There are certain things every home cook should probably know how to make from scratch. A great cake that doesn’t come out of a box. A nice batch of scones for an impromptu afternoon tea and a bowl of steaming oats that doesn’t come with a flavouring sachet. They are all easy to make and really do taste better when they come from your own kitchen using wholefood ingredients.
Something that’s equally foolproof is home-made crackers. Full of wonderful flavours and nutrients, a huge range of crispy, crunchy or chewy crackers can be created with no artificial colours and preservatives. If you’re looking to include more lignan-rich flax in your diet then this is a particularly handy cracker recipe with a satisfying crunch.
The ground flaxseed in these crackers is easier for your body to digest and can be bought pre-ground or you can get to work at home with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. While many flax cracker recipes out there use whole seeds, whole flax may pass through your system undigested. This means you’ve missed out on all the nutrients!
There are also a lot of raw flax cracker recipes out there and while I do whip up a mean dehydrated cracker, this isn’t one of them sorry. Snack food often has to be fast food and these are quick to go from mixing bowl, to oven, to your mouth. In just 25 minutes you too could have a high-fiber, crunchy, nutritious, and dip-worthy snack. With flax and eggs these crackers are high in protein and fibre, you can also make them with dairy (parmesan) or dairy-free (savoury yeast flakes). Superb either way, use whichever ingredient you have or as your diet dictates.
Now, what should we dip these in?
- 1 cup flax meal
- ½ cup grated parmesan (or savoury yeast flakes)
- 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, lightly whisked
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking trays with silicone baking mats or baking paper.
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well until all combined into a firm, sticky dough.
- Roll out dough as thinly as possible (4 - 5mm). Use a small round cookie cutter to cut out cracker shapes. Lay on baking trays, closely together (crackers will not spread during baking).
- Bake for 10 minutes, flip crackers over and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool on trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Comments 18
So healthy! I am so making these 🙂
Author
I’d love to hear how you go Natalie! These are one of my favourite crackers to make for dipping 😀 Yum!
These look great. I made homemade buckwheat crackers and I was amazed how well liked they were!
Author
Oh yum, buckwheat crackers would have been wonderful. It’s such a great ingredient for snacks 🙂
Yay, I have a new thing to do with linseed meal now! I always add it when I’m baking, but had never thought of making it the main ingredient in crackers. I’ve also never made my own crackers, so this is two new things at once.
Love your site Ally, thankyou!
Author
Thanks Mel, please let me know how you go with the crackers! I love making my own, especially if I’ve whipped up an impromptu dip that day to enjoy.
LOVED THESE. Easy and taste good. Any thoughts on making these into sweet?
Author
Great to hear Sandra! To make them sweet, drop the spicy and savoury ingredients of course and I would say using banana instead of an egg would do the trick!
I tried these this morning. I had to add about an hour cooking time and increased the temp to 200. I was expecting a crunchy cracker and at 20 min, they were still soft and chewy. I am excited to try them in the crunchy form. Did I do something wrong or are they supposed to be soft?
Author
I’ll have to bake a batch this weekend to try and replicate the issue, but to me it sounds like they may need to be rolled out more possily. Try rolling the dough out between two sheets of baking paper, they should be wafer thin if possible. With the flax meal they do stay very slightly chewy (and will go a bit soft after a couple of days of storage), but there should definitely be a ‘crunch’ to them. Are the crackers still soft after cooling completely (with the 20min cooking time) or just straight out of the oven?
I’ll make some crackers this afternoon and see if I can troubleshoot the problem Cathi 🙂
Hi Ally,
I played with the recipe a little this morning and made a double batch. I replaced 1 egg with 1/4 cup butter added a little onion and garlic powder. I rolled them thin and cooked them at 350º for 5 min, took them out of the oven, turned them and returned them for another 5 min. I repeated this a few more times until the crackers just started to brown and were crunchy. They are nice and crispy and delicious!! I am going to make them again without the butter but keeping the same cooking process. Thank you again!! I love these crackers! 🙂
Cathi
Author
Thanks for the comment Cathi, I’m so sorry that they’ve been a trouble to bake though as even when I repeated the recipe the other week I had no issues 🙁 I can’t quite figure out why our results would be so different! I’m so happy they went well with the butter and please let me know how you go with the egg again next time. I love these crackers 🙂
The temp is noted 180C – if would be 350F in the US (I had to look up conversion) 🙂
Love these crackers! My 7 year old also gave her stamp of approval…whew! 🙂
I am sharing your recipe with my coaching clients who are often missing that “something crunchy”!
I added a little garlic powder & a few shakes of cayenne (since I ran out of pepper flakes) yummy with some homemade hummus. Thanks!
I baked these crackers this afternoon using the nutritional yeast instead of cheese. The mix was not firm and dough like and impossible to roll out it just stuck to the rolling pin and broke apart. I tried pushing it out flat with wet hands but was unable to lift the cut outs without them breaking up. I ended up make round shapes in my wet hands and trying to flatten them out thin. They were quite thin but did not cook cracker crunchy. Do you think leaving the mix for a while before trying to work with it might help it become firm and more dough like?
Author
Sorry for the late reply Christine, I’ve been away from blogging for a while and haven’t caught up on all the comments yet! In the case the dough is too crumbly, I would have tried to add a little water (a tsp at a time) until the dough came together. It may have been that the substitution of the nutritional yeast was very drying for the dough overall. You could definitely leave the mix to stand for a while, this would allow the flax seeds to ‘gel up’ and bind the mixture a little bit more. Sorry again for leaving you in the lurch waiting for a reply!
It wasn’t crumbly it was gooey that’s why I couldn’t roll it out, cut it out, or lift it off the board. The mix was very wet. Next time I might just try using 1 egg and leave the dough to firm up for while. Also rolling it out between baking paper sheets might help. Would this recipe work if I omitted the cheese/nutritional yeast?
Author
In that case rolling it out between sheets of baking paper would be a great option, I’ll have to try to replicate this to get some more instructions. Other than that you could try putting flour on the rolling pin to prevent it pulling the dough up as you roll. I make these crackers a lot but I’ve never had an issue rolling 🙁
Regarding the cheese/yeast, it can certainly be omitted, I tend to make a few versions of the base recipe depending what I have on hand and have used all manner of herbs/spices or other seeds etc.