GF Crackers

You all knew this was coming. I had to make a gluten free cracker with all these gluten free recipes I am trying. This is my second cracker using almond flour as the base, and if its possible, I like them better than wheat crackers. They come out crunchy every time, and are super easy to put together. It is almost like almond flour was made for making crackers. In my first batch I put in some basil and oregano and those were mighty tasty. These don't have herbs - just some salt and a little bit of sugar. I was going for a wheat-thin type cracker.

You basically just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and you have your dough. No food processor, no chilling anything...just mix, roll, cut, bake.

To roll them out on my cookie sheet/silpat, I used wax paper. This way everything didn't stick to the pin. I just kept rolling until it reached all the sides and was an even thickness. These are pretty thin but still hold up.

The missing pieces were just for testing...

Gluten Free Crackers (using almond flour)
adapted from LoCarbolicious

1 1/2 c almond flour
1/2 cup flax meal
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325. Mix almond flour, flax meal, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Add egg and melted butter and mix until well combined (no need to worry about over mixing. mix and mix as much as you want).

Put dough on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat and flatten with your hands. Place a piece of wax paper as big as the cookie sheet over the dough and roll out until you have mostly covered the cookie sheet. Roll and pat and adjust until it is, for the most part, uniform in thickness.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out cracker shapes. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until just starting to brown. Let cool before breaking apart and storing in an air-tight container.

Frosting (dairy free, refined sugar free, gluten free)

Here is my frosting for yesterday's Almond Cut-out cookies. It isn't the smoothest, creamiest frosting I've ever had, but it is sweet and flavorful. It makes the cookies extra special. It even softens them up a little bit, so they aren't so crunchy. I love the flavor the maple syrup gives. I also used India Tree food red food dye  for the coloring - and it is such a brilliant color! I like this much better than that buttercream I was talking about yesterday. Of course for my son, the frosting sent these cookies from good to "Wow!". I'll probably work with it a bit more, and use coconut butter instead of oil once I get some.

Whole-food Cookie Frosting

2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/2 Tbsp coconut flour

Blend all ingredients in a small bowl. Let it sit for about 10 minutes as the coconut flour absorbs all the moisture, and then mix it well again. Add desired food colorings and spread on cooled cookies!

Almond cut-out Cookies. Grain Free, Sugar Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free.

Another must in my gluten-free experiments...cut-out cookies. A basic cookie that can be made just because, or for something special like Valentines Day. This is a very basic gluten free recipe, that just also happens to be egg-free, dairy free, and sweetened with honey. So they are a good go-to for people with food sensitivities or allergies. They stand up well to frosting and decorating. I prefer soft cookies as opposed to crunchier cookies, and these are more on the crunchy side, but they are still very tasty and most importantly, the toddler approves. He thinks they are delicious, and that is saying a lot for my kid.

They also hold their shape fairly well. They spread a little, but as you can see my shapes came out decently. I wouldn't attempt do cut out anything with much detail though.

I am going to leave some of these plain, frost others with a little swiss buttercream I have in the fridge, and then the rest with a glaze that I'll play with - I'm thinking of mixing coconut cream and maple syrup and see how that holds up! I'll write a new post with that recipe once I get it right.

A perfect snow day activity after playing outside

Finished dough

Use a little dusting of almond flour to roll it out

I could have taken them out a minute earlier. Darn facebook distracted me. 

Almond Cut-Out Cookies

250 g almond flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, melted (ghee for lactose intolerance, coconut oil for completely dairy-free)
1/4 cup honey

Mix together almond flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Add butter and honey to another bowl and mix well. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. We used a stand mixer, but purely because my son loves to make it run. Just mixing it with a spoon would work just fine.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Dust work surface with almond flour and roll dough out to about 1/3-1/2" in thickness. Cut to desired shapes and place on baking sheet (I lined mine with a silpat...parchment would also work). Bake for 10-11 minutes or until just starting to turn brown around the edges. Let cool completely before frosting, if desired.