Saturday, July 16, 2011

Nut Thins (LC, GF, SF)

I love these little crackers. And they are so easy to make too!

 

Ingredients:


1 cup ground nuts or seeds
1 egg white
1 pinch salt or seasonings of choice (you could also make these sweet and add cinnamon or other spices)

Preparation:


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a bowl, mix together the nut flour, egg white, and salt until it forms a ball of pasty dough. It’ll be a bit sticky.
(I used a variety of seeds in this one in the picture. Sesame seeds, shelled hemp seeds, almonds and fresh herbs.)
Place on a large piece of parchment paper – about the size of a cookie sheet.
Top with another piece of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin  roll out the dough as thin as you can get it. Try to make it take up the whole cookie sheet if you can. And I REALLY mean super thin! The dough will look almost transparent in places!
**DON’T try and do this without the parchment paper! It will all turn into a sticky mess on everywhere and you’ll be chipping cracker bits off your cookie sheet for hours to come!**

Peel off the top layer of paper.
Score the dough with a knife or Pizza cutter into whatever size crackers you want.  Slide the parchment paper with the scored dough onto a cookie sheet.
Bake in the 325 oven for 10 minutes and then check on the crackers. You are looking for them to color ever so slightly. A little color means crispy, toasty nutty flavor and holding together nicely, but a lot of color means burned nut taste.
Remove the crackers that are done, usually the ones around the edges are done first.  Place the others back in the oven until desired color. Really keep an eye on those crackers. It can go really fast at this stage. Sometimes not even a minute or two more before the next ones come out!
Keep doing this until they are all done!

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Here’s a close up shot to show HOW thin they are once baked  …
… and how well they still hold up even with thick and heavy dips like this spinach, artichoke and parmesan dip. YUM by the way! 

You can of course use all sorts of combinations of nuts, seeds, spices and seasonings. Find your favorite combo and enjoy!
The carb count will depend on what nuts or seeds you used!

10 comments:

  1. I just put some in the oven. :) I think next time I'll use a silpat for bottom. Have you tried that? I was clumsy with the 2 parchment papers. >.>

    Sharon

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  2. I usually do ok with the parchment papers, but I'm sure the silpat works great too! Probably better for some because it's a bit more stable at the bottom. The parchment papers can move around a bit! I hope you're enjoying the crackers!

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  3. Just made a batch - yummy!!! Thanks Birgit!!

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  4. Thank you, Birgit! Just made a batch comprised of almond, pecans, cashews, (just a few) peanuts, flax meal and chia seeds. Such a healthy indulgence! Your instructions were perfect- it was easy and most satisfying with my favorite spicy cream cheese and tomato dip...I made square and a dozen round shaped using a small biscuit cutter...these really resembled the Blue Diamond Nut-thins. Looking forward to indulging in more of your low-carb recipes.

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  5. I am in the process of making these and I really want to add some cheese to them but wonder if A) should I adjust the nut flour and B) is it even do-able and still maintain the crispness? I will still probably go for it and see what happens but would still like input and if it works, I will post about it! Thank you

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  6. Hi Ericka!

    I think in theory that could work, especially if you use something like a parmesan, that doesn't release to much oil and crisps up nicely.

    I would definitely put the parmesan through the blender to make it as fine as possible though. That way you would still be able to make them really thin.

    Now, the only other issue might be that the cheese is ready at a different time than the nuts in terms of browning, but I doubt it as long as the cheese is as fine as the nuts and evenly distributed!

    And yes, I would replace some of the ground nuts with the cheese. That way you should still have enough "wetness" from the egg white to stick it all together!

    Definitely let us know how it turns out! I love the idea of thin cheese crackers! Yum!

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  7. Hi Birgit! I went ahead and added only a tablespoon or so of very finely grated Pecorino (I thought a dry cheese was best also) and it was heavenly! Such a powerful flavor from the cheese. I had everyone in my family try them and they were blown away by how good they are! I adore this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it. I love it's simplicity and versatility and it's amazing crunch factor! I am tempted to try the recipe with the whole egg just because I love the yolks of the homegrown eggs I used but I am not sure how that fat in the yolk would affect the crunch of these amazing little crackers! Thanks again for a starting point for my endless experimentation with my new found life style. Grain free and kicking Type 2 diabetes butt with it!

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  8. One more thing! I am making a batch today to stand in for graham crackers for a sweet dessert tonight. I am using Almond, cashew and coconut flour and adding in pumpkin pie spice and a little stevia. Serving dipped in 90% cacoa dark chocolate to accompany my homemade vanilla tapioca flour pudding. I think it is going to be heaven!

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  9. Ohh, that does sound good. Both of them! Thanks for sharing your experiments!

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  10. Thanks so much for this recipe Birgit! Finally I can have some great tasting and crunchy crackers! You rock! :)

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Birgit Kerr