I hate to throw anything useful away, and every time I make nut milk, I always think there must be something that could be made with the pulp that’s leftover, besides just drying it out and saving it as flour. As luck would have it, I recently came across a recipe for Rosemary Raisin Almond Pulp Crackers on the Against All Grain blog that looked really good. However, the thought of raisins and rosemary in crackers makes me shudder…so I changed pretty much all of the ingredients, but the recipe is excellent as a basis for proportions.

The other day I made two batches of cashew milk, and rather than throw the pulp away, I thought I would try the almond cracker method with the cashew pulp….  I use one cup of cashews for each one-litre batch of cashew milk that I make, so I ended up with approximately 1/2 cup of pulp from each batch, for a total of 1 cup of pulp.

My pulp was quite wet, as the cashews grind up much more finely than the almonds, and I don’t squeeze the milk out as vigorously as I do the almond because it makes the pulp squeeze out through the fabric of the nut milk bag. The Against All Grain recipe calls for olive oil, but I used coconut oil instead so I could chill the dough and firm it up a bit, otherwise it would have been too soft to roll out.  I first pressed the dough out with a spatula on a piece of parchment paper as thinly as I could, then stuck it in the freezer to chill while the oven heated up.  Then I put another piece of parchment over the top and slid it off the baking sheet onto the counter and rolled it to about 1/8″ thickness, and then slid it back onto the sheet and removed the top piece of parchment before baking.

It took a while for the dough to dry out in the oven…I initially baked it for 20 minutes at 300°F, but it still wasn’t dry yet.  It was starting to brown though, so I turned the temperature down to 250°F and let it bake for about another hour.  When it finally looked done, I slid the crackers onto a cooling rack, and put that in the just-turned-off oven to make sure the bottoms were crispy too.  The crackers taste really good, so it’s definitely worthwhile if you can stick around long enough to let the moisture bake out.  The whole thing could probably be baked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time; the original recipe for the almond crackers are actually dehydrated rather than baked, with an option to bake at 300°F for 20 minutes, which I’m sure works fine when you’re using the almond pulp.

These crackers were very easy to make, and turned out really well – crispy and savoury, with a delicious nutty flavour from the sesame and poppy seeds.  I served these with my homemade hummus recipe.

Adapted from Against All Grain’s Rosemary Raisin Almond Pulp Crackers
Makes about a dozen crackers.

Ingredients:

1 cup cashew pulp
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon tamari soy sauce (gluten-free if need be)
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Blend all ingredients thoroughly with a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl.

Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and spread out as evenly as possible, to about 1/4-1/8″ thickness.  Place dough in freezer or refrigerator while you preheat the oven to 300°F (or 250°F if you want to try slowly dehydrating/baking them).

When oven is ready, remove dough from freezer and slide parchment paper onto the counter.  Place another piece of parchment paper over the dough, and smooth out with a rolling pin to an even 1/8″ thickness.

Remove the top layer of parchment. Score cracker shapes with a pizza cutter or sharp knife, then slide the dough on the parchment back onto the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then check to see how they’re doing; if they are