Splendiferous Gluten-free Crackers!

Yesterday afternoon I made a horrible discovery.  The rice cakes we’ve been giving EcoBabe in bountiful supply have more than just rice in them.  They also have corn.  But I knew that.  What I didn’t know, what caught my eye as I was reaching into the cupboard for something else entirely but just happened to glimpse the rice cake packet in doing so, is that the little cakes, advertised as rice-corn cakes also have WHEAT and OATS in them.  In fact, there’s more wheat then there is rice!  EGADS!!!

This, right on the heels of my bemoaning the fact that EcoBabe has been regressing of late, that his shrieking and squealing have resumed, and that he’s withdrawing socially.

I admit that it was entirely my fault.  You have no idea how high my guilt levels soared yesterday upon noting the gluten content of the snacks I’ve been eagerly feeding my little boy.  I should have read the ingredient list ages ago.  I should have read it back when EcoBabe first began his GFCF diet.  I assumed that rice cakes advertised as such would be nothing more than rice… and corn which is also named in the product description.  I can assure that I will never, ever make assumptions like that again.  Just because rice cakes are rice cakes in Canada does not mean they are in Turkey.  And really, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT.

But I won’t continue along this path.  You don’t need to know about the bruises I have given myself from bashing my head into the wall repeatedly.  I’ll skip from last night to this morning.

This morning, I tapped away at my keyboard, calling upon my old friend Google to help me find some snack recipe alternatives for EcoBabe now that our previous snackerage source had turned sour.  We’re leaving for Paris on Wednesday night and want a good supply of food for him with us in case we have trouble finding things for him there.  And we’d planned to take rice cakes…

So I found a recipe for sesame crackers that looked easy enough.  (They’re the second recipe in.)  I didn’t have all the ingredients so I made a few changes.  I had to skip the nutritional yeast and substitute baking soda for baking powder but they turned out wonderfully all the same.  Crisp, flavourful, and cute: cute because EcoKid helped me cut them in the shape of Christmas cats.  (Yes, a cookie cutter in the shape of a cat should NEVER be confused for a paltry everyday cat; no, no! in fact, as EcoKid informed me, cats are ALWAYS Christmas cats by default.  Especially so in the world of cookies cutters, apparently.)

The crackers turned out so well that I wanted to make more.  However, I had used up all my sesame seeds in the first batch.  So I went hunting in my cupboards for substitutes.  The first thing I found was… baking powder.  Oops.  So round two got baking powder.  Not finding a hidden back up supply of sesame seeds, I decided to do a whole new flavour combo.

Behold my Gluten Free Indian Spice Crackers:

EcoBabe loves them.  I love them.  EcoDad loves them.  Even our fussiest eater, EcoKid, loves them.  You can be sure that both these and the sesame crackers will become a regular feature in our household snacking patterns.

The recipe, should you wish to try for yourselves:

Gluten-Free Indian Spice Crackers

1/2 cup chick pea/ garbanzo bean flour  (they’re the same thing, y’all!)

1/2 cup almond meal/flour

1/2 tsp salt  (salt lovers might want a bit more than this– we’re low sodium types for the most part)

1/2 tsp celery seeds

1/2 tsp ground roasted cumin

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp dried coriander/cilantro flakes

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp olive oil

6 tbsp water

Mix dry ingredients together.  Add oil.  Add water slowly, stopping when dough will form into a ball.  DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH WATER!  Too much water will make your crackers too wet to roll, cut, and enjoy.  That would be a very sad state of affairs.  So don’t be getting water happy.  (Don’t ask me how I know this.  You can torture me and I will not reveal the source of my knowledge.)

Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin.  Make it nice and thin.  Cut with cookie cutters or use a knife to cut into squares.

Bake at 175c/350F for 15 mins.  But watch closely.  These puppies go from delightfully crisp to soot in 0.5 seconds.

Allow them to cool and then enjoy them with hummus or peanut butter or salsa… or whatever tickles your fancy!

And EcoBabe?  Just one day off of the offensive, glutenous rice cakes and he’s calmer, more interactive, and more responsive.  Ahhhhh.

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