Whole Wheat Animal Crackers

imageYes, I know you saw it coming, I mean after the Berry Ice populated with Lions and Giraffes (Ostrich looking, if you ask my boyfriend, but then again, he’s no biologist 😉 there was no question that the rest of the animal kingdom would soon show up on my blog as well. What can I say, they are just too darn cute!

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I had searched for the perfect cutters for this recipe for  a while, square was just not an option, but plain old animal crackers from the store didn’t cut it either. Do you get that craving for crunchy as well? And I can;t shut it up with a crunchy apple, no it’s a different crunch I am after. So I set out to revamp and recreate animal crackers, surely there would be a better version one could come up with than the store  sold ones. Starting with a lot less sugar than any commercial product would contain, I added ground almond and flax meal to boost the nutrient and flavor and whole wheat to give them some substance.

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Animal crackers on Very Merry Black Berry Ice are the best!

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups stone ground whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup almond meal/ground almonds
  • 1/2 cup palm sugar (dry) or rapadura
  • 1/4 cup millet or oat flower
  • 1/4 cup half & half (or cream or milk)
  • 1/4 cup flax meal
  • 2 lg eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

  1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
  2. Gently soften or melt coconut oil, if it is hard. Mix in the vanilla, eggs and 1/4 cup half and half.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until a  cohesive dough forms. If it is too crumbly, add a little more half & half.
  3. Form dough into ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until dough isn’t soft anymore.
  4. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
  5. Roll out to 1/4″ thickness, press the cookie cutters into the dough (mine have a plunger to stamp the design onto the cookies after they are cut) and place the cookies onto a lined cookie sheet.
  6. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until slightly browned on the bottom
  7. Let cool on rack before devouring them all 🙂

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade