Cheesy Chia Seed Crackers (Gluten-Free & Low Carb)

September 27, 2013

Cheesy Chia Seed Crackers (Gluten-Free & Low Carb)


I love crackers, and I love even more making crackers at home. It’s incredible how much better they taste than store-bought.
Whenever my niece is visiting, we usually make whole wheat cheese crackers together. Just like Cheez-It, just better.
She always has a blast doing it. I recently bought a set of animal farm tiny cookie cutters and she cuts the cracker’s dough into cows, pigs, sheeps, etc. Then she places them on the baking sheet in a very specific order, sheeps close together, hens with cows, etc. You know, kids’ fantasy.
When we’re done, I give her the whole batch to take home, so that she can bring them to school for her lunch and MOST OF ALL parading with her friends.

Cheesy Chia Seed Crackers (Gluten-Free & Low Carb)
The other day I wanted to make gluten-free and paleo friendly crackers using chia seeds.
My niece digged the idea, so we try our hands at them.
First batch didn’t worked out, the dough was too wet and impossible to cut into crackers.
The second batch was perfect, but we set the oven too high and burned them.
As always, third time’s the charm. We made yummy gluten-free, grain-free, low carb and paleo-friendly crackers.

Cheesy Chia Seed Crackers (Gluten-Free & Low Carb)Super easy to make and niece approved. Score!
 
Chia Seed Crackers (Gluten-Free & Low Carb)                                        Print this recipe!

Ingredients
Makes 3-4 dozen small/medium crackers (I made 48 small crackers)

1 large free-range organic egg
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 cup / 3.8 oz / 110 gr almond meal/flour
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix until a dough ball forms.
If the dough is too wet and doesn't form into a ball add further almond meal, one tablespoon at a time. Conversely, if the dough is too dry add some water ½ teaspoon at a time.
Wrap dough in waxed paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 days.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator 10 minutes before you are ready to roll it out.
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place dough between two sheets of parchment paper, press into a flat disc, and roll it with a rolling pin until the dough is 1/8-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using a knife or cutter. Any leftover dough can be rerolled for more crackers.
With a spatula, transfer the crackers to the prepared baking sheets, allowing nearly an inch between crackers.
Bake until the bottoms are browned, and the tops take on a good amount of color as well - 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how thick your crackers actually are. Check the oven often to prevent burning the crackers (I’ve learned the hard way!)
Rotate the sheets halfway through baking (or when the crackers in the back look like they are browning more quickly than the front).
Allow to cool before storing away.

Nutrition facts

One crackers yields 20 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0.7 gram of carbs and 1 gram of protein.

26 comments:

  1. Great recipe, can't wait to try it Mike!

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  2. How sweet of you to give your niece the whole batch to take home so she can enjoy it during the week!
    These crackers look awesome - love the chia on/in them.

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  3. It is very sweet of you to bake with our niece, always a fun way of bonding with kids.
    I agree completely with you, home made crackers are way way better than the store bought ones. Your cheese cracker looks so good, would be great with a dip or topped over a soup, yum and ofcourse just as is.

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  4. May I use an alternative to Almond Flour? My son is allergic.
    Thanks for this recipe!

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    1. I guess you could use whole wheat flour or any flour such as brown rice flour. You might need to adjust a bit the wet ingredients to get the right consistency of the dough.

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    2. I used wheat flour with 2 eggs but came out too thick..like biscuits ..next time should 1 just use 1 egg and more water?

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  5. They were yummy! Thank you for sharing :)

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  6. these look fantastic! do they stay crispy in storage?

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  7. Thank you so much for this! They're a great alternative to store bought junkfood crackers! I use locatelli cheese, which is pretty salty, so I skip the salt. These go great with havarti dill cheese! Again, thank you!

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  8. Just made these this morning. Was looking for a low carb cheesy snack. Wow! They are delicious! I used a cheese powder by nuts.com plus the parmesan cheese and added a tad bit of garlic powder. Didn't even need the extra salt. Thank you for a great recipe!

