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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
SPREADABLE BACON
BUTTER
A fabulous bacon-flavored butter spread for my Crisp Nutty Crackers (see recipe below). So delicious. This is a very easy recipe and rather addictive. The crackers take a little more time to make, but they are good and stay crispy at room temperature in a sealed, airtight container (even a tin) even in our very humid weather.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2
lb bacon (227 g)
1/2
cup diced onions (125 mL)
1/2
tbsp minced garlic, optional (7 mL)
2 sticks butter, softened (1 cup; 250 mL)
3/4
cup light-tasting olive oil (175 mL)
2 tsp honey substitute, OR sweetener (10 mL)
1/2
tsp dried parsley (2 mL)
1/4
tsp black pepper (1 mL)
INSTRUCTIONS:
In
large frying pan, cook bacon until crisp.
Pour some of the bacon fat off and in the remainder of the bacon fat, cook
diced onions until soft. Add minced
garlic if using and cook 2 more minutes. Set
aside to cool.
In
food processor, process butter and olive oil until smooth. Add honey
substitute, OR sweetener, parsley and pepper. Stir in bacon, onions and
garlic. Place in sealed container in the
fridge to set.
Nutritional Analysis: This is butter with a tiny bit of onion in each teaspoon - we are talking minimal carbs here. The carbs for the crackers are with the recipes below.
We love these crackers! They are strong enough for dipping as well. Both variations are good; however, the first variation is my favorite. We also enjoy my Cinnamon Cookie Crackers.
Made with Mozzarella cheese - photo below
Different method (see below) of forming the crackers into round shapes
CRISP NUTTY CRACKERS
These strong, gluten-free crackers are suitable for butter and cheese, a medium for appetizers or useful for dips or spreads. Try it with Bacon Cheese Spread. These recipes are a spin-off of the beloved Almond Thins of yesteryear. These are much stronger crackers than those, however. This is an older recipe of mine, but I'm sharing it here as a reminder to myself as well to make again soon.
UPDATE: I made these recently with Mozzarella cheese. They were good albeit they looked a little different (see photo above).
Made them differently into round shapes: Then the next time I made them a little differently. I rolled the dough into a log and froze it for 15 to 20 minutes. Then I sliced thin crackers from the dough using a sharp serrated knife. I placed the crackers on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then taking the back of a 1/4 cup measuring cup, I pressed the crackers out a little to make them thinner. Then using the measuring cup like a cookie cutter, I made perfectly round crackers. Gather up the extra dough to use later. I just kept going in this fashion and then baked them until golden brown. They crisp up more as they cool down.
1 3/4 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour, OR 2 tbsp coconut flour PLUS (125 mL)
2 tbsp or more extra almond flour, as needed (30 mL)
1/4 cup finely grated cheese (60 mL)
(I used Monterey Jack, but nice with Mozzarella as well)
1 tbsp oat flour (optional)
1/2 tsp No Salt, or salt
1/8 tsp white pepper, OR black pepper (0.5 mL)
(who has white pepper in their kitchen these days?)
3 egg whites (from large eggs), fork-beaten
Preheat oven to 325°F.
In large bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, grated cheese, oat flour (if using), No Salt (or salt) and white pepper, OR black pepper. Stir to combine. Stir in fork-beaten egg whites really well until evenly distributed. Line cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper and spray liberally with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle cracker dough over entire cookie sheet. Using a small piece of plastic wrap placed over a portion of the dough, roll out evenly with a small rolling pin designed for rolling dough in pie pans or on pizza pans (or use a small heavy, cylindrical object such as an unopened food can); repeat. It will be clear where the dough is thicker and where it is thinner. If necessary, rob dough from the thicker portions and place on thinner portions, until the dough is more or less evenly distributed and nice and smooth. Score through to foil with dinner knife into 9 x 6 divisions.
Bake in center of oven 20 minutes. Remove very golden crackers from the outer edges by cutting along the cut lines. There might only be a few. Place inside crackers around the edges of the cookie sheet. Bake a further 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow crackers to cool completely. As soon as they are cool, store in a cookie tin with lid, such as those Danish cookie tins of old or other airtight container. Our crackers remain crisp even in our humid climate. If they do become soft (from leaving uncovered for hours in a humid climate, for instance), bake again in 325°F oven 5 to 10 minutes.
Nutritional Analysis: 54 crackers, 1 cracker per serving
20.9 calories; 1.0 g protein; 1.7 g fat; 0.4 g carbs
WHOLEWHEATY CRACKERS
These have more flavor as the flax meal flavor comes through. They look like wholewheat crackers Flax meal is a sort of “whole wheat” for low-carbers. If you prefer, ground chia seeds could be used instead of flax meal, which is my preference these days, as flax contains phytoestrogens.
1 3/4 cups almond flour
1/4 cup flax meal (dark or golden)
1/4 cup grated cheese (any kind – Monterey Jack is good)
1 tbsp oat flour
1 Splenda packet (to take the edge off the flax taste)
1/2 tsp No Salt, or salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
3 egg whites (from large eggs), fork beaten
Follow directions as for the Coconutty Crackers.
Helpful Hints: These crackers are slightly thinner and a little less hard than the Coconutty ones. My eggs are large, but they sometimes almost look X-large to me, so keep that in mind. The dough for both batches of crackers should be nice and moist, but not super wet (if it is, add a little extra almond or oat flour). It needs to roll out with ease under the plastic wrap.
Nutritional Analysis: 54 crackers, 1 cracker per serving
22.0 calories; 1.0 g protein; 1.8 g fat; 0.4 g carbs
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