Gluten Free Crackers

The last time communion was served at our church I started thinking about the fact that I can no longer participate due to my problems with gluten.  That got me started thinking about unleavened bread, and I started looking online for gluten-free cracker recipes.  I found a few that looked like they might work, but they called for rolling out dough (usually between sheets of parchment paper).  I hate rolling out GF dough, so I decided I was going to invent my own recipe.  Attempt number one was a disaster (a disaster so disastrous that we almost needed to clean the oven when I was done!).  Attempt number two was less disastrous than the first (I actually ate the crackers, instead of throwing them away, and no injury was inflicted upon the oven).  The third attempt was what I would consider a success.  The flavor was quite nice, and the crackers remained crunchy, even after a couple days.   Since I avoided the “roll it out” process, you’ll notice that my crackers are very non-uniform.  That just adds to their charm, in my opinion!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4  teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 3/4 cup water
• optional spices *

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine all the flours, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.
3. Cut the butter into the mixture with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Add the water a bit at a time, stirring together with a fork as you do.
5. Use a sprayed spatula to spread the batter evenly on a stoneware baking pan 10.5 x 15.5 (approximately 160 square inches).  Make sure you spread the batter as evenly as possible, to avoid very thick or very thin areas.  Thick areas will end up doughy, and thin areas will become too crisp/scorched.
6. Use a knife to cut the batter into small squares, and a fork to pierce it.
7. Place the baking pan in the oven and cook for 40 minutes.  After the first 30 minutes, you’ll want to start checking the crackers every few minutes.  If you see portions starting to brown, it’s time to pull them out!
8. It’ll come out of the oven as one giant cracker, but it’ll easily snap into squares where you cut it with a knife before baking.
9. Store in an airtight container.

*  I’ve tried a couple different ways of spicing up my crackers.  One way was to add a little bit of garlic salt and/or onion powder into the mix.  Another was to add some rosemary and thyme (I refer to them as my ‘Scarborough Crackers!’).  What else could you try?  Well, at some point I’m going to try adding some chili powder or cumin.  Maybe sometime I’ll try mixing in some pepper.  Experiment, and let me know what works for you!