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  9. Are you supposed to add water,? Didn't see it in ingredients. ..

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  10. These look great. I am addicted to cheese its and I am now on a low carb and can't have them anymore. I want to try them. Would you happen to know how much fiber this recipe has per serving?

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  11. I am dairy, gluten, wheat, corn, almond, cauliflower, carrot , broccoli, navy & pinto bean free. Would it change the consistency to leave the cheese out and use white or brown rice flour or buckwheat ? I am just getting started on this new food journey and it is more time consuming than i ever imagined. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. because i get sick when i eat these foods!

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    2. You might want to experiment with coconut flour or sunflower seed flour in place of the almond flour. As for the cheese, if the dairy-free is due to a lactose intolerance you should be able to tolerate the aged cheeses such as parmesan, asiago, etc. I also read somewhere that raw goat cheese also has less lactose as well. Good luck on your journey!

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  12. I just discovered your blog about a week ago and I have made this recipe twice! I have made two other recipes from here too -- I always seem to not have everything on the ingredient list on hand so I end up adapting before I have even tried the recipe for the first time, but I'm usually a good cook so I'm confident in my substitutions.

    The first time I ground my own almond meal and because I did not have a whole cup, I added ground hemp and sesame seeds. Pretty damn good crackers! I rolled 'em pretty thin and I got about 50-60 crackers. The second time I made it , I did not use almond meal at all 'cause I liked the hemp and sesame seeds, so I ground enough chia, hemp, and sesame seeds to make up the cup of almond meal, these were even better! Still got nearly 60 crackers out of the batch. Shared these with friends who totally love them!

    This will be on my weekend cooking list from now on and this weekend I will use the almond meal.

    Thank you for sharing your journey with us!

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    1. I must try your hemp+chia+sesame seeds version asap. It's so genius.
      Thank you so much for the awesome idea!

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  13. Thank you so very much for including grams and °C !!! I can't wait to try this recipe with my little granddaughters.

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  14. I just made them and they are very yummy. Used plain flour and I had to add about 2 tbs water. I will definitely make them again.

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  15. what is average size crackers people are making for the nutrition amounts you mention

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  16. Made these this weekend for my toddler, and they are so amazing, I might just eat them all myself. Thanks for the great recipe!

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  17. What is a serving size or is that 1 carb per cracker?

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  18. These are so delicious!! I've made the original version and have always loved them but recently found I'm allergic to dairy so this time I substituted the parmesan for Follow Your Heart brand vegan parmesan and they turned out amazing as well! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes on your site - I've tried so many and have loved every single one of them!

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    1. Hi Ana! I have an issue with dairy and cut it completely from my diet. I make my own Vegan Parmesan cheese. I promise after you try this you wont even miss real Parmesan. The recipe is::
      3/4 cup + 1 tbsp raw cashews they have to be raw for consistency)
      1/4 cup nutritional yeast
      1/2 tsp garlic powder
      1/4 tsp onion powder (optional)
      3/4 tsp sea salt (optional)
      Whiz everything together in the blender (not the food processor) until you have the same grainy texture as grated Parmesan.
      Also, Mike, thank you for a fabulous website. You have made my transition that much easier and the fact that your are damn easy on the eyes helps too!! :)

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  19. Hi there, I've been very tardy in leaving a comment. These crackers are outstanding! I have a small food business providing low carb meals to some friends in my community, and these are the most popular item. We make x6 batch (eg 6 eggs) every week. My oven isn't great so I have to do a lot of rotation of trays and shuffling of crackers but it's worth it. Sometimes I use almond meal and black chia for a darker and denser cracker, other times I use fine almond flour and white chia. When I haven't had any decent parmesan, I've used packet parm and that works too. My only issue is keeping them crisp, and I've just discovered that if I store and serve them straight from the freezer (no need to thaw, they don't really "freeze"), they stay super crunchy. I just read some of the comments above and think I'll try some variants such as pepita flour and sesame seeds. I've made a number of recipes from your site and they've all been great. Thanks again.

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