Crunchy Paleo Crackers

Crunchy Paleo crackers—made with almond flour? C’mon, right? How can that be? Well, if we can make crunchy Paleo chocolate chip cookies, then we can make crunchy Paleo crackers. The concept is the same: a mix of finely ground blanched almond flour and good quality tapioca starch/flour, with just the right amount of baking soda and baked low and slow makes for a truly crispy, crunchy cracker. Oh, and if you think you’re not interested in Paleo recipes, try to think of them as a whole other category of gluten free recipes that are, by definition, also dairy free. No biggie, right?

A few notes about this cracker dough: First off, don’t worry yourself over getting the dough rolled out to exactly 1/8-inch thick. And as you’re rolling out the dough, your hands are a more reliable indicator of even dough thickness than your eyes. Run your palms over the dough lightly to judge thicker spots, and then roll those out a bit thinner. Second, speaking of rolling out the dough, to avoid many of those tell-tale “wrinkles” on the dough from the parchment, don’t press quite so hard! Even, medium pressure on the rolling pin should do it. Just keep rolling back and forth until the dough is the proper thickness. Finally, as indicated in the recipe directions, you will need to add water by the 1/8 teaspoonful until the dough holds together well. Without the water, the dough will feel moist but will still crumble, due to the oils in the almond flour. If you try to roll out the dough and find that it breaks apart into very irregular pieces during rolling, just knead in a bit more water. Trust me!

Your cracker squares do not need to be quite so clean. As always, I have to have clean lines and only photo the most gorgeous-looking crackers, or you really just wouldn’t want to make the recipe, right? But as long as you don’t plan to photograph your food like I do, some craggy edges aren’t going to hurt anyone. Do make shapes of relatively uniform size, though, just so the crackers all bake at the same rate. Oh, and if you don’t like the seeds? Leave ‘em out! Easy peasy.

Prep time: 15 minutes       Cook time: 15 minutes       Yield: About 7 dozen crackers

Ingredients

1 cup (120 g) finely ground blanched almond flour (Honeyville is a great brand, so is nuts.com)

3/4 cup (90 g) tapioca starch/flour,* plus more for sprinkling

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons sesame and/or poppy seeds

1 tablespoon (14 g) virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled (you can also use Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening 1:1 by weight)

1 egg (50 g, weighed out of shell) at room temperature, beaten

Lukewarm water, by the 1/8 teaspoonful

*I only recommend buying tapioca starch/flour from nuts.com or Authentic Foods. Bob’s Red Mill tapioca starch is of inconsistent quality. Do not buy tapioca starch/flour from the Asian food store as it is frequently contaminated and will not work in this recipe.

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.

• In a large bowl, place the almond flour, tapioca starch/flour, salt, baking soda and seeds, and whisk to combine well. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the coconut oil, egg, and 1/8 teaspoon water, and mix until the dough comes together. Knewad in more water by the 1/8 teaspoonful until the dough holds together without crumbling.

• Place the cracker dough between two large sheets of unbleached parchment paper and roll out as close to 1/8-inch thick as possible. To prevent the rolled-out dough from having a crinkled appearance, do not press too hard with the rolling pin. Rather, apply medium pressure and roll back and forth over the dough. Remove the top layer of parchment paper and cut out shapes that are approximately 1 1/4-inch square using a cookie cutter, pizza or pastry wheel, or sharp knife. Lift the shapes off the parchment with an offset spatula or knife, and place about 1/2-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.

• Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until lightly golden brown all over and dry to the touch, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in a sealed glass container (not plastic!) at room temperature to maintain crispness.