I made flaxseed crackers for the first time yesterday. Verano, if you’re looking for crunch, flaxseed crackers can fill that need better than any digestive biscuit ever could. I made two batches with different combinations of herbs and spices and they both came out great. Very chip-like as well as cracker-like. Tasty enough to eat on their own but crisp and firm enough to top with cheese slices or dip into a thick, hearty dip like warm spinach and cheese.
To enjoy the full benefit of flaxseed’s nutrional value, I soaked them overnight and made the crackers in my dehydrator. The soaking makes them more digestible and bowel-friendly; the dehydrating dries them out instead of cooking them so they remain a raw food. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can use your oven on the lowest heat setting with the door cracked open. I don’t know how long it would take, so just check for doneness. Keep in mind the edges will get crisp faster than the center, so you want the middle crackers to be crisp before you take them out.
Combine a half cup of whole flaxseeds with a half cup of filtered water and let sit, covered, for 8 hours or overnight. The next morning, add 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and stir. Add spices and herbs to the mixture. For one of the batches, I used 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 tsp of garlic powder, 1 tsp of onion powder, 1 tblsp of chopped fresh dill, 1 tblsp chopped fresh chives and a tblsp of greek yogurt. For the other batch I used 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes (ground up in my spice grinder), 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp paprika, 2 tsp chili powder.
Scrape the mixture out on parchment paper, dehydrator tray or a silicone mat. Cover with waxed paper and use a rolling pin to roll it out as thin as possible. I aimed for it to be no more than 2 seeds thick. I achieved that with one batch but the ones in the middle of the second batch were a little thicker than I wanted. Score the crackers to your preferred size. I like them small, so I scored it in 8ths vertically and horizontally for about 64 crackers (the ones on the edges weren’t even squares). Put the tray in the dehydrator at 110F for 24 hours or so. Mine were done after about 20 hours. Otherwise, put the parchment/mat on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at the lowest possible temp for as long as it takes for the center to be nice and hard when you tap it. When they cool, snap the sheets along the score lines into crackers and keep in an airtight container.
With the first batch I was going for a ranch dressing sort of flavor (that’s what the greek yogurt was in there for) but the fresh dill dominates so it’s not very ranchy but it is very delicious. With the second my aim was a nacho cheese vibe (vegans use nutrional yeast as a sub for cheese and dehydrating actual cheese is an enormously messy pain in the ass so I gave the nooch a try instead). It’s not very cheesy. It tastes more like taco flavored chips. Thankfully taco flavoring is awesome too, so both batches were wins in the end even though they went their own way.
A quarter of a batch (about 1 oz) is 122 calories, 3 grams net carbs, 6 grams fiber, 8 grams fat, 6 grams protein.