Flax Crackers
Joyce Marner
Ingredients:
1 c ground flaxseed, brown or golden
½ c coarsely ground raw sunflower seeds (any seeds are fine, whatever you have — pumpkin, sesame — even no seeds, just flax, but the addition of sunflower seeds was wonderful. I recommend it.)
2 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
½ t. salt
⅛-¼ t. cayenne pepper (optional)
2 t. dried oregano (or rosemary, basil, dill, anything you like or a combination.)
Water — start with ¼ c and slowly add until you can gather the ingredients into a workable ball.
Instructions:
Put all dry ingredients into a medium bowl and stir to combine. Add water and stir until a workable consistency is achieved.
Put the ball onto a baking mat or parchment paper. Because my dough was sticky with too much water, I put parchment paper on top to roll dough to desired thickness. Too thick (¼ inch) and the dough will not crisp up.) Score the dough with a table knife into cracker size pieces. It will break easily along these lines after baking.
Put mat onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough.
Enjoy your flax crackers with a cup of hibiscus tea and just feel your blood pressure go down.
MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Snack healthier with these recipes for flax cookies and crackers
Around 1920, Claude Debussy wrote a lovely melody called ”The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.”
I’m not sure what color hair he had in mind since flaxseed comes in a rich dark brown and also a beige color called golden flaxseed. Whatever the color, I am here to sing the praises of flaxseed and to give you a couple of simple recipes to deliciously incorporate flax into your diet.
Why should you want to eat flaxseed? My favorite vegan guru Dr. Michael Greger, in his best-selling book “How not to Die” touts flaxseed as a most nutritious and disease-fighting food. On his website, nutritionfacts.org, there are many videos showing scientific evidence concerning the positive effects of flaxseed on high blood pressure, breast cancer and prostate cancer.
This miraculous defense against these diseases is the reason he recommends a tablespoon of flax daily. One tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains 2 grams of polyunsaturated fatty acids (includes the omega 3s), 2 grams of dietary fiber and 37 calories. I skip the fish oil and its mercury content and eat flax for my daily dose of omega 3.
Somewhere in the 1970s, I bumped into a research paper by Dr. Johanna Budwig, who touted flax and cottage cheese as a cure for breast cancer. That Christmas I gifted my sister a coffee grinder and bought one for myself dedicated to the grinding of flax. Now it is easy to find pre-ground flaxseed (sometimes called flaxmeal), but for the next 40 years my sister and I had ground flax and cottage cheese for breakfast.
Actually, the article talked about flax oil emulsified with cottage cheese and we didn’t do that. When I became vegan I read that a little hot pepper could replace the cottage cheese. I still include flax in my daily diet, but in more enjoyable ways
My favorite recipe is my breakfast flax cookies, which I can eat at home or on the go. I have smuggled my flax cookies into Cuba and back. At one point my explanation of my need for vegan flax so confused the immigration officer, she said, “Can we just call it granola?”
These cookies are similar to granola but without any oil, salt or sugar. I love baking my cookies and crackers on silicone baking mats. You won’t have to bother with greasing pans or using parchment paper. Ask for them at Christmas; the environment will love you for it.