Tasty rye crackers that are oh soooo easy

The recipe for these crackers came about for a couple of different reasons. Number one - I am sort of allergic to wheat. By sort of, I mean that I am selectively allergic to wheat. If I eat too much I get red in the face, get a headache, and become sluggish. However, if a delicious slice of cake or delectable cookie is offered to me, my allergies suddenly subside (or at least are no longer important)! When I am eating at home, I am usually "good," though, so wheat is barely present in our house. Number two - we are what you might call poor at the moment. Spending money on extra things like crackers and chips just doesn't fit into the equation. But I was hungry! I needed snacks! That's where the rye crackers came in.

I usually bake with spelt flour, however spelt flour is generally expensive and therefore very precious to me. Rye is good for you, but much too dense to make a good bread without mixing it with lots of white flour. It is, however, much less expensive to buy a bag of rye flour than spelt most of the time, so it is a perfect candidate for things like crackers, which don't have to be light and fluffy, and which I wouldn't want to waste my precious spelt on. I made this recipe up, and if you ask me, I think it's pretty damn good. Let me know.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups rye flour

3 tbs. flax seeds

1 tbs. basil

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 - 3/4 cup water

Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add a 1/2 cup of water and stir together. If the mixture is too crumbly, add more water until it's not. Mixture should be just sticking together, be careful not to make it too wet. Turn onto a cutting board sprinkled with more rye flour, and roll out the dough to whatever thickness you want your crackers to be. Cut into whatever shapes desire, and place on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, or until crackers are lightly browned and hard (times will vary depending on thickness). Let crackers cool and store in an airtight container.

This recipe is not set in stone. If you don't have flax seeds, substitute some other seed, or leave them out entirely. Basil isn't necessary either - go ahead and experiment with your favorite herbs. These crackers are also a little spicy because of the black pepper - if you don't like it you can cut the quantity, or cut the pepper entirely. Play around with it, and let me know if you come up with any awesome variations that you want to share.