I am a Cracker Backer

When I was a teenager when all the other girls were at the mall, I was at home with a borrowed cookbook making bread. I ate my last bagel a week before surgery and had heard all the stories, no bagels after bypass. Well it is true, bread is hard for some to digest and is a space waster after bypass. Out goes bread and enter my love of crackers. They also provide crunch which is a great reminder to chew. I have tried every spelt, quinoa and whole grain cracker I can get my paws on in the name of crunch and finding a source of protein. Are you not the queen of meat you might be thinking, meat is protein.
I am the QoM, but only so much will go in and isn't that really the point of bypass to eat less? Imagine if you will the following scene (cue monster movie sound track, the part just before Godzilla takes out Tokyo) In comes my dietitian with the protein drink recommendations. She has accessorized these recommendations with a look of horror when I tell her I have tried most of them and I hate them. Muscle Milk, blech. How about the 15 others on this list, double blech. The only one I can tolerate is Click, which manages to do the smart thing and cover up the whey taste with coffee. I have, I tell her found a high protein cracker I like but it has seeds. Wrong thing to say. It seems there are two camps in post WLS circles. There is the camp who says eat nuts and seeds in moderation because they are a great source of protein and then my dietitian's camp who says don't because of the fat content and in a slightly veiled manner goes on to say basically that fat people clearly couldn't eat just a few nuts so we tell them to skip them all together.
As the picture clearly shows I have continued to eat high fiber and high protein crackers but I thought, I could do this myself and supplement my protein intake and up the flavor at the same time. So I present you cracker experiment number one.

The Garlic Chickpea and Flax Cracker
The recipe has been adapted from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen Blog gluten free chickpea cracker

You will need:
1 cup chickpea flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder*
1/4 cup of milled flax seed
1 T of olive oil
1/4 cup of water
For the garlic cracker substitute roasted garlic oil for the olive oil and add 6 cloves of finely chopped garlic or to taste.
This cracker makes a great vehichle for any type of seed you may want to press into the dough in addition to adding spices to the mix for added flavor.

Preheat oven to 350

Combine dry ingredients and mix to combine. If you are making a garlic cracker add the garlic at this time. Add oil and half of the water. Continue working the dough and adding water until it forms a ball. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes to allow all the ingredients to hydrate.

Dust work surface with chickpea flour and coat rolling pin. Cut dough into thirds and roll out each ball to a thickness of 1/8 inch or thinner if possible. Test batches showed that thicker crackers baked up crisp but had a denseness that tasters did not care for. Cut the dough into shapes, squares or a dodecahedron if you like and poke each square with a fork to keep from puffing. I broke the dough once rolled into random shapes which also worked well. You can also press the flax into the top of the crackers before baking for added texture.
Place on baking tray and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Tips and Tricks:

I like to use a linen or tea towel to roll my dough out on. It keeps the flour in place and makes for easy clean up.
Docking the dough, by poking it with a fork was helpful but not essential as I learned when making crackers and gabbing with my neighbor Peat.
* Use Rumford or similar aluminum free baking powder. The other type of double action powder will give your crackers a weird metallic taste.

Photo Notes: