I can distinctly remember the first time I ever had sushi. Like many young people, I was at first horrified to hear of people eating raw fish, and resisted the trend mightily. It wasn't until I moved out to Vancouver for university, where sushi-bars were much more common, that anyone could convince me to try it. And even then, I didn't try it until my third year. A friend finally dragged me to a funny little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served, incongruously, really good chicken wings and really good sushi. Quite inexpensively too, and we had a feast on a university student's budget. I fell hard and fast for sushi then, and made a point of eating it whenever I could afford it.But as much as I love the varied and interesting flavours of sushi, perhaps one of my favourite parts of the experience isn't the sushi at all, but the wasabi. That intensely strong, pungent green condiment has quite a hold on me. I love it, and I am known to add so much of it to my sushi that it stings my nose and the top of my head. I will squirm in my seat and press the bridge of my nose, and then just do it all over again. If it makes my eyes water, so much the better. And I love almost anything flavoured with wasabi. Those little wasabi-crusted peas? Love them. Wasabi flavoured almonds? Yes, please. And crackers, I adore wasabi-flavoured crackers. Of course, traditional wheat crackers, or even rice crackers, aren't really an option for me anymore.
Making almond flour crackers is pretty straightforward and I've made a few different kinds in the past, like my Cheddar Asiago Crackers and Homemade Graham Crackers. This time, I wanted a savoury cracker with a bold flavour, and wasabi instantly sprang to mind. And I decided to pair it with another of my favourite flavours, sesame. Wasabi and sesame go so well together in sushi, I thought they'd pair very nicely in a snack cracker. I took my basic cracker recipe, added some toasted sesame seeds, and some prepared wasabi paste. I was unsure of how much wasabi to add, but I was counting on it being fairly strong so I went with a light hand.
The Results: Well, I definitely underestimated how much wasabi to use. These have great sesame flavour and I really like them as they are, but the wasabi is almost completely lost. I would say that they need at least triple the amount of wasabi paste to get the flavour to come through, and that's how I am going to write up the recipe. If you really like the heat of wasabi, feel free to add more, I don't think you can go wrong.
Sesame Wasabi Crackers
2 cups almond flour
1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp prepared wasabi paste
1 egg, lightly beaten
Preheat oven to 225F.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, sesame seeds, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, wasabi paste and egg.
Add butter/egg mixture to almond flour mixture and mix until a cohesive dough forms.
On a large cookie sheet, roll out into a rough rectangle between sheets of parchment paper to desired thickness. Can be made very thin, but make sure that it is of even thickness all over so the edges won't burn before the middle crisps up.
Remove top layer of parchment. With a sharp knife, score into desired size of cracker.
Bake one hour or until firm and edges are crispy. Turn off oven and leave crackers in oven another half hour to an hour.
Carbs and servings will depend on how thin you roll your dough and how big you make your crackers. The total recipe has 67 g of carbs and 33 g of fiber. I made mine into about 40 small snack-size crackers, each having 1.7 g of carbs and 0.8 g of fiber.
