Krax, by Martin

Open Source Savoury Cheese Crackers

In 2021 or so I started eating more carefully for my health. I had already been vegetarian for a few years for climate reasons, but was still eating a lot of processed foods and carbs. One of my favourite snacks was Arnott's Shapes, a cracker that is widely available in Australia but nowhere else that I was able to find. These are, however, loaded with processed wheat and seed oils ...

So I set out to replicate them at home in a more Keto-friendly way. The following is the result of years of iterative experimentation and I love them WAY more than the old Shapes, or indeed any crackers I have ever found in my supermarket or anywhere else online. They are easy to make, low-carb, and quite healthy, with lots of fibre and protein. They're always popular with family and visitors and I usually make a couple batches every week.

I'm an open source guy, so this recipe is for everyone to make and share. I just ask that, if you write about them anywhere, that you reference this page (dougiamas.com/krax), as they are definitely my original invention.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2.5 cups Almond meal (or almond flour for a smoother texture)
• ½ cup chia seeds (can substitute poppy seeds but definitely try chia)
• ¼ cup mixed other seeds (I suggest light colour ones like quinoa and sesame seeds)
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder (or 2 tablespoons if you like it spicier)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Other optional healthy ingredients I sometimes add: sesame flour, quinoa flakes, nutritional yeast

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C.
   
2. Mix all the ingredients together dry:
   • In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, combine the grated Parmesan, almond meal, chia seeds, mixed seeds, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
   • Add the chilli powder according to your spice preference.
   • Stir all the ingredients together until well combined
     
3. Turn it into dough:
   • Microwave the bowl for 3 minutes, the cheese will melt
   • Stir it all up and make it consistent 
   • The mixture is probably a touch dry, so while stirring slowly add a little bit of hot water to loosen it up, not too much. You want a nice dough-like consistency.
     
4. Divide the Dough:
   • Divide the dough into four equal parts.
     
5. Prepare for Baking:
   • Flatten out each portion of dough between two sheets of baking paper with a roller.
   • Transfer each bottom sheet to a baking tray in the oven.
     
6. Hot baking:
   • Place all the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
   • Rotate the baking trays so that the one on top starts to dry out and forms a skin.
     
7. Cut the crackers
   • Quickly remove the baking trays from the oven and score the dough to form biscuit shapes.  I just criss-cross with a pizza cutter, it's super-fast, but you can use a big knife if you're careful.
   • The reason we do this now is to avoid them melting altogether again when it's too soft or causing a mess when they're too hard.
     
8. Warm baking:
   • Lower the oven temperature to 100°C.
   • Set a timer for two hours.
   • Leave the crackers in the oven to finish.  My oven timer will switch off the oven so I basically just go away and leave them be.
     
9. Cool and serve!
   • Allow the crackers to cool down completely.   At this point I sometimes sprinkle them with a little salt or onion powder to give them a little extra zing on the tongue.
   • Enjoy!

This recipe is hard to get wrong - it's very forgiving of different amounts of everything (I usually never measure anything and do it all by eye). You can even eat the dough raw and it's quite flexible (try using it to cover blocks of paneer in an air fryer for a deliciously different treat).

I worked out the macros once for this exact recipe:

Nutrition per 100g:

- Energy: 1942 kJ (~464 kcal)

- Protein: 24.05 g

- Fat (total): 38.05 g

- Saturated Fat: 8.98 g

- Carbohydrates (total): 8.23 g

- Fiber: 7.20 g

- Sodium: 422 mg

Yours may vary of course!