For over 6 months I've been trying to avoid grains as much as possible, and when I do have them I try to go GF (gluten free) and whole grain as much as possible.  This means bread and bread like products such as crackers have not been a big part of my diet for awhile.  I have started to miss it after awhile, so I am so excited to have finally learn how to make my own grain free crackers that are seriously good.  I almost bought some to go with my Sun Dried Tomato Bacon Bean Dip I made for a pot luck, but even the whole grain fiber crackers I saw at the store had bad fats in them, unbleached four and likely GMO (genetically modified Organisms) ingredients in it, not to mention preservatives. I decided after my trip to the store to finally cross of learn to make crackers from my list. 


Why Am I Cutting Back On Grains?  
Well because grains can affect your blood sugar as much as sugar (unless it's whole grain).  But even whole grains will break down into sugar, just at a slower rate.  If your bodies main fuel is carbs and not fat your body will never dip into your fat stores and keep adding fat to your body (this is what I learned to help me lose 15 lbs of fat and gain a few pounds of muscle which I've maintained for over 6 months now). Another reason is grains have toxic anti-nutrients, lectins , (They bind to insulin receptors, attack the stomach lining of insects, bind to human intestinal lining, and they seemingly cause leptin resistance), gluten (even if your not celiac many people are gluten sensitive and don't know it), and phytates (makes minerals bio unavailable).  While nuts do also have phytic acid most people do not eat them in as large of quantities as grains and they are easier to soak which removes some of the phytic acid. 

While I follow a Paleo diet 80 % of the time, I'm not sure if I'll ever follow it any more than that.  I like having the occasional dairy, beans, and grains and I can't see myself cutting it out completely. I just make sure I soak beans really well, buy grass fed dairy or at least organic whenever possible, and have the darkest whole grains I can find (avoid wheat whenever possible because of it's gluten).  I substitute whenever possible but some recipes just aren't the same with substitutes, and I'm all about healthy foods but not at the sacrifice of taste.  Luckily this recipe isn't one of them.


How I Developed This Recipe
This makes a nice crunchy thick cracker.  Great for serving with dip or cheese for parties, watching football, or snacking around the house.  Notice that this recipe uses mostly nuts, so it is calorie dense, but with good fats and nutrition too.  I fill up on this pretty quick, so no need to worry about to many calories but if you are concerned about calories you could try to sub more flax for nuts.  I haven't tried it yet, but I would imagine it would work well.  I tried to develop this recipe with a rich garlic and onion flavor to it and a slight saltiness.  I chose rosemary as my herb because it's a very strong antioxidant (it can even be used as a preservative in cosmetics) but you can use any herb you like.  I also added some spice but I honestly couldn't even tell, so if you don't like spicy foods don't worry, and if you do like spicy foods you might want to add more cayenne pepper.

If you try this recipe and find it doesn't last long in your house try doubling it and cook two batches instead.  They seem to last pretty long in plastic zip lock bags in our pantry so far. 



Ingredients

Dry
1 1/2 cups almond flour or meal (could try to sub with flax or coconut meal if you're allergic to nuts)
½ cup flax meal
1 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon pink salt
3 tbsp. dried flaked onion
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tsp favorite herbs of choice (I used an italian mix)
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
½ tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

Wet
2  tablespoons water
1 egg
2 tablespoon olive oil
Dash of hot sauce (more or less to taste)

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Place 1/2 cup of almonds in your food processor until it is turned into a flour and empty into a medium sized bowl (skip this step if you bought almond meal or flour, I buy almond meal at Trader Joe's cause it's cheaper than buying almonds $3.99 /lb)
3.  Combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and spices in a medium mixing bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together the water, egg, oilve oil, and hot sauce.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until stiff dough forms and all dry ingredients are wet.

roll out with a rolling pin with two pieces of parchment paper  and an edgeless baking sheet

3.  Place dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to an even thickness of about 1/8 of an inch.  Transfer parchment to a baking sheet pan and remove the top piece of parchment.  Using a pizza cutter trim off uneven edges of dough, then cut the sheet of dough into cracker size pieces/squares.  You don’t need to separate them now; after they bake, they will break right along this edge, like perforation.  Sprinkle garlic salt and onion powder on top.

score with a pizza cutter

4.  Bake for 15 minutes and then check on the crackers. You are looking for them to color ever so slightly. A little color means crispy, but a lot of color means burned nut taste, which is no good. If the edges have started to color nicely, remove them to a plate and put the remaining crackers back in the oven. Keep doing this, checking every 5 minutes and removing the golden crackers, until finally they are all baked to perfection.

Serve with any dip or cheese.  I suggest trying my sundried tomato bacon bean dip pictured below.

Try serving with my sundried tomato bacon bean dip

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