Homemade Crackers for Snacking

Beware, the following recipe is extremely addictive! I have to stay out of my kitchen so I don't keep eating these crispy little sweet crackers. At first I was really frustrated with the dough, because I was attempting to make animal crackers with my children. Once I figured out how to best cut these, it was a breeze and I saved so much time. You may, of course, attempt to use cutters as well, but the process goes very slowly and is extremely time consuming.

Imagine two children goofing off, tossing flour, cutting the animals you've already cut out into a few extra pieces (who needs a head anyway?!), and then performing what I like to call the "grab and stuff." You know, that's where most of the dough goes into a mouth instead of on the baking sheet. I only made one sheet of animal shapes, and then I was contemplating tossing the remainder of the dough just to avoid having to do more! Surely no cracker is worth that kind of effort, right?! But then that first sheet came out of the oven, perfectly browned, smelling delicious, and having a crisp-tender snap to them, and I knew I had a winner. These have such an intriguing nutty, rich flavor that it's hard to stop eating them once you have a taste!

Coconut-Almond Snacking Crackers

1 cup whole wheat PASTRY flour

1/4 cup almond meal (coarsely ground almond flour available in the natural foods baking section)

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/4 cup softened butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

pinch nutmeg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

scant 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

Place the coconut flakes in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg.

In a second bowl, cream the butter and sugar using a hand mixer. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Stir into the dry ingredients, lightly kneading if needed to form a ball. Wrap tightly and chill for 1 hour (this allows the whole grains to relax and absorb the liquid, as well as making it easier to roll out).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough in half, cover one dough ball and set aside. Place the other ball on a piece of parchment paper or a silpat sheet. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out very thinly, about 1/8-inch thickness, into a large rectangle. (If you go thicker they will be more cookie like and have less of a cracker snap.) Trim edges, if desired. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and press in lightly. Using a pizza cutter, slice dough into long vertical strips, then slice horizontally to form squares. Don't worry about them spreading together; they will be fine (and if they do, just separate them while warm with a knife or the pizza cutter again)!

Bake about 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned, on the parchment (or silpat). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and repeat with the remaining dough. (You may reuse the parchment sheet, but be sure to brush off any crumbs and to remove it from the hot baking sheet before rolling the dough out on it.)