Save Our Seeds 4: Free Seed Crisp Bread Recipe

How many seeds will fit on a cracker? Let's bake and see.

Dear Climate Culinarians,

What could possibly end a whole month of writing about seeds? I say it’s time for a snack.

New here? Climate Culinarians looks at one topic over several issues, and this month’s theme is “Save Our Seeds”: Learn about seed saving, food plants and biodiversity in Part 1 “Why local heirloom vegetables are important”, explore Part 2 “Is seed saving illegal?” for solutions and actions you can take, and find reading recs for “4 books for seed savers and bean buffs“ in Part 3 (including a cookbook!).

Now, let’s see how many seeds we can fit into crisp bread! Of course, if you want to honor seeds, that’s not your only option. You could drop beans in a nice chili (unless you’re from Texas). You could roast a cup of pumpkin seeds. Bake sunflower seed bread … or go to the deli and order a poppy seed bagel. But here and now, I’m making seed crackers.

Quick Seed Crisp Bread

Call it crisp bread, call it crackers, call it Knäckebröd: To me, this is a snack. It takes about half an hour to make, and it will last … well, that depends on you and the crowd you’re feeding.

Note: The recipe’s seed mix is flexible - you can use less sesame and more poppy seeds, for instance, or include other seeds altogether. I recommend smaller seeds like flax or hemp. The ratio is 110g flour to 60g seeds (1 cup flour to a scant 2/3 cup seeds). You can also flip this ratio if you really want to go all in on seeds. You can see what crackers with more seeds than flour look like in the image above (on the top left).

Ingredients:

110g whole wheat flour (about 1 cup)

45g sesame seeds (about 1/3 cup and 1 Tbsp)

1 Tbsp poppy seeds (about 10gr)

1 tsp chia seeds (about 5gr)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

70ml warm water (1/3 cup)

Optional: flaky or coarse salt for sprinkling

Make it:

In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients, including seasoning, and stir well. Add oil and water and stir with a spoon, then gently knead until no dry spots are left.

Let dough rest for 5 min. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325°F and cut 2 sheets of parchment paper (or use 1 parchment paper and 1 rubber mat made for rolling cookie dough).

Place dough on one parchment paper sheet (or the rubber cookie mat) and with your hands, gently press down to a rectangle. Cover with second piece of parchment paper and roll out thinly, about 5mm (1/5 inch).

Carefully remove upper parchment paper. If using, sprinkle flaky salt over the dough and lightly press it in.

With a knife, score the dough lengthwise, about 1 1/2 inch apart. These lines will make breaking the crisp bread into strips easier later on.

Place parchment with dough onto baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely before breaking into pieces. It will harden while cooling.

Snack on this crisp bread as is, or serve it with a dip or a spread, or have it with soup.

I believe a shared meal is the best opportunity to talk about climate solutions. And about seed saving, of course. So I hope you’ll enjoy these seed crackers in good company.

Read, eat, repeat!
Petrina

Climate Culinarians is a project by me, Petrina Engelke. I write about climate, food and the U.S., and I help other writers turn their ideas into a book people want to read. In other words: I’m a journalist and a book coach.