So, as I’ve said before, I love crunch… I’ve been a cracker and hard cookie girl all my life. I don’t care much for soft or filled cookies, and certainly not cakes with icing. I like a hard, not-too-sweet cookie, or preferably a savoury and crunchy cracker. Think digestives, arrowroots, shortbreads, gingersnaps. Or Stone Wheat Thins or Triscuits…
That crunch generally comes from baked grains. So it’s a bit of a rare commodity on a grain-free diet. And I miss it. Crunchy raw veggies just don’t fit the same flavour and mouthfeel profile. Either do nuts, especially the healthier raw or soaked ones…
So when this recipe idea passed through my Facebook feed, I was all over it. I made a few adjustments and I think that I have a winner. They are nut-free, so reasonably priced to make. Super simple – one bowl, one pan. Make them in an evening and have great crackers for over a week.
The crackers are mostly seeds – sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Nutritional powerhouses, all of them. They are held together by the “glue” of eggs, psyllium husk and melted hard cheese. The cheese, something like Parmesan or Asiago or Peccorino Romano, gives a lovely earthiness and rich umami flavour to the crackers. A nice amount of saltiness is essential too.
The secret to the great crunch is the three part baking process. After spreading the mix as thin as possible on parchment paper, you do the first bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Then you remove the single big sheet of cracker from the oven and cut it into pieces. I used a pizza wheel and it worked great. The original recipe was for 12 large crispbreads, but I think that’s a waste of good crunch. I cut the sheet into about 48 small crackers, each about 1 1/2 inches square, more or less… If you wiggle them around just enough to let some hot air into the space between the crackers, you get even better crunch.
The second bake, after they are cut into pieces, is long and slow, drying them out. Turn the oven down to 200 F and put the pan back in for 2 hours. At the end of that time, turn off the oven and leave them in place overnight. This allows them to cool and crisp up to their awesome finished crunchiness. The next morning, you have perfect crackers and can put them into an airtight container for storage. They keep their crunch well when stored at room temp.
They are filling and rich – you can’t make a pig of yourself with these babies – unlike wheat-based crackers. In a past life, I could eat Wheat Thins like chips, or the bigger Stone Wheat Thins by the sleeve. I find that about 5 of these crackers, served with cheese or avocado slices, is plenty for a satisfying breakfast or lunch.
Keto Everything Seed Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup sesame seeds untoasted
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds unsalted
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 tbsp psyllium husk
- 1 tbsp everything bagel seasoning mix or to taste
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese
- 1/4 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt or to taste
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line large cookie/baking sheet with parchment paper that comes up over the sides.
- Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and water together in a separate bowl and add to dry ingredients. Mix to combine.
- Pour the mixture onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. With your hands (moisten them if necessary) or a soft spatula, press the mixture down into a uniformly thin sheet, right out the edges of the baking sheet if necessary. A second piece of parchment paper can be placed over top of the mix to make this easier, but remove it again before baking. Aim for less than 1/4 inch thickness. Form into rectangular shape for easier cutting later. The thinner you can get it, the crunchier it will be.
- Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. At the end of the baking time, take out of oven and slice the sheet into crackers. I used my pizza cutter to make 6 vertical strips, by 8 horizontal strips for a total of 48 crackers. Using the edge of the pizza cutter, slightly wiggle the crackers away from each other to allow the edges to be exposed to the heat for better crisping up.
- Place the crackers back into the oven, now reset at 200 F. Set timer for 2 hours, then turn off oven and leave the crackers in overnight. Next morning, they will be fully cool and crisp and can be stored at room temp for a week or more.
Each cracker is about 50 kcals, 2 g total carbs, 0.7 g net carbs, 3.7 g fats, 2.2 g protein. A perfect keto ratio of 75% calories from fat, about 20% from protein and about 5% from carbs.
Enjoy the crunch!
