Cheezy Kale Crackers
If I don’t have a batch of raw crackers or flat bread around, I am at extreme risk of snack attacks. You know what I am talking about. The attacks that an apple or an orange can’t curb. The attacks that find me riffling through the cabinets for something crunchy and satisfying. The attacks that can lead me to less than desirable food. My cracker recipes are an important part of my raw food recipes collection.
Raw crackers are tasty and nutritious. Best of all, just a few quickly satisfy that craving and are so filling I never over-eat them. I also know that I am getting great nutrients, not just empty calories when I eat them.
For this recipe, I wanted to use incorporate kale as I am a huge kale fan. I have also been a little obsessed with making a raw cheese cracker so out came the nutritional yeast (great for a cheesy flavor).
To top it off, I decided to do an experiment. I pulled a bit of dough out and baked it in the oven. Why? Because I am often asked how to make raw recipes (that require dehydration) in the oven and I can’t answer the question. Since this is raw blog, my recipes are developed to be eaten raw. I do not test them for baking times but I decided to experiment with this one just to see what would happen. The rules for dehydration and baking are different (see the FAQ page).
The baked version.
Please know that baking raw recipes destroys a lot of nutrients. Since these recipes are made with healthy, whole, pure ingredients instead of traditional unhealthy ingredients, I realize people want to try them whether they have a dehydrator or not. Plus they are gluten free.
What happened when I baked a tray? They did bake. (Please note, some things that are intended to be dehydrated won’t bake correctly.) I baked them 25 minutes at 200 degrees on the convection setting, flipping once. The result? The taste, when compared to the dehydrated raw crackers was seriously lacking the lovely fresh, intense flavor of the dehydrated crackers.
I had friends try both versions, and the consensus was always the same. The baked crackers lost some flavor (not to mention nutrients). And the kale, instead of tasting like vibrant, fresh kale, tasted, well … baked.
It is interesting to note that I photograph food in many top restaurants. Increasingly I have been seeing dehydrators in quite a few of the kitchens. As chefs search for ways to coax the best flavors out of food, they are increasingly turning to methods like dehydrating.
It makes sense that the dehydrated crackers have more flavor. But, if you don’t have a dehydrator, and it is not important to you that the crackers are raw, you can experiment with the recipe. Just put your oven on the lowest temp (using convection helps) and keep an eye on it until it looks crisp and done. You will probably need to flip it once for proper drying. If you didn’t have the dehydrated crackers to compare them to, they are definitely passable.
For this recipe, I decided to include a little photo tutorial that covers the process of making these crackers. You will see one of my methods rolling and cutting the crackers.
“Cheezy” Kale Crackers (recipe follows pictures)
To prepare the kale, strip the leaves from the stems.
A salad spinner
Chop the almonds until fine in food processor.
Add nutritional yeast, coconut flour and spices. Stir to combine.
Finely chop kale and add to almond mixture and stir well.
Mix in the flax/water mixture. I often do this by hand. SO much easier.
Form 1/3 of the “dough” into a rectangle on a non-stick dehydrator sheet. You can also use parchment paper.
Place another non-stick sheet over the “dough” and roll out 1/4-inch thick.
Peel off the top non-stick sheet.
Cut into strips. This is my favorite cutter. You can find it here: Pastry Cutter
Trim off the excess and set aside to roll out with the next sheet.
Cheezy Almond Kale Crackers
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup ground golden flax
- 2 cups almonds, soaked over night, drained and rinsed
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 cup Raw Coconut Flour
- 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp chipotle
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Himalayan salt and pepper to taste
- Mix together ground flax and water. Set aside.
- Place almonds in food processor and process until finely chopped. Remove to large bowl.
- Finely chop kale. I do this in the food processor, also.
- Add nutritional yeast, coconut flour, smoked paprika and chipotle to the chopped almonds. Mix well.
- Stir in kale.
- Add flax/water mixture. Blend well. I use my hands at this point.
- Spread 1/4-inch thick on non-stick sheet (see above for my method). Score into cracker sized pieces and dehydrate at 145 for 30 minutes. Decrease heat to 118 and continue to dehydrate until done (approximately 8 hours*) turning once or moving to screens halfway through dehydration. You want these very dry.
*Dehydration times can vary widely due to different dehydrators and humidity. Read about why we start dehydration at 145 here: FAQ. Yes, it stays raw.
Cass wrote on April 9, 2013
These look interesting! My mother in law has a dehydrator, and I’ve been wanting to try it out to make fruit snacks and banana chips. My daughter is severly allergic to peanuts and almonds so we can’t have nuts in the house…There seems to be quite a bit of almonds in these, I usually just sub flaxseed for nuts but those are already in this recipe. Do you think I could still make them, if I used more flax seed or seasame seeds as the binder?
Jen wrote on April 6, 2013
Can raw cashews be used instead of the almonds?
Susan wrote on April 9, 2013
Jen: You could try…I haven’t so can’t tell you exactly how it will come out.
Anita wrote on March 28, 2013
I don’t have a dehydrator, but your recipe sounds very intriguing and I would love to try it. Do you think it would be ok to bake in oven heated to 200F? I realize it is not raw at this point, but I’m trying to think of the next possibility given that I don’t own or plan to buy a dehydrator. Thank you!!
Susan wrote on March 29, 2013
In the post above, I talk about baking this in the oven. Cheers!
jena wrote on March 24, 2013
I am going to try this with garbanzo flour–because I have never seen coconut flour in any of the natural foods stores around here and I really need to use up some kale. I think that the texture is pretty much the same, but the taste will be quite different. Will let you know.
Susan wrote on March 24, 2013
Sounds interesting…let us know.
Stacy wrote on March 21, 2013
Tacking on to Macie’s question…would quinoa flour be an alrighty substitute for coconut flour?
Susan wrote on March 21, 2013
The reason why coconut flour is used in this recipe is because of it’s absorbant properties. I am not sure how another flour will work. You certainly can try and report back. Cheers!
Macie wrote on March 19, 2013
What could I substitute for coconut flour? I want to make these but I don’t have a trip to the health food store planned for a while 🙂
Marcia wrote on February 26, 2013
Thank you!
Marcia wrote on February 25, 2013
Hello– these look amazing. Just wondering how long they keep? I’m looking to make them now but I need them to keep for another week and a half. Could I do that? Thank you!
Susan wrote on February 25, 2013
I would put them in an air-tight glass container. Make sure you dehydrate to dry (but don’t over do).
Annie wrote on February 14, 2013
Currently obsessed w/ crackers/bread from the dehydrator (a recent purchase); these are a Must Make and I really appreciate the photo tutorial.