Recipe: Stone-ground rice flour crackers

This recipe emerged from a horribly failed attempt at making tortillas out of rice flour with a recipe that originally calls for wheat flour.  Now, I’ve spoken before about how you can use rice flour instead of wheat flour for a number of purposes, but anything that relies on this specific type of gluten to be produced is not going to work well with rice flour.

Ah, well…

But, you know what they say:  “When life gives you hideously inedible patties of cardboard, deep fry it instead!”

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached stone-ground rice flour
• 1 teaspoons fine-ground sea salt
• 2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) bacon grease
• 1-1/2 or so cups of warmed unsweetened almond milk
• Canola or vegetable oil, or any oil you prefer with a higher smoke point
• More salt (seasoned or otherwise) for additional flavor

.

Directions

Sift the dry ingredients together well (flour, salt, baking powder), and then cut in the bacon grease until you get the usual mealy texture and a handful clumps together briefly.  Mix in the warmed almond milk a little at a time until you have a good relatively dry dough.  Knead for a few minutes, then let the dough stand in a bowl under a moist towel for at least a half an hour.

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil over a medium heat in your fryer of choice.

Cut the dough into manageable pieces and roll on a board dusted with the rice flour until the dough is very, very thin – less than 1/8-inch thick.  Use your favorite cookie cutters to make shapes, drop them into the hot oil, and cook for a few minutes, making sure to flip them as needed.

Lift out to a rack, sprinkling immediately with salt, and let stand for until cool, maybe ten minutes.

I also like to fry the leftover dough after the cookie cutter is done with it, and we call those the “bits and bobs”.  Great little crispy, crunchy crackers, stout enough for a hummus snack or just eaten plain.

Enjoy!