Seasonal Ontario Food

I'm kind of excited about these. I've been craving graham crackers lately for some reason, but because I prefer not to eat wheat, I needed to make my own. After making several batches, I think I have two versions perfected. This one is not gluten-free; the other one is. I'll be posting it a little later. They work just fine ground up for use in graham cracker crusts.

Note: Thanks to the flax seed, which looks modest and unassuming but which is a high-powered mover and shaker in the world of fibre if you know what I mean and I think you do, these probably have about 10 times the fibre of an ordinary graham cracker. Treat them with respect. You have been warned.

Makes 16 to 20 crackers
20 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

2/3 cup ground flax seed plus 1 tablespoon
2/3 cup barley flour
2/3 cup oat flour
5 tablespoons Sucanat
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ cup butter
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a large cookie tray with parchment paper.

Sift the ground flax seed into a mixing bowl. Discard whatever is too large to go through. Generally, this should be about 1 tablespoonful.

Sift in all the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.

Put the butter, honey and molasses in a small pot or microwave-proof dish and heat until the butter is melted.

Mix the butter mixture into the dry ingredients.

Roll out the dough on the parchment paper. (You may need to remove it from the cookie tray while you do so.) It should be about ¼ inch thick. Prick it all over with a fork – this is important as it lets steam escape and makes them crunchy – and cut it into 16 or 20 squares with a pizza cutter.

Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. Re-cut the squares and let the crackers cool. Break them apart and eat, or use in other recipes calling for graham crackers. They will keep stored in an airtight tin for at least a week.