Saltines - Gluten Free

Pregnant with no saltines?  Can you imagine such a thing?

My co-workers and I had a total of six kids in about four years.  One of us was always pregnant.  It was easy to figure out who was pregnant by the saltines in the desk drawer.  Seriously!  I remember one day B was looking in D's desk for something and discovered the saltine stash.  Oops!  B showed me the evidence and we both felt a little guilty for the discovery before the big announcement had been made.

Kidlet One has been pretty sick in the early stages of her pregnancy.  She has to eat gluten free and she wasn't finding saltines.  So I went digging on the internet and found a recipe for gluten-free saltines.  In the event you know someone with celiac disease, you could make them saltines with this easy recipe, whether they are pregnant or not.

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. xanthan gum
6 T. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup cold water
Kosher salt for sprinkling

I purchase the dry ingredients at a local health food store.  The flour is ground and in bins.  Patrons are able to scoop and weigh the amount they want to purchase.  It really is a less-expensive way to purchase these different flours. Here's a tip:  I keep the flours in a tub in my freezer.  When I'm ready to bake gluten-free, I grab the tub!

Whisk together white rice flour, brown rice flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum in a large mixing bowl or food processor.  Whisk or pulse to combine.

Add cold butter and pulse until butter is the size of baby peas.  Add water and pulse until a dough forms.  Dough will be firm.  If dough is dry, add an additional tablespoon of water.

Place dough between two pieces of parchment paper (at least 12 x 16 inches).

Roll dough about 1/16-inch.  Mine was too thick as you can see in some of the photos.

Remove top piece of parchment paper.  Slide dough onto a rimmed baking sheet.  Prick dough all over with a fork.  Using a pizza wheel, cut dough into cracker-size pieces.

Generously sprinkle kosher salt all over the top of the dough.

Bake until crackers are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and allow crackers to cool.  Once cool, break crackers apart, if needed.  Crackers usually break apart while baking.

Mine were more like a shortbread, because I didn't roll them thin enough.

I was surprised that saltines are pretty easy to make.  And they were a salty, crunchy snack for me!

An amazing recipe for our gluten-free friends.