Cracker biscuits have long been one of my favourites. I have often seen recipes for them but held the (unsubstantiated!) view that home-made crackers wouldn’t be a match for commercial store-bought ones. In more recent times, I have become aware of the high saturated fat, high salt and high sugar content of bought crackers which led me to try my own!
I was pleasantly surprised with the result. The flavour was on a par with store-bought crackers. The crispness took a few tries to obtain but was achieved once I fine-tuned the ingredient amounts and baking time.
While the raw biscuits need to be flattened reasonably thin, if they are too thin, they are more like wafers and break very easily. It is about striking the happy medium which I find is to flatten them to about 1½ millimetres.
When you first make these crackers, if they aren’t as crisp as you would like, try increasing the baking time by even just one or two minutes. If they are under-cooked, they tend to be soft as opposed to crisp.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup ground almonds
- ¼ cup brown rice flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Sesame seeds
- 3½ tablespoons cold water
Method:
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
Combine the ground almonds, brown rice flour, baking powder, salt and Sesame seeds in a bowl.
Gradually add enough of the cold water to make the mixture into a soft, moist dough. (I usually use all 3½ tablespoons but find it best to add it gradually). While the mixture is soft and moist, it should roll easily in the hands into balls.
Roll small spoonfuls of mixture (about a teaspoon measure per biscuit) into balls and place on the baking tray. I usually get about 18 biscuits out of one batch.
Flatten the biscuits to about 1½ mm.
When flattening these (or any other) biscuits, to prevent the raw mixture sticking to the tool you are using to flatten them, dip the tool in cold water then shake off the excess water. This is a great tip to prevent possible angst when flattening biscuits!
Prick each biscuit two or three times with a fork so as to prevent the biscuits from rising.
Place the biscuits in the pre-heated oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes until well-browned.
Smother with your favourite topping and enjoy!
