Almond Asiago Crackers ¶

There are no crackers in my supermarkets that are simultaneously lower G. I., low-sodium, and nonfat. Yet, crackers are essential if you desire to serve canapes and handy if you just want a snack. In particular, they can serve as the base on which a number of appetizers appearing in this work are placed, like Chicken Liver Pâté†, Gravlax†, Taupenade †, Smoked Oysters †, and With Pride cheese spread †. So, I am developing my own cracker recipe, the latest version of which appears below. It is still a work in progress, but even so, is still pretty good.

  • 2 cups almond flour, sifted
  • 1 cup Asiago cheese, grated
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 4 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp poppy seeds
  • 2 tsp ancho chile powder
  • ½ tsp ground rosemary
  • ½ tsp ground marjoram
  • ½ tsp ground thyme
  • ½ tsp ground oregano
  • ½ tsp ground pepper
  • ½ tsp <salt>
  • 3 egg whites

Preheat your oven to 250°F. Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients except the egg whites.

Beat the egg whites separately until smooth, add them to the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly.

Place a 12”×14” sheet of parchment, nonstick foil, or silicone cooking pad on a sheet pan. Dump the cracker dough onto this surface and spread the mixture evenly across the sheet, leaving about 2” at first around the edges. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and roll it in all directions until it thinly and completely covers the sheet. Trim off any dough extruding from the edges, carefully lift up the plastic wrap, add the trimmed dough to any thin spots, reapply the wrap, and continue the rolling until the dough is a uniform thickness across the sheet. Remove the plastic wrap and score the dough into 1½×2” rectangles using a pizza cutter or pastry scraper/chopper, 1½” in the 12” direction (7 cuts) and 2” in the 14” direction (6 cuts).

Bake for 1½ hours. Turn off the oven and let the crackers remain, to cool off gradually. When cool, break the crackers at the scorings.

Yields 7×8 = 56 crackers.