I’ve been on my coconut oil kick this week. I hope you have been inspired to go out and try some. It is such a versatile oil that I think you will enjoy incorporating into your kitchen creations.
My sister-in-law, Annie Bhagwandin, and her husband have a chestnut orchard in Washington. This prompted her to write this amazing cookbook: The Chestnut Cookbook.
Annie is a genius at utilizing the American chestnut. She even made the most amazing cookies which incorporated whole wheat pastry flour along with chestnut flour. They were AWESOME: not too sweet, full of fiber and protein, a wonderful snack.
This combo that Annie had come up got me to thinking about how to create a chocolate cracker that wouldn’t be too sweet, would incorporate whole wheat flour along with a nut flour, and would use virgin coconut oil. Well, thanks to Annie’s inspiration, I have one to share with you.
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a bowl, place the coconut oil, sugar, and salt. Mix until well blended. Add egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until blended. Now add your whole wheat pastry flour, almond meal, and cocoa powder. Mix. Your dough will be like a “drier” cookie dough but shorter (meaning a bit oilier than typical cookie dough).
On your work surface, sprinkle some whole wheat pastry flour. Then turn about 1/2 of your dough onto your work surface and roll out until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. Using knife or pizza cutter, cut your dough into squares. Once your dough is cut, transfer your squares onto the lined cookie sheets. Repeat with the second half of your dough. (Note, your crackers will neither spread much nor rise during the cooking process so you can place them close together.) Bake in your preheated oven for 7-8 minutes or until your crackers begin to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and transfer your crackers to a cooking rack. They will firm up and harden as they cool. Enjoy!
Option: Animal Crackers
If you’d like to make animal shaped crackers, first divide your dough into two equal pieces. Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to cool (minimum of 1 hour). When ready to make crackers, take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Using animal shaped cookie cutters, cut out your animal crackers. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
4 You
Amy - while wearing heels
Having a 4 year old, animal crackers are very important in our house. I’ll have to give these a try!
Four Marrs and One Venus
I love animal crackers..and chocolate so this is a hands down winner in my book! Marilyn..yum yum! Great fun recipe!
The Better Baker
Oh how I love animal crackers too! And chocolate? How can ya beat it? Thanks for sharing –
Debra Kapellakis
Animal crackers and in chocolate flavor! Where were these when I was a kid. Oh, that’s OK, I will make up for lost years. ????
Stone Cottage Adventures
Oh, wow! This sounds wonderful! Thank you! -Marci
Anne @ Domesblissity
How did I miss this? These look great Marilyn. Did I tell you, I finally bought some coconut oil. You must’ve been willing me to buy it so I can try some of your recipes. LOL
Anne xx
Brooke @ Inside-Out Design
I’ve never made my own crackers before; would never have even thought to! My kids blow through graham crackers and animal crackers. I’ll have to try this!
Terry
I’ve yet to make homemade crackers too but I really want to try. These sound yummy. Thanks for sharing at our party this week.
Six Sisters
The graham crackers look sooooo yummy! And we all know that the best thing with a graham cracker is frosting! We appreciate you linking up to our “Strut Your Stuff Saturday”. Hope you’ll come back soon! -The Sisters
Claiming Our Space
Does the coconut oil change the taste? I love the idea of making my own crackers but can’t stand the taste of coconut. Thanks so much for sharing on Tout It Tuesday! Hope to see you next week.
Betsy @ Romance on a Dime
This looks like a great recipe!! Thanks for sharing this at Romance on a dime!!
Natasha in Oz
That sure does look delicious! I’m going to Google+ this post right now.
Thanks for linking up to Say G’day Saturday. This week’s post is now live so I hope that you can join in again this weekend!
Best wishes,
Natasha in Oz
Charlene@APinchofJoy
These sound so good — I’ve been wanting to use coconut oil and this would be a perfect recipe. Thanks so much for sharing on Busy Monday at A Pinch of Joy. Hope to see you again soon!
Natural-Nesters
Yay! You were featured with this blog on our linky party at Natural-Nesters!! We just love this.. Thank you so much for sharing. Stop on over and grab your button!!! We love everything you do!
This is what happens when 2 sisters are doing this blog and we didn’t talk about which ones each of us liked.. you get 2 features!!! Congrats.
Jill @ Create.Craft.Love.
Those look awesome! Thanks again for linking up to the CHQ blog hop! Hope to see you next week! Bring a friend!! =)
Jess from Coxs Corner
This is an awesome idea! I am definitely going to have to give them a try! I think my little man would love them! I’m totally pinning them to try later! Thank you for sharing your idea at Artsy Corner! I can’t wait until next week!
Lindsay @Artsy-Fartsy Mama
YUM!! We need to make some of these, my daughter would love them!
Thanks for sharing at Artsy Corner!