We’ve covered the ground on soups, entrées, meat dishes, seafoods and vegetables. Now let’s move on to the fun stuff: snacks. I actually actively avoid snacks to facilitate correcting insulin resistance. With intermittent fasting, it’s just not allowed. But with my eating window being 5-7pm, I am allowed a snack a little ahead of the meal if I’m struggling to make the full 23 hours of fasting. So I’ll begin with an item that is often needed to consume certain snacks…….crackers. I have a variety of cracker recipes now and would like to re-share them with my newest readers, as I’m pleased enough with them I no longer feel a need to create and post new ones.
This recipe, one of my very first cracker trials, is a variation of an Almond Thins cracker recipe posted on Low Carb Friends forum (no longer exists). It allows itself to nicely be tweaked for a ton of wonderful savory and even sweet variations.
I took the basic almond flour thins recipe, doubled it, omitted the Splenda and then added cheese and one of my favorite seasoning combinations. I was looking to achieve a cracker reminiscent of Cheez-its® or Pepperidge Farm Goldfish®.
My version is VERY crispy provided you allow them to brown a bit! Less browning results in a not-so-crisp cracker………tasty, just not as crisp as I like. They are good alone or they and delicious with soup! You can eat five of these crackers for under 2 net carbs, so definitely my kind of cracker! These are not suitable until you get to the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL (Ongoing Weight Loss) ladder.
VARIATION: For an even cheesier taste, you can add 2 T. Nutritional Yeast to the dry ingredients when mixing the dough. 🙂
INGREDIENTS:
2 c. almond flour
2 egg whites from large eggs
¼ tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional, use more if you like things hot)
1/8 tsp. chili powder
1 c. grated Cheddar cheese (½ c. more if you want them cheesier)
¼ tsp. salt (optional)
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 325º. Cut parchment paper to fit exactly the bottom of an 11″ x 16½” sheet pan. Just set the paper on your kitchen counter for now. Mix almond flour and seasonings in a bowl. Add egg whites and stir with a fork. Add cheese and continue stirring until it forms a moist dough. Spoon (or crumble with your hands) the dough evenly onto parchment working from the center out. Cover the dough blobs with a sprayed/oiled sheet of waxed paper the same size. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a single, smooth rectangular sheet of dough the size of the parchment. Be careful to not let the dough exceed the piece of parchment paper. If it does, put those bits back into the sheet and roll smooth again. You definitely want this dough to go all the way to the edges of the parchment paper so the crackers will be thin enough to be crisp.
Slowly and carefully lift off the waxed paper. Use the tip of a pointed knife to lift up two corners and with your hands, applying tension to keep the sheet stiff, carefully lift parchment, dough and all onto the baking sheet. If you cut it the right size, it should sit right down on the bottom nicely. Using your sharp knife, carefully (and gently since the dough is fragile) score the dough into cracker shapes (8 x 10, making 80 crackers total). Pop into your preheated 325º oven and bake for about 10-11 minutes or until lightly browned. The outer rows brown faster, so you will likely need to remove outer rows as soon as they are browned so those don’t get over-browned while the center ones finish cooking. Cool a few minutes and separate into separate crackers along your score lines. Store in an airtight container or ziploc bag. NOTE: If these lose their crispness on day 2 or 3 (due to high oil content of cheddar cheese) re-crisp on a baking sheet in a 325º in the oven for about 10 minutes.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 80 crackers, each cracker contains: (using 1 c. cheese only)
23.5 cals, 1.98g fat, 0.64g carbs, 0.3g fiber, 0.34g NET CARBS, 1.12g protein, 20 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 