Dehydrator Flatbread Crackers
Ground seeds, nuts, and vegetables pressed thin and dried into crackers that survive a pack.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 160
- protein
- 10 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Lunch
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Gluten free
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Sunflower seeds | 1 cup | raw, unsalted |
|---|---|---|
| Mushrooms | 1 cup | chopped, any button or cremini |
| Ground flaxseed | 1/2 cup | the binder, do not skip |
| Pesto | 3 tbsp | jarred is fine; use dairy-free pesto to keep it vegan |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- At home, put the sunflower seeds, mushrooms, flax, pesto, pepper, and salt in a food processor. Run it until the mix is a coarse paste with no whole seeds left.
- Dump the paste onto parchment and press it into a rough ball. Roll it out to about 1/4 inch. If it is too wet to roll, spread it with the back of a spoon instead.
- Score or cut it into cracker-sized squares now if the dough holds an edge. If it does not, leave it as one sheet.
- Move the parchment onto a dehydrator tray and run it at 125°F for 10 to 15 hours. Check at 12.
- Flip the sheet halfway through and peel off the parchment so the underside dries too.
- If you left it as one sheet, cut it into squares after a few hours of drying, when it firms up but still yields.
- It is done when a cracker snaps rather than bends. Cool completely on the tray before it goes anywhere near a bag.
- In camp, open the bag and eat. No water, no stove.
This is a cracker with no flour in it. The sunflower seeds and ground flax do the structural work: flax turns gluey when it hits the moisture in the mushrooms, and that gel is what holds the sheet together once the water leaves. Skip the flax and you get a tray of crumbs.
Mushrooms are mostly water, which is why the mix goes on wet and dries for half a day. Low heat matters — 125°F pulls water out slowly enough that the fat in the seeds does not go rancid and the sheet dries evenly instead of case-hardening. Pesto is oil and salt as much as it is flavor, and both help these keep. Three tablespoons is already assertive; four takes over.
Packing
Cool them all the way to room temperature or they will sweat and go soft in the bag. Pack in a rigid container or a hard-sided food canister; loose in a stuff sack they turn to crumbs by day two. A silica packet buys a few extra days in humid weather.
Variations
- Swap the pesto for 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes plus 1/2 tsp each of basil, oregano, and garlic powder. Sturdier and less one-note.
- Ground almonds in place of half the sunflower seeds make a firmer cracker that holds hummus.
- Shredded zucchini and carrot with ground almond and salt gives a lighter, crisper version. It starts very wet and takes the full 15 hours.
- Cut the pesto to 2 tbsp if you want the mushroom to come through.
https://kyraonthego.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/flatbread-in-the-dehydrator-vegetables-nuts-seeds-and-a-bit-of-experimentation