluten free, so I always send him with stuff for morning / arvo tea, to avoid vacuous ‘gluten free’ biscuits and crackers than are basically starch and provide virtually no nutrients – not what a little body needs!
I didn’t want to make another sweet thing and was keen to come up with a savoury snack that could last the week in an airtight container.
These crackers were born out of what I had in the pantry and wanting to create a seriously delicious cracker for a gluten free / nut free / dairy free / grain free snack. The little guy was really excited about these. He adores them. I hope you do to. You’ll notice that because they are so much more nutrient dense than your average cracker, 2 or 3 of these is perfect for a snack – delicious with a dip or cheese or whatever spread you fancy. I had 4 crackers with paté and a big salad for lunch Thursday, and that was perfect for the whole afternoon.
I’ll pop the original recipe here and a few sweet / savoury version ideas and serving suggestions down the bottom to help with inspiration.
How pretty is this little budgeroo hardwood board? My husband makes gorgeous boards by hand and made me this little one about a year and a half ago now. Use it every day and still going strong!
Flavour / ingredient variations. I’ve tested this recipe a couple of times this week to see how flexible it is – and it is!!
Try instead of hemp seeds, macadamia or brazil nuts. Gorgeous!
Try without garlic for a more subtle cracker – perfect with a triple cream cheese like Brillat Savarin if you’re able to enjoy dairy.
Swap fennel seed and thyme, for dried oregano and a teaspoon of lemon zest – greek crackers. So yummy!
SWEET VARIATION
Instead of the garlic, fennel, salt and herbs add 3 heaped tablespoons of dried blueberries or cranberries and a heaped tsp of cinnamon. Yummy! Still not incredibly sweet and if ‘weaning’ off ultra sweet processed foods, you can add 1 tablespoon maple to this. You can then top these with nut butter (if able) and a slice of banana, or a little sugar free jam. Whatever you dream up!
Different ways to serve other than crackers
Oh yum, this tart was gorgeous. I pressed the mixture for the original recipe into a little ceramic dish to see if it would bake as a tart ‘pastry’. It worked superbly. Next time though, I would pop into a mini (or large for that matter) quiche tin, greased, to be able to pop it out easily.
I filled it with a delicious, zesty probiotic filling of 1 small avocado, 1 tablespoon cultured veg, 1 pinch sea salt, 1/2 tsp dulse flakes (sea veggie packed with minerals) 1 tbsp fine chopped parsley. Mashed and combined and then filled into the tart and cracked pepper on top. Divine! You could do mini hors d’oeuvres sized tartlets with this idea. How cute! Just use muffin liners / parchment if doing in muffin tins, in case they want to stick and you waste your time!
And as a pizza base – Par bake for 12 minutes. Top with your pizza toppings of choice and bake another 10 minutes. Delicious! Best as mini pizzas and again, a gorgeous snack. Perfect to involve the kids in on!
Now over to you! Let me know what variations you try or how to serve it or enjoy it. Can’t wait to see and share!
It’s the eve of the Easter long weekend as I write this. Looking forward to winding down, chilling out, cracking a special bottle of something with the family on Sunday and enjoying some Fish fingers tomorrow for Good Friday!
P.S. If you fancy more seeds snacks for nut free crunchiness for school, head here or check out my book which has a delicious Chewy apricot bar and a chocolate buckwheat bar – both 100% kid and husband approved!
Warning – Hemp Seeds are not legal in Australia for eating, however are in the USA and Europe. I have a French passport as well as an Australian one, so I’m European when I eat these. They’re so nutrient rich and sustainable, and it just seems silly not to be able to enjoy them in the food mix.
Happy long weekend!
“Free From Lots” Crackers Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 egg egg (if egg allergic, use chia / water mix like this suggestion to bind your crackers)
- 30 g coconut oil (butter is fine too if you don't need to avoid dairy)
- 40 g hemp seeds (optional. you can up the sunflower / pumpkin seeds by 20g each instead)
- 60 g sunflower seeds
- 80 g pumpkin seeds
- 2 cloves garlic ** - the garlic, fennel and thyme are optional, so if you're FODMAP sensitive, you can ditch the garlic or if you don't like fennel, ditch the fennel and so on. BUT even if you don't think you like fennel, I'd be brave and try it any way. It really makes it so wonderful!
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 3 stalks fresh thyme without the stalks if you know what I mean. Just get the little green leaves off the stalks
- *** ACTIVATING SEEDS it's a great idea if you have time, to prepare a big batch of activated seeds every now and then, so you have them on call. More on that in this post here. Not the end of the world however if you want to get stuck into making these today, to make a batch with what you have.
Instructions
- Get your mini mixer, food processor, Thermomix or even blender if it's a powerful one.
- Preheat oven to non fan forced 180C (165C for fan forced) or 350F
- Place peeled garlic cloves, fennel seeds in and pulse until well chopped.
- Place seeds in and do the same. You don't want big chunky bits of seeds. Slightly grainier than a 'meal' consistency is perfect.
- Place your coconut oil and egg / chia mix in.
- Combine well, scraping down the side of the bowl after a couple of seconds.
- Your cracker dough is done.
- Place it in a heap on a parchment sheet that has had olive oil rubbed on it and cover with another parchment sheet rubbed with olive oil - this will stop the dough sticking to either as you roll it out.
