Lifechanging PITA crackers

 

Crackers to live for— PITAs worth the effort.

Crackers to live for— PITAs worth the effort.

Notice the caps. That is not a typo. You’ve been warned. These crackers are a bit of a pain in the you-know-what to make. BUT they’re totally worth it. Trust me on this, and know that I did not post these over the holidays because I knew nobody had time for the cracker-making learning curve. But now it’s January. Time to stretch yourselves and find more things to serve at Happy Hour. Right?

Elsewhere on the Internet (namely at My New Roots), these are called Lifechanging Crackers, because they are a flat and crispy version of the awesome Lifechanging Bread (AKA dirt bread by the ingrates in my house). They are nutty, seedy, crunchy and delicious with just enough sweet and salty going on behind the scenes to keep every dang taste bud happy.

These crackers also allow you to create your own variations by adding whatever sweet, savory or spicy combos you want at the end of mixing. Even though the ingredients mix up quickly and in one bowl, you can’t make these last minute because:

  1. You’re going to have to roll them out between parchment paper into the right thickness, which takes a bit if time to get right, and
  2. Even if you get the hang of doing that quickly they still need to sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours before baking.

On the plus side, you can totally abandon them after Stage 1 and before baking. By the time you come back from wherever you were you’ll be psyched to bake these babies up.

Before you start:  Make sure you have parchment paper. There is no way around this. And, using cookie sheets vs. rimmed pans makes it way easier to slide and flip the crackers. Ready? Here we go!

Makes 2 baking sheets of crackers

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sunflower seeds
  • ½ cup flax seeds *
  • 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • 1 ½ cups 150g rolled oats
  • 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
  • 4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks (3 Tbsp. if using psyllium husk powder)**
  • 1 ½ tsp. fine grain sea salt
  • 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
  • 3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil or ghee ***
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 6 large dates or dried figs, chopped (optional but yummy)

Flavor variations: Go nutty here and mix in your choice of fresh or dried herbs and spices, like fresh rosemary + garlic powder, or lemon zest + thyme + cracked pepper, or paprika + chile powder + smoked sea salt or whatever!

* Once I ran out flax seeds so I used 1/4 cup hemp hearts and 1/4 cup ground flax. All good.

**I have seen a version without psyllium husks, so give it a whirl without if you don’t have them.

*** Butter works too as long the Vegans aren’t coming over

Method:

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients and the dried fruit if using and stir well. Whisk maple syrup, oil and water together in a measuring cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir or looks too dry to hang together, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable).

Divide the dough roughly in half, and set aside one half.

Place one half of the dough back into the bowl and add your flavorings of choice. Gather into a ball and place it between two sheets of baking paper, directly on your rolling surface (counter, table, whatever). Using a rolling pin, firmly roll out into a thin sheet, approximately the dimensions of your cookie sheet. Remove top layer of baking paper and using the tip of a knife, score the dough into shapes you like (rectangles, diamonds, squares). Repeat with remaining half of dough. Let both sheets sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours, or all day or overnight. Cat owners, plan appropriately.

Preheat oven to 350°. Using the baking paper, slide the dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven, flip the whole cracker over (if it breaks a bit, don’t worry!) and peel the baking paper off of the back. (Honestly, this is where it gets a little complicated. My best system is to cover the baked crackers with the layer of parchment peeled off the top after the rolling out process. Then, cover that with a pizza peel or another baking sheet and flip the sheet over so the giant cracker is now on the pizza peel. Put the cookie sheet on the counter and slide the cracker off the pizza peel and back on to the cookie sheet. Peel off top layer of parchment and you should have a perfectly flipped cracker sheet). Return to oven to bake for another 10 minutes, until fully dry, crisp, and golden around the edges.

Let cool completely, then break crackers along their scored lines and store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

These are great to snack on as is, or with any type of cheese or bruschetta toppings. Dip them in soup, hummus, fondue, nutella. You name it!