psyllium "crackers"

[mskllsws]

I apologize for not knowing how to find the other thread when I asked the question about cooking with psyllium. Some kind soul posted a recipe she uses to make psyllium crackers. Well I tried it today, and thought I would share my results.

She originally said mix 3 heaping teaspoons of flax meal with 4 heaping teaspoons of psyllium husks and seasoning of choice. Then add 2.5 cups of water and mix. Pour onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 200-300 for three hours.

That is my paraphrase of what she suggested.

I used a tupperware shaker and put the three heaping t. flax meal, and four heaping t psyllium husks along with 1/2 t. of garlic salt.

I greased the cookie sheet with olive oil and baked it at 300' for three hours.

While I was a skeptic before trying this I am now a believer.

The cooking removes the water from the mixture and leaves behind a thin
crispy wafer like substance. The texture is very similar to eating a thick chip and gives the mouth the same satisfaction as crunching potato chips.

Considering none of these things are allowed this is a wonderful find.

I can see breaking these up on a salad as a crouton substitute, or if you are behind on fats slathering them with butter. Since I greased my sheet with olive oil they have that hint of oil, and the subtle garlic taste. I might increase the garlic salt in the next batch.

Keep in mind, while my psyllium lists itself as 5 grams carb with five grams fiber for each rounded teaspoon, being a wash, the flax meal lists six grams carbs and only four grams fiber per 2.5 TABLESPOONS. This leaves a net of 2 carbs for 2 1/2 tablespoons. I did measure my "heaping teaspoon" and it fills the tablespoon measure just about.

So a purist could measure 2.5 T into the mix of psyllium and know the whole
batch would have a total of 2 net carbs.

This recipe makes a whole cookie sheet of "crackers" and I seriously doubt that I would consume and entire tray in a single day.

The entire batch would have 20 grams fiber from the psyllium and 4 grams fiber from the flax meal for a total of 24 grams. I used about a tablespoon of olive oil to coat the cookie sheet, and the flax meal lists 60 calories for a 2.5T
serving.

That gives you all the information you might want to include if you are using fit day.com

Give this a try.
Again, thanks to the person who responded to my original post. I wish I could find you now.
Karen

[tofi]

Glad it worked out for you. Thanks for the elaboration of method and results.

To find your past posts, there are a couple of things you can do.
1. Click on your user name in any of your posts. When the Profile page opens, scroll down to: Find all posts by this user and click on it. You'll get a list of your posts and can look for the one you want.

2. If you can see a heading "Quick Links", I think you can find your Recent Posts there. (I have a Macintosh, not a PC, so I don't have that heading.)

[geauxleaux]

Thanks for the recipe - I've already written it down and can't wait to try it! However, I need to find psyllium first. I bought ground flax seed at my local grocery store but didn't see psyllium. Do I need to visit a health food store?

[AntiM]

Hey Karen ... I'm so glad you liked them!

I originally modified a recipe that just used psyllium and didn't care for the results - the 'cracker' shrunk up to 1/2 it's original size and got very thick and sharp, hard to eat. The flax seems to help make it into a proper crisp cracker - tastes much better and has health benefits of it's own.

I've used Mexican seasonings and made nachos - yum! But you've got to eat them pretty quick - the cracker turns limp much faster than a corn tortilla chip. I'd imagine adding them to a salad as a crouton would have the same effect.

Also - another variation is the Sweet Psyllium Cracker ... replace some of the water with a SF syrup - like DaVinci's or Atkins. I've used Vanilla syrup, cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to make a lovely cracker - by themselves with a cup of tea is wonderful, but with a bit of sweetend cream cheese on top it makes a decadent (and fiber rich!) dessert.

I've also used Peanut Butter syrup, but since I think I was hoping for something like Nutter Butter cookies, it just couldn't live up to my expectations! :lol:

geauxleaux: Some grocery stores will sell psyllium as 'Colon Cleanse' or some such name - but be sure to look for 100% psyllium husks with no additives. I buy mine at the Health Food Store. They charge about $4.00 a pound - much, much cheaper than the grocery store version. I can make about 10 cookies sheets per 1/2 pound, so that's a good bargain.

Some other thing to note:

* Drink *plenty* of water when you eat them, or they can make you constipated.

* If you haven't been taking psyllium previously, don't have more than 1/4 of a sheet at a time. (Let your body get used to the extra fiber.)

* Take medication 1 hour before or 2 hours after injesting a fiber supplement.

