Power Seed Crackers

Ever since I decided that I wanted to try making more of our staple food from home (such as bread, granola, almond milk, etc.), crackers have been one of my favorite foods to experiment making from scratch. Since I made Whole Wheat Rosemary Wheat Thins, I've realized that crackers aren't as hard to make as I had thought. I love being able to change the seasonings and it's also a perk that I know exactly what went into each little crunchy morsel. 

Whole Wheat Rosemary Wheat Thins

Lately I've seen a lot of recipes for crackers made only with seeds and water so I decided to try some out. I didn't want my crackers to be made up entirely of larger seeds like sunflower and pumpkin seeds, but wanted the base to be something with a finer texture. Ground flaxseed for the win!

The best thing about these crackers is that you don't have to roll out a stiff dough with a rolling pin, but instead get to use your hands to spread out the seed mixture. There is also no oil or butter in these and they are held together entirely with water!

Power Seed Crackers

(Makes about 50 crackers)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup pepitas 
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, chopped (careful, it "jumps" everywhere!)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flax, chia, sunflower and pepita seeds.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the 1 cup of water and spices.
4. Pour the spiced water mixture into the bowl with the seeds and use a spoon to stir until combined.
5. Dump the seed mixture onto your baking sheet and use your hands to push down the mixture and spread it to be about 1/4-1/8 of an inch thick. My mixture spread all the way to the edges of my baking sheet.
6. Score the dough with a knife into whatever shape you like.
7. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until dry and firm. (It depends on how thick/thin you made them)
8. Break the crackers apart and let cool.

Eat Consciously,

Faith

Homemade Whole Wheat Rosemary Wheat Thins! They taste like the real deal.

Well, I'm proud to stay that I'm still on my "make-everything-I-can-at-home" streak and going strong. For those of you just now reading, about a week ago I decided that I wanted to try to make our basic staple foods at home (when I have the time, that is). I never would have even thought that you could make almond milk, yogurt, wheat bread, crackers or cheese at home about a year ago. But since going vegan almost a year ago a whole new world of cooking and baking has opened up to me and I've had to be more creative. 

Also, as Brett and I plan to move overseas in a couple years, I don't know what types of food we'll have access to so I figured now is the best time to get down the basics.

So far I've botched the following:

Whole Wheat Tortillas

Bear Bread

With that said, I've also successfully made the following:

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Almond Milk

Non-dairy Yogurt (Can you even believe it!! I'll share more soon.)

Wheat Thins

Oh. My. Goodness. Let's talk about these homemade wheat thins. I absolutely loved how these little squares of goodness turned out and they were surprisingly easy to make. The dough wasn't sticky and I was able to roll it out really thin for an amazingly delicious cracker that tasted like the real deal. I'm excited for my first batch to run out so that I can experiment with some different spices in the next batch. I'm thinking about even adding in some nutritional yeast to make a cheesy flavored cracker. 

Savory. Sweet. The possibilities are endless!

This is not my recipe by any means, but I really hope you try them out. There are only 7 ingredients, one of which is water. Get creative and share with me any new combinations you discover.

Homemade Wheat Thins

(Makes 100 crackers)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, minced
• 4 tablespoons non-dairy butter (I used earth balance)
• 1/4 cup water
• Sea salt for topping

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and rosemary.
2. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until there are now pieces larger than a pea.
3. Pour in the water and stir until combined. It might seem dry at first, but use your hands to keep incorporating the ingredients until you get a ball of dough.
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
5. On a piece of parchment paper that has been lightly floured, roll out 1/4 of the dough at a time into a rectangle. Roll it as thin as possible! And then roll it even thinner!
6. Use a long, sharp knife to cut the dough into squares or triangles. Make the crackers whatever size and shape you want. If you like perfect crackers, you will probably need to trim up the edges of your dough. Otherwise keep things rustic!
7. Do step 6 with another 1/4 of the dough so that you have two sets of crackers ready to bake. Pull the parchment paper onto baking sheets. 
8. Sprinkle the crackers with sea salt and slightly press the salt into the dough.
9. Bake the crackers for 5-10 minutes until slightly browned. It's a long range of time because it all depends on how thin you roll your crackers. Mine usually take about 8 minutes. Be careful though because they can go from perfect to burnt in a short time.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 for the rest of the dough. 
11. Brake any crackers apart that are stuck together and let them cool on a separate plate. 
12. Store them in an air tight container. 
13. Enjoy!

