March baking challenge goes Paleo

Hi y'all

Since I'm trying to find some new ways to stay healthy, I'm trying the Paleo lifestyle for a period of time... When it comes to adjusting your food there's both pros and cons... The pros are that I feel healthy, I don't starv myself, I don't go hungry and there are a lot of exciting recipes I can try (both main courses and desserts) :) On the downside comes the cost... Almond flour cost a lot more than APF and some of the other ingredients are not a staple in my house so it cost some money to fill my cupboard with the right stuff...

So... Enough is enough - here is the "original Cracker challenge recipe" followed by the one I made... Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS THAT ARE REPLACED WITH ORIGINAL:
·         Vinegar (instead of cream of tartar)
·         APF (instead of Pasta flour)
 

PREPARATION TIME:  20 minutes (excluding overnight refrigeration)
BAKING TIME:  10-12 minutes (I made them, like four batches)
YIELD:  40-45 crackers
INGREDIENTS REQUIRED:
·         ¾  cup of all purpose flour
·         Pinch of salt
·         Pinch of Baking soda
·         2-3 drops of vinegar
·         ½ tsp sugar
·         ¼  cup lukewarm water
·         1 and ½ tsp active dry yeast
·         3 tbspn water
·         1 tbspn butter
·         1 tbspn oil
For the topping
·         1 tsp sea salt
·         1 tbspn dry herbs (You could also prefer  any seasoning, or any specific herb)
METHOD:
Bring last three ingredients (water, butter and oil)  to boil, in an vessel.  Stir till butter is melted, keep aside. Cool them till they are lukewarm.

Mix yeast with lukewarm water and sugar, keep aside.
In an separate bowl, take the dry ingredients together like flour, salt, soda. To this add vinegar and gently mix through.  Now add in yeast mixture, by making and well and mix.  After yeast is mixed well, pour our lukewarm wet ingredients and mix to form a soft, sticky dough

Transfer this dough to an greased dry vessel and cover with an cling wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

 After an overnight resting, dough wont double as such, but still an ‘little’ rise is okay.  Bring this to room temperature  and keep them over the working table dusting with excess of flour.

 Fold them through left half vertically.  Repeat the same through right side, till this resembles an ‘envelope’.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.
Turn them to 90 degree and start rolling.  This folding and rolling is done, in order to get an flaky cracker, the ones you see in commercially known Britannia 50-50, Monaco etc.

I rolled them, till I got an very thin sheet.  About, 34 *20 cm.  You can forget about measurements, also the shape, here, but remember to get an very thin sheet.

I cut them horizontal and vertical lines, with 4 cm as an apt length for each of my salting cracker.  Spread topping uniformly and press them with help of rolling pin under an baking sheet, in order to stick the topping over crackers.Cut them over the drawn line, place in baking sheet and make holes using grilling stick/toothpick.  Be careful when you separate them, these crackers will be sticky.Bake them in pre-heated oven for ten to twelve minutes.  Watch them closely, as they can easily burn or brown, remove from oven till edges are slightly brown and cool over wire rack completely.


GRAIN FREE  PALEO ALMOND CRACKERS

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1 egg white
1 pinch salt

(that's it!)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together the almond flour, egg white, and salt until it forms a paste.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make sure you use parchment paper, because if you don't you'll end up chipping your crackers out of the pan. Place the dough in the middle and top with another piece of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin (or any other cylindrical instrument), roll out the dough as thin as you can get it. Try to make it take up the whole cookie sheet if you can. Super thin. I mean it!

Peel off the top layer of paper and score the dough with a knife into whatever size crackers you want. Bake in the 325 oven for 10 minutes and then check on the crackers. You are looking for them to color ever so slightly. A little color means crispy, but a lot of color means burned nut taste, which is no good. If the edges have started to color nicely, remove them to a plate and put the remaining crackers back in the oven. Keep doing this, checking every 5 minutes and removing the golden crackers, until finally they are all baked to perfection.

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

You can make many variations on thee crackers by adding in different seasonings to the dough base.  I used sea salt and poppy seeds.