[AntiM]

And ooops ... Karen,

For the record I used heaping Tablespoons of both flax and psyllium. But it's good to know it worked out your way, too!

And if anyone else tries making this - know that 3 hours may not be enough time to completely dry out the crackers. Often I'll leave my oven at 200 overnight and wake up to a nicely crisp cracker.

[mskllsws]

Thanks for the recipe - I've already written it down and can't wait to try it! However, I need to find psyllium first. I bought ground flax seed at my local grocery store but didn't see psyllium. Do I need to visit a health food store?

psyllim husk powder is the same thing as Metamucil plain. I did buy my powder in a GNC store, but psyllium is the ingredient in Metamucil, just read the label to make sure it hasnt got additives in it.

Karen

[mskllsws]

I set the oven temperature to 300' and the cracker was done after three hours.

Plus I used a heaping silverware teaspoon, not a measuring teaspoon.
After making them I wanted a more exact measure of what I mixed so I took a teaping teaspoon (silverware teaspoon) and dumped it into a measuring tablespoon. They were about equal.

So I used about three tablespoons flax meal to 4 tablespoons psyllium to 2.5 cups water.

I just finished up the second half of this batch and cant wait to try making them with a different variety of seasoning.

I ate them today with my salad for lunch. Had a nice crunch. I did not put them in the bowl with the salad but ate them at the same time. That way they did not get soggy.

Karen

[AntiM]

Karen :rheart:

I pass the crown ... You are now the Queen of the Psyllium Crackers!

You go girl!

[Cinderella]

Off to the store I go...

what a great post! :D

[Cinderella]

hey...I was just wondering, do you think a person could add a tad of shredded cheese to the uncooked mixture to make cheese crackers? :eek:

[AntiM]

Cinderella ~

You'll have to test out adding cheese to our recipe, but if you want a sure thing, try Ruth's (RGale) recipe for Flax Crackers:


Flax Crackers
1/2 cup water
2 T. Butter
2 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup flax meal
2 T. Vital Wheat Gluten
Seasoning of choice (I use a home-made seasoning salt with lots of garlic and onion powder)

Bring the water and butter to a boil. Add the cheese, and stir until it melts, then add the flours and seasoning. Stir until it forms a ball (or at least a uniform mass -- I never see an actual ball in the bottom of the pot.) Turn it out on a cutting board, and spread it as thinly as you like with a spatula. I can usually get it to about 9 X 10 inches or so -- I've never actually measured. Then cut it into slices. I usually get 18 per batch, but you can cut them any size you like. It may be a little tricky to get the slices off the board, and onto a greased baking sheet, but if they tear a bit, you can just push them back together. The dough is very elastic, and sticks to itself nicely.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 300 and bake another 15 minutes. Let cool, and keep in a tin.

[Cinderella]

thanx :D :D

[Chutatip_t]

Hi,

I would like to make the phyllium cracker..but i have a question.

When u refer to heaping TBS, do u mean the heaping spoon that comes with the protein powder or round measured T?

Thanks,

[AntiM]

Hey Chutatip_t ...

I made mine with a rounded tablespoon, not the protein powder scoop.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy them!

[Chutatip_t]

Hi Monika,

Can i confirm that it is a tablespoon and not a teaspoon? I looked at the recipe above and i saw that the recipe said heaping teaspoon which is roughly = measured tablespoon.

a bit confused now :-(

[AntiM]

Hi Chutatip_t

This thread was started to respond to my recipe on some other thread. Here is the original:

Homemade Psyllium & Flax Crackers
4 heaping Tablespoons psyllium powder
3 heaping Tablespoons flaxmeal
2.5 cups of water
Seasoning

Mix the dry seasonings, psyllium and flax powder together in a large tumbler. Add 2-3 cups of water, mix well (but briefly - it doesn't take long to turn to gruel!) and pour onto a greased cookie sheet [the kind with sides]. Bake in over at low temperature (200-325) until crisp (3 hours to overnight). Break up into big pieces and store in a ziplock baggie - they'll stay crunchy!

As far as seasoning blends, I've gotten fancy and used Tex Mex (chili / cumin / lime) or Herbal (dill weed/seed, sesame seeds and onion), but I typically just add Mrs. Dash and salt!

It only takes me a few minutes and makes a tasty addition to my diet.

