Heavenly Homemade Wheat Thins with Milk Kefir

I've been looking for a good cracker recipe that fits the Real Food critera.

I think I've struck Gold!  Almost Literally!

These are some deliciously tasty crackers that are

jam packed with super nutrition.

Personally I like them with my Lime Cilantro Hummus,

but my family likes them with soup or as a snack.

I'm just happy they are loaded with nutrition.

My youngest sister came by today and I had her try some.

Loved them!

She also said they have a nice after taste.

Regular Wheat Thins have a kind of weird after taste.

I didn't notice because I haven't bought regular 

Wheat Thins in a while so I didn't remember.

But I'm happy with that bonus!

The original recipe is here.

It's very good, but I've made a couple of modifications to ramp up the nutrition.

The biggest change around here is learning about kefir.

I'm certainly not an expert on Kefir, 

but a great source for info is over here at Cultures for Health.

There are 2 kinds of kefir.

Water and milk.

We love both and it's been fun trying new ways to use it.

I will definitely be sharing more recipes using kefir.

You can get kefir here and here, 

or if you're lucky enough to live by someone who already has some, 

just be patient.  

They will definitely have some to share.  

The little grains grow like crazy and you'll be splitting your culture regularly.  

I've only been at this about a month 

and have already given my mom her own milk culture.

Ok. Let's get started.

These are milk kefir grains.

Not really a 'grain', they just look like little grains.

They are kind of soft and squishy like a firm jello.

When you add the kefir grains to fresh whole milk, 

they go to town eating the sugar out of the milk 

and leaving a slightly sour but uber-nutritious thick milk.

You can buy milk Kefir ready to go at the grocery store, 

but it's about $4 for a quart.

I make mine using whole milk.

Raw organic milk is best, 

but I don't have access to that right now so regular whole milk it is.

Let the cultures sit in fresh milk for 24 hours on the counter, 

or about a week in the fridge.

Head on over to Cultures for Health for a great video tutorial on all the details.

At first I was overwhelmed with keeping the kefir healthy and happy every 24 hours,

until I learned I can keep it in the fridge and use it when I need to.

Much less stress and work for me, but all the nutrition when I'm ready for it.

Strain out the cultures and put them in a fresh jar of milk.

Keep the processed kefir milk in another jar and seal.  

Let sit in the fridge for at least a day before using.

Then it's ready to go.

Usually I use it in place of buttermilk or milk in recipes,

but I also like to add a little honey and just drink it.

It's probably and aquired taste, but I like it and so do my boys.

Alright, enough kefir stuff.

Let's get on to the crackers.

Heavenly Homemade Wheat Thins

In one bowl combine the following:

2 1/2 cups sprouted whole grain flour

(I always sprout my grains.  Always)

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Whisk together.

In another bowl combine:

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

(my recipe is here)

1 egg

1/4 cup kefir milk

Whisk liquid ingredients together then add to dry ingredients.

Stir to form a soft dough.

Knead a few times and wrap in plastic.

Let sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Longer is OK.

After it's rested, it's time to make the crackers.

I'm not strong enough to roll out the dough thin enough, 

so I used my pasta maker.

It works perfectly for making uniformly thin crackers.

You can find your own pasta maker here.

If you don't remember, 

I made some awesome homemade ravioli using my pasta maker.

Anyway. 

I had to knead the dough a few more times before putting it through the pasta maker.

Cut off a chunk about baseball size or smaller.

Press flat and feed it through the pasta maker on setting 1.

Fold the dough over and roll it through again.

Keep folding and rolling 5-6 times to get good cohesion in the dough.

Then run it through at setting 2, then 3.

I'm happy with the thickness on setting 3. 

Feel free to experiment on the thickness you like.

Lay out the dough and cut into squares with a pizza cutter.

I re-rolled the excess dough in the next batch.

Place the cut squares carefully on a sheet of parchment.

When you're about 1/2 way done rolling out the dough,

preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheight.

Put the parchment on a cookie sheet and 

bake for 10-11 minutes or until desired doneness.

We like to bake them for 10 minutes, then when they are all baked,

we put the whole pile back in the turned-off warm oven 

for about an hour or so to crisp them up.

Longer than that and they get a little to brown on the edges.

Still wonderful, just more done than we would like.

 And Voila!
A whole batch of super nutritious crackers.
Now that we've discovered them,
I'll definitely be making them
over, and over, and over, and over again!