- Roll it out to a thin, cracker thickness.
- Remove the top layer of parchment.
- Place on the parchment on a baking tray and mark out with a knife over the wet dough, the squares you want to make – you could do cookie cutter shapes if you wanted to also!
- Bake for around 20 minutes. If you have an annoying oven like my little old gas oven, I like to take out after 20 minutes, remove all the outside bordering crackers, and pop back in for a couple more minutes to ensure the middle ones get well done.
- THERMOMIX NOTE: You can ‘peel’ your garlic cloves on reverse, speed 4, 2 seconds. Open lid and lift the skins out. For the rest, Speed 6, 15 seconds, with a scrape down at half time is perfect for this recipe.
- Coconut oil – doesn’t matter if it’s solid or liquid for mixing. Either will work.
Comments 28
This looks outstanding. I can’t wait until tomorrow – I’m going to try it now at 9pm. So excited to have a recipe for healthy crackers. Thanks so much Alexx!
Author
How did you go!? Post me a pic in the FB thread if they’re not gone already! 🙂
Looks great Alexx! Does your husband use anything in particular to seal the chopping boards? I was asking my hubby if he could cut some of our larger boards into smaller ones and he seems to think you need a food-safe sealant of some sort?
Author
Hi Stephanie, he cures the boards in coconut oil when finished, to kill any pathogens and seal the wood. Every now and then we’ll do that (say seasonally) again. Never had an issue and we’re not much of a tummy bug house 🙂
I wil definately be making these. I have one sweet tooth boy and one savoury tooth boy and need more savoury recipes. Nutritious, dairy free and lasts a week? Fantastic. Thanks Alexx.
Author
Super welcome Toni!
Love the sound of these, thank you so much for the recipe. I was wondering if there would be a way to make these ‘salt and (balsamic) vinegar’ flavoured crackers? My boyfriend loves that flavour combo and I want to make him healthier, homemade snacks instead of the processed rubbish that’s in the supermarket.
Author
Sure – just add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to them. They’re already well salted. If that doesn’t come through tangy enough, just double it next batch! 🙂
Yum, yum and yum. That is all!
Author
Thanks Nat – nice to have a break from the carrot crackers! 😉
Made these this morning and they are soooo delicious! They will be happily eaten in this house tonight. Love the low GI too!
Author
You’re welcome Sue! 🙂
You mentioned pate, yum – Did you make it or buy it, chicken or other protein? Can you please provide the recipe or where you bought it from? That would be great. Thanks, Gabriela.
Author
I have a delicious salmon pate / salmon dip on the blog that you can look up Gabriela. My pate recipe will be up soon! 🙂
I’ll vouch for these! They’re amazing! My kids are at a small school and aren’t allowed to take any packaged food to school (school rules). Anyhow, I’ve made tonnes from this site and finally got around to these, even keeping with the fennel seeds even though personally I’m not a fan. They were so fabulous my single batch is gone – and it only came out of the oven an hour after dinner. Kids ate them with some strong cheddar and chutney. Thanks for a great recipe. Oh well, better make another batch as it still didn’t solve my lunchbox problems!
Author
Hi Mel. So glad you guys are enjoying these! 🙂
Yeah, I saw that one beforehand – I was more after a meat protein liver recipe Alexx. Looking forward to when you post the other one. I make chicken liver pate and parfait but, I just can’t seem to eat it without gagging and I have tried numerous ways to get rid of the “liver” metallic taste. I use organic or at least grass fed, free range livers. I also make a similar recipe to your salmon dip with tuna or sardines, yum. I just wish I could get my head around this liver issue…
Author
Helping you love a liver pate. That’s a good project! Stay tuned 🙂
Oh my! You’ve done it again, Alexx. These are so delish! Made them to the recipe, and the fennel/salt is a bit strong for my kiddies, so going to try them a bit milder next time, maybe different flavours and hope the kids will eat them. These would surely become a staple lunch box number if so!
Author
So glad you loved them – yes, just drop back the herbs and spices for little ones sensitive to strong flavours and voila – lunch box heaven! <3
I love these crackers! So quick and easy and the result is very yummy and satisfying
I use the suggested chia gel substitute for the egg and get a great result every time.
I just made these (without the hemp seeds and just 1 clove garlic) and they are delicious! Only problem is they are almost gone 🙁 They were a hit with my toddler too.
Delicious Alexx -added some almond meal as mixture was a little wet. Also added dehydrated bone broth, dulse flakes and flaxseeds because I didn’t have any sunflower seeds.
Thanks so much for the recipe. Will be definitely making them again
Author
Beautiful substitution going there Helen – so glad you liked them! x
Yum! Made these last night. They are easy to make and so delish!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Can’t wait to play around with the other versions. 🙂
Author
Super welcome and yes – you can really make them your own x
Oh, I love this cracker recipe, can’t wait to try it! Do you have a print cook book I could buy? Love the tenor of this e-mail. This is the first time I have had time to read your e-mail. Really looking forward to following you, Sis. Thanks, MaryJane
Author
Hi MaryJane – I do have a book Low Tox Life that’s not a cook book perse but there are quite a few recipes in DIY cleaning / personal care / food feasts through the chapters. It’s out in the US as an AMAZON exclusive from September 4 x