Now, if you read through this whole thread, you'll see that Karen (mskllsws) used *teaspoons* and they still worked great for her. I like a cracker with more substance; not enough of the psyllium/flax makes it very thin and sharp. I think you should experiment and find what you like! It's hard to go wrong.

Good luck!

[deb34]

to add some different flavours to these crackers, why not sprinkle the raw dough with dry popcorn seasonings before baking?

Sour cream N onion
Ranch
dill pickle
BBq etc.

Just a tiny sprinkle probably wouldn't hurt the carb count much. Then we would have a LC version of "Crispers", right?

i'll try it and see.

Deb

[pay]

It's been a while since I stumbled across the recipe for psyllium crackers. I have read such good reviews of the recipe. I finally hit the health store and picked up some ground organic flax meal but when I tried the recipe it did not work. At least I THINK it didn't work. After an hour and a half, the "crackers" were dark dark dark brown and very bitter tasting. Half of it stuck to the bottom of the pan and the other half popped up into a very thin layer. Does my palate or my recipe need refinement?

Thanks!

[AntiM]

First, welcome to the forum!

The fact that your crackers get brown after only 1.5 hours tells me your oven is too hot. You want a slow, gentle bake that dries the cracker out more than roasts it. It typically takes my oven 8 hours to get it right ... three hours of 250 with the door cracked, then five hours (or overnight) inside the oven with the heat off. After it's initial 3 hours, I'll often take the cracker out of the cookie sheet and lay it upside down on the oven rack. It dries the cracker more uniformly.

Check your ingredients. You are using flax meal and psyllium powder, right? Flax can taste bitter, especially if it isn't fresh. Many folks buy flax seed (golden is best, I believe) and grind them in a coffee mill. I use Bob's Red Mill flax meal and keep it in the freezer.

And in the original version*, you use heaping tablespoons, not teaspoons. (Makes the cracker less paper thin, IMHO.) It will buckle, and come away from the edges ... that's normal.

Be sure to grease the pan well ... I use a Crisco pan spray (like PAM, but I think it works even better).

Be sure to season them in whatever way appeals to you. Lately I've been making a teriyaki version with soy sauce, DaVinci's pineapple syrup, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Delish!

And finally - don't blame your poor palate if you try these solutions and you still don't like them, just like everything else, they're not to everyone's taste.

Good Luck and let us know how your next experiment turns out!



* Homemade Psyllium & Flax Crackers
4 heaping Tablespoons psyllium powder
3 heaping Tablespoons flaxmeal
2.5 cups of water
Seasoning

Mix the dry seasonings, psyllium and flax powder together in a large tumbler. Add 2-3 cups of water, mix well (but briefly - it doesn't take long to turn to gruel!) and pour onto a greased cookie sheet [the kind with sides]. Bake in over at low temperature (200-325) until crisp (3 hours to overnight).

[pay]

Thank you for the welcome, the quick response, and the great information!

I am indeed using flax meal, but I think that I am using Psyllium Seed Husk. It's kind of in "flake" form. Is that right? I did only use teaspoons and it did NOT turn into a gruel before I turned it out onto the pan. My usual experience with psyllium is that it gets thick quickly, but I didn't think anything was wrong, counting on the fact that 3 hours in the oven should remove the excess water. Whoops!

I used olive oil on the pan. Do you think that pam would be better?

My family LOVES teriyaki so I'm very excited to try your new seasoning suggestions. Do you just mix it all together?

I thought this recipe would be great for our little boy who has starting potty training. I figure they suggest plenty of fluids when working on going "tinkle" so why not help get things moving when he's working on going "plop"? Teehee. He's started to suspect the thick! milkshakes I've been offering lately, but he'll NEVER turn down a cracker!

Thanks again for your quick response and your willingness to help me get this right!

Cat
http://www.catjahnke.com

[karlapd80]

Hi there.....I´m really interested in the recipe for the flax psyllium cracker but here in Venezuela we don´t have that product ..please let me know if I could use for example more flax meal and maybe some wheat bran instead of the psyllium...please I'm new here and I would thank you very much for your help.

[karlapd80]

Hi there again.....I´m posting one more time this reply expecting that someone can help me out......I´m really interested in the recipe for the flax psyllium cracker but here in Venezuela we don´t have that product ..please let me know if I could use for example more flax meal and maybe some wheat bran instead of the psyllium...please I'm new here and I would thank you very much for your help.

[Redrose81]

I am definately going to try this one tonight. I am going on a road trip and need something snacky but not high in carbs. I can't wait to see if this comes out well!