These crackers are on heavy HEAVY rotation at our house. I’ve been into making my own crackers since… well, since I discovered that you can make your own crackers so easily. Seriously though, whether you’re gluten free or gluten-full, I highly recommend making crackers at least once. Shout out to this recipe for introducing me to the ease of gluten-free cracker making.

This new recipe was one of those magical mistakes like discovering the atom or bifocals. Just kidding. I was just out of a lot of basic ingredients (like eggs) and decided to wing it.

We’ve purchased a box of crackers on occasion since going zero waste and they almost always go stale. I think there are a few reasons for this. One: we like the homemade crackers better. Two: we have just gotten out of the habit of having packaged things around so we don’t even reach for them. The exception here (which I’ve overshared often) is tortilla chips. Our whole family has no brakes when it comes to those things. Especially the extra-thin ones from Late July that thankfully come in Terra-Cycle-able packaging, which we can all agree is not a perfect solution but… delicious tortilla chips are a necessity in my life sometimes. So sue me.

Anyway, fast forward to me having a hard week due to lots of various things and wanting to get creative in the kitchen and make… something. But my cupboards were bare. Bare-er even than usual. #becausefoodwaste #andminimalism

So I threw some stuff in a food processor and made crackers. Because crackers can be forgiving. Crackers understand you. If they haven’t crisped up enough, leave them in the oven a little longer. If they are too crumbly, they can still have a good delicious life as crunchy topping for soup or on a salad. If the flavor isn’t quite there, top them with something delicious or again, throw them on top of soup. They won’t go to waste.

And if they’re delicious, they definitely won’t go to waste with a voracious kid and husband on the loose. These are definitely school lunch or snack friendly.

Fair warning, this recipe makes a generous batch. I’ve been known to split the batch onto more than one baking sheet to get my desired thickness. If you have one of those big restaurant “jellyroll pans” – aka big-a$$ rimmed baking sheet – on hand, use that.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/2 cup whole flax seeds* divided
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (pumpkin seeds/pepitas would also work here)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon chopped dried rosemary
• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup organic extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place chia seeds and 1/4 cup whole flax seeds in a small bowl with water. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Put remaining 1/4 cup flax seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut flour and spices in food processor. Run for 30-45 seconds.
4. Add olive oil and pulse to blend.
5. Add soaked chia and flax mixture (will have thickened up considerably) and pulse to fully combine.
6. Turn out the batter into the middle of a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a Silpat) and top with another sheet of parchment (or Silpat).This batter is very sticky and having a layer between the batter and rolling pin is necessary to get it thin enough. Roll out the batter as thinly and evenly as possible or around 1/8″ if you’re into that kind of measurement.
7. Score the batter with a knife or pizza cutter. See photo below. You can also cut or rustically tear/break the crackers after baking.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Sometimes I will pull out the crispiest pieces and put the rest of the sheet in for a few more minutes.

*I haven’t tried this with ground flaxseed meal, but it might work! If you try it, let me know. And if *I* try it, I will update this post.