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Homemade Norwegian Oatmeal Crackers
Oatmeal Crackers
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Every mother wants to give her family the best foods possible and we all know, homemade is better because we know for sure what the ingredients are.
Homemade oatmeal crackers are a healthy toddler treat as well as nutritious snacks for the whole family.
It seems that many of us are looking for tasty and healthy treats for our family and also an alternative to bread. Here you have found a delicious way to reduce bread consumption without cutting out taste and nutrition.
Homemade crackers, (Havregrynskjeks) are great with soups and salads. They are made without saturated oils and without a long list of ingredients you can't even pronounce.
If you can eat oatmeal, you can eat these crackers. In addition, over the years, we have heard that oatmeal is good for us.
Shapes and Sizes:
Another benefit of homemade oatmeal crackers is that you can decide the thickness, size, and shape that will work best for you.
Fun-shaped Home Made Oatmeal Crackers on Baking Sheet
Fun Shapes: Be creative with cookie cutters and make fun shapes for your toddler and your bigger kids as well. I will make these crackers for my grandson as soon as he has enough teeth to chew them. So far he has only 5 teeth. He loves his little teddy bear so bear-shaped crackers for him will not only be fun, but very delicious for him to eat.
Medium Size: Use a milk glass to cut out circles - using a fork to poke each cracker 2-3 times in the center area. Make large rounds for sandwiches. Now you can make sandwiches including peanut butter sandwiches without bread.
Homemade Oatmeal Crackers Oven Ready
Large Size: Use a plastic container with sharp edges to cut the dough. These are also great topped with meats and cheese or how about cream cheese and strawberry jam or peanut butter and jelly?
Serving Ideas:
These tasty crackers are wonderful topped with different spreads for serving appetizers.
These homemade snack crackers can be topped with your favorite salads, such as tuna, chicken and/or crab meat salads, and more. Here again, use your imagination.
When serving luncheons, at times, I prefer the larger size crackers, so I can load them up with salads surrounded with appetizing garnish. Place the salad on top of the cracker immediately before serving in order to keep it crisp.
You can also place the salad on beautiful green lettuce, and place homemade crackers on the plate with cheese, olives, tomatoes, or whatever is your choice.
Side Note:
Did you know that the Norwegians might eat cheese, salami, and even fish, s.a. smoked salmon and sardines for breakfast. Yum! And of course, havregrynkjeks is a great companion to these delicacies for breakfast or anytime you want a tasty snack.
The recipe below will make a huge amount and that is a good thing - because havrekjeks are very tasty and will disappear quickly with or without toppings.
Dough for Homemade Oatmeal Crackers
Ingredients:
1 pound 2 ounces regular or steel cut oatmeal
1 pound 2 ounces unbleached flour (Retain some flour for rolling out the dough.)
9 ounces butter*
2 ounces sugar or honey
2 tablespoons horn salt** or 2 tablespoons baking powder
2-1/3 cups milk (about 5 deciliters)
*Instead of butter you can use natural coconut oil, which would make this recipe even healthier.
FYI - Baker’s Ammonia or Baking Powder?
**Horn salt/powder of ammonium bicarbonate can be purchased at the pharmacy.
Horn salt (also hartshorn) is used in traditional Norwegian baked goods as a leavening agent.
Modern horn salt is ammonium bicarbonate. Hartshorn can be substituted for an equal amount of baking powder. So, you don't have to dash to the pharmacy in order to bake Oatmeal Crackers.
In a recipe for crisp crackers or cookies, we found that the two products be used interchangeably, but the baker’s ammonia produced a lighter crunchier crumb. Now, since we have all that cleared up, let's bake Oatmeal Crackers.
Preparation:
Pour milk, and melted butter and sugar over oatmeal.
Blend mixture and let rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Blend horn salt and flour and add to mixture.
Mix well and make into a dough.
Years ago, I lived in Minneapolis and had a roommate with the name of Randi, from Kristiansund S. She and I had lots of fun and laughter practicing our culinary skills.
Randi came up with the idea to bake tons of healthy Norwegian oatmeal crackers to share with our friends. After that time, our friends lovingly called us the "homemade cracker girls".
Divide the dough into manageable parts and use a rolling pin to roll into the thickness of the pie crust.
Since this is a large batch, you can half the dough and store part of it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to bake later.
Place the havrekjeks on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400°F in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely and store in plastic bags or an airtight container. These delicious homemade Oatmeal Crackers will freeze well.
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Norwegian Recipes after Oatmeal Crackers
