Healthy nuts and seeds make up over half of the ingredients in these crunchy oat biscuits, hence the name super oat crackers. They contain three of the top plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids: flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts.
It’s a recipe adapted from plant-based cooking guru Jane Esselstyn’s crispy rye crackers, using a mix of whole and ground oats and including nuts for a biscuit that’s crunchy but not too hard on your teeth – in between an oatcake and a cracker in texture. Cashews, in particular, are useful if you want to achieve a softer crunch.
These are incredibly easy, gluten-free and, compared with the cost of all those fancy artisan crackers in the shops, very cheap to make. Once you’ve made this basic version, you’ll see how easy it would be to create different flavours by adding things like black pepper or dried rosemary.
I have included some salt for flavour but you can leave it out for an even healthier version.
Super Oat Crackers…
Ingredients
- 60 g mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, or a similar mix)
- 20 g whole flaxseeds
- 20 g chia seeds, optional extra tsp for sprinkling
- 10 g sunflower seeds
- 10 g pumpkin seeds
- 100 g rolled oats (I use jumbo/old-fashioned oats)
- optional – up to 1/4 tsp salt
Method
- Set the oven to 175°C/350°F and line a 23 x 33 cm baking sheet/swiss roll tin with baking paper.
- Roughly grind the nuts in a small processor/grinder. They should resemble ground almonds, but it is fine to have some slightly larger chunks too.
- Grind 60 g of the oats to create a rough oat flour.
- Mix all the ingredients except the extra tsp of chia seeds in a large bowl, then add 160 ml water and stir to create a loose thick porridge.
- Let the mixture stand for five minutes. It should still be slack enough to drop easily from a spoon. Add another tablespoon or two of water if it looks like it will be difficult to spread on the tray.
- Tip the mixture onto the tray and spread all the way to the corners (unless you are using a larger baking sheet). Use a flat-bladed knife. Wetting the knife will make it easier to achieve a smooth finish. Try to create an even layer, roughly the depth of a thin oatcake.
- Sprinkle over the extra chia seeds before baking the mixture for an initial fifteen minutes.
- Remove from the oven and mark/cut the crackers with a flat-bladed knife or a pizza cutter. The pictured crackers were made by cutting along the middle lengthwise and then cross-cutting nine strips.
- Return to the oven for forty minutes. Check them at this stage. It is possible the ones at the edge will be crunchy but the centre will not have fully dried out. You can either leave the whole batch in until the centre is dried, or snap off the ones at the edge and return the rest to the oven for ten minutes. If they are still not quite crunchy enough, leave them in the oven with the heat turned off until you’re happy with them.
- Once cooled, they will store well in an airtight tin.
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