Saturday 30 June 2012

Crispy polenta crackers

I found myself in a polenta frame of mind this morning, triggered by this chocolate shortbread, of which there is now a gluten free version…recipe coming soon!

It had been so so long since I’d made that shortbread, and I’d forgotten has delicately crisp and crumbly it was.

Anyway back to the polenta. There it sat in it packet on the kitchen worktop, waiting to be buried back inside my baking box, until another recipe then popped into my mind. Another recipe I’d first tried out months and months ago, and I seem to remember at the time the Boy had said, ‘Mmmm, this tastes like crackling’! Er, well I didn’t think it tasted like crackling so don’t worry. But I do understand what he meant…these crackers are super duper crispy, you’d think they’d been deep fried to get that intense crunch, but nope they are simply baked.


The healthy way to a dip chip!

The key is to slice the polenta as thinly as possible and then bake the slices on a lower heat for longer, and then double bake for extra crispiness. You can mix up the seasonings however you wish. I went for a slightly Mexican theme as I teamed these with my veggie chilli.


Recipe: Polenta crackers

Makes one bowlful

Ingredients

½  cup instant polenta
2 cups water
2 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tsp cajun spice mix (chilli, garlic etc)
¼ tsp salt

Method

In a sauce pan mix polenta with water, add remaining ingredients and simmer for approx. 5 minutes stirring continuously until mixture begins to thicken but is still pourable.

Pour/spoon into a small loaf tin, smoothing the top as much as possible and allow to set then firm up in the fridge.

Once set firmly, remove the polenta loaf from the tin and using a sharp knife slice as thinly as possible, laying each slice on a greased/lined baking sheet

Bake at 150C for approx. 20-30 mins depending on the thickness of the slices. If the slices are not yet crispy in the centre but the edges are done, allow to cool and then re-bake for a further 10 minutes or as long as necessary.



For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

4 comments:

  1. These look great! They really resemble cassava crackers (like these: http://www.typicaldutchstuff.com/conimex/kroepoekcasave.jpg).
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi honeybird, thank you for your comment. they do indeed look quite similar!

    ReplyDelete
  3. yumm..what's the difference between regular yeast and nutritional?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, nutritional yeast is very different from regular yeast as it has nothing to do with the rising, it is a deactivated yeast that comes in flakes or as a powder and is used to give flavour as it has a cheesy/nutty kind of taste.

    ReplyDelete

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