Wannabe Wheat Thins, Gluten Free!

I. Am. In. Love.

I. Am. Motivated.

I. Am. Capable.

I. Am. Creative.

I. Am. ECSTATIC!

I thought I'd start out this post by giving you a little taste of how I'm feeling right now. As I was doing my nightly recipe search (yes, this is what I do in my free time) I found this wonderful thing on the Peas and Thank You website - Wannabe Recipe: Goldfish Crackers.

I was so excited about making these and knew I had to make them ASAP. So after a fun morning of working from home and playing tennis with the boyfriend in our sunny Colorado weather... I got home and decided... today is the day!

Looking over the original recipe I saw I only needed to make a few changes. And guess what... the dough came out perfectly! I've tried several recipes in which you are required to make a dough and roll it out... but what usually ends up happening is the dough is too sticky to be rolled out... leaving me upset and frustrated, forced to turn out an end product that is well... not so perfect.

Needless to say I felt pretty good about how these crackers would turn out.

Here is the original recipe, and here is the recipe with my modifications:

1/2 c all purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 c amaranth flour
just over 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c Diaya Mozzarella Shreds (or use real shredded cheese if you tolerate dairy)
1/4 c melted margarine (or vegan margarine, or butter)
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
4 tbsp warm water

I used my blender for this but decided it would be a better idea to use your food processor... (my ingredients jammed at the bottom of the blender, allowing for mediocre blending).

Blend/process the flours, xanthan gum and salt. Add the "cheese" and blend/process to combine. (Here is where you can continue using the blender/processor, or transfer to a bowl.) Add margarine and mustard to create a dry and somewhat lumpy batter. (If you haven't yet, transfer mix to a bowl now.) Add one tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture comes together to form a dough that will not stick to the sides of your bowl.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface and dust with flour (I used the all purpose flour here), also patting some flour on your hands and your rolling pin. Form the dough into a ball shape, place on the parchment paper and roll around in the flour to coat. Begin carefully rolling out the dough until you've reach about a 1/4 inch thickness. Use a pizza cutter to make a clean line around the edges, picking up the uneven dough (you'll roll this out in a minute). Score the rectangle shape of dough to make cracker size squares. Repeat this process with the leftover dough, doing the best you can to make little squares, or roll it out flat, cut it however you want and eat those as your test crackers when they come out ;-) Use your pinkie finger to mark each cracker or score with a fork once or twice (I found the fork method kept the crackers flatter and didn't let them puff up as some of the others did using the pinkie method).

Bake the crackers for 14 minutes. Remove the crackers around the edges (they'll cook faster than the others). Continue cooking the rest of the crackers until lightly browned on the edges and the bottom, about 5 -7 minutes. (You can skip this step if you want a less crunchy cracker). When all crackers are done, let cool on the baking sheet or start enjoying them right away (you bet this is what I did!)

My halved recipe made about 62 crackers (about 4 servings), and here is how the nutrition facts came out...

15 crackers (one serving)

165 calories

3 g fiber

3 g protein

8 g fat

I hope you are as thrilled with these crackers as I am, and be sure to look for more upcoming cracker recipes... I've already written down a Graham Cracker version of this recipe... stay tuned!