Tag Archives: crackers

Sesame Flax Crackers

food and cooking, , , ,

Here’s the recipe a few of you were interested in:

SESAME FLAX CRACKERS

Makes about 25 crackers

1/2 cup (60g) ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup (80g) golden flaxseeds
1/2 cup (75g) unhulled sesame seeds
1 cup (240ml) water
1 1/2 tablespoons tamari
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
(optional: I added extra salt and some cayenne pepper; you could experiment with other seasonings.)

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and stir well. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. [That’s what the original recipe says, but I think it gets too thick in that amount of time; try 20-30 minutes.] The mixture will thicken up considerably and form a gelatinous slurry that is pourable. Add a little water if it is too thick to pour.

After about 45 minutes preheat the oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Transfer the “dough” to the lined baking sheet and spread it as evenly as possible with a spoon or rubber spatula. Score the dough lightly with a pizza roller or knife to indicate the eventual cracker shapes, anywhere from 15-35 crackers.

Bake for 30-45 minutes until lightly browned. At this point you can turn off the oven and leave the crackers in there with the door slightly ajar, for them to finish drying and crisping. But I like to speed up the process; I turn the oven down and often break the crackers apart, then keep baking them as long as necessary to achieve the desired crispness.

When they are cool, break them apart if you haven’t already, and store in an airtight container at room temperature for as long as two weeks. If they absorb moisture just bake them at a low temperature for about 15 minutes to re-crisp.

The pictures show two baking sheets because I always make a double batch. They are too easy to eat!

Gathering of things new and again.

home, my garden, philosophy, , , , , , ,

The newly opened plum blossoms are the sweetest thing this week:

In the house, the refurbished little half-bath downstairs and the all-new full bath upstairs saw major progress. The little one was torn apart last July when it was discovered that a drain had been leaking into the wall. The wall was replaced, and eventually everything else, but the painting hadn’t been done until this week, so I only now hung the mirror I’d bought many months ago. It’s such a small space I had a hard time taking a picture of that.

The mirror is a sort of champagne color and I was a little worried about it blending in with all the other tones. But nothing unlovely jumps out at me at this point. I want eventually to have towels in there that are bright and contrasting, maybe in the aqua realm?

I’ve made a couple batches of Sesame Flax Crackers that my former housemate Kit and I discovered a couple of years ago. They are so easy, I don’t understand why I couldn’t manage to make them again before now. But then, the last 15 months of demolition and construction have been pretty consuming of my mind’s juggling skills. I could read philosophical novels and sometimes write about them, but I couldn’t take the few steps to bake crackers.

When Mags and I met via our blogs many years ago (we have still not met otherwise), we were both interested in reading the philosopher/theologian Søren Kierkegaard. I am pretty sure I’ve never read a book by him before, even though I somehow managed to write a term paper in high school comparing him to Sartre. It seems laughable now — or is it? Just now I’m feeling thankful for the confluence of people and events that made it possible for me to even hear about existentialism in my little high school out in the sticks. I wrote much more about this in a previous blog post that was a pre-book review: here.

Anyway, I bring it up again because neither Mags nor I ever got around to reading Kierkegaard — until now! We are reading “together” The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air: Three Godly Discourses, which is short, and consists of what are essentially sermons, but because Kierkegaard was not an ordained minister he didn’t think it appropriate to call them that.

My friend with whom I co-taught the high school class at church for two years gave me other books by Kierkegaard and much encouragement in my philosophical readings. I read a lot more online about what would be good to start with, and chose this book because I was pretty confident that we could finish 90 pages, no matter how challenging, and maybe get some momentum going for more of Kierkegaard. You know I will update you!

Surprise – the freesias are opening. I never even noticed the buds. Two insects found this first flower before I did. And lastly, below, my dear, dear little azalea plant that was part of a flower gift when my husband died five years ago is blooming right now. It has never been so beautiful!