Notes: Adapted from Kitchen Stewardship 

Eat Consciously,

Faith

Homemade Vegan Graham Crackers

I know you're going to think I'm lying, but it's actually been quite chilly in Florida the past few days. I've started sleeping with our comforter at night for the first time ever! Seriously, we've never had to use it until this past week and it's been glorious. I have a hard time sleeping when I'm hot so being able to snuggle up in a fluffy comforter makes me sleep like a baby. 

Another thing that I love about colder weather, other than getting to use a comforter at night, is fires. Some of my favorite memories involve sitting around a camp fire with good friend while roasting a mallow. It always seems like the best conversations happen late at night around a camp fire--when most of the party has left and the fire has died but the coals are still hot.

My friend recently had a birthday party and I brought some chocolate, marshmallows and homemade graham crackers just in case a late night fire pit happened. It didn't, but the beautiful thing about s'mores is that you can make them in the microwave or oven if you don't have a fire nearby. And that's exactly what people did. The marshmallows expanded drastically in the 13 seconds that they were in the microwave so some people had to eat their s'mores with a fork and knife. That's definitely not a bad thing. Gooey, drippy, chocolaty s'mores. Delicious.

The recipe I used was from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen blog. Basically I just "veganized" her recipe. They turned out great!! The process takes a while, but they're easy to make. The dough needs to be chilled before it's rolled out and cut into squares and after each "roll-out" I would place the scraps back in the fridge to firm up again before I re-rolled the dough and cut more squares. Like I said, not hard, just a little tedious. 

Vegan Graham Crackers

(Makes 24-30 Squares)

 Ingredients:

· 2 cups all-purpose flour

· 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

· 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

· 7 tablespoons earth balance spread

· 1/3 agave nectar

· 5 tablespoons almond milk

· 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

· 3 tablespoons sugar

· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

   

Directions:

1. Place the flours, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a food processor and pulse using the steel blade until well incorporated 

2. Add in the butter and pulse until the consistency becomes a course meal.

3. In a small bowl whisk together the agave, milk and vanilla.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse on and off until the dough forms. Do not over mix!

5. Take the dough out and lay it on a piece of saran wrap. Flatten it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick and wrap all the dough in the saran wrap.

6. Place the dough in the fridge for 2 or more ours, even overnight.

7. After the dough has gotten firm, remove half from the fridge.

8. Flour a work space well and roll the dough out into a rectangle that is 1/8 inch thick and 4 inches wide. Trim the edges to be straight.

9. Cut the dough into squares 2 x 2 inches big and place on a parchment-line baking sheet.

10. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar topping and place the tray in the fridge for 30 –40 minutes to firm up (or in the freezer for 20 minutes).

11. Take the scraps and form them into a ball. Place the ball in the fridge to firm up.

12. Repeat this process with the remaining dough, making sure the dough is well-chilled before trying to roll it out.

13. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions.

14. Once the squares have been in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, remove the sheets from the fridge and decorate the squares by making a vertical line down the middle of each square. Then use a fork to poke two rows of vertical dots.

15. Bake the squares for 15-25 minutes depending on your oven temperature. Rotate the crackers half way through baking.

16. Make sure you check them occasionally so that they don’t burn!

17. Let them cool and eat plain or with some chocolate and marshmallow sandwiched in between.

Eat Consciously,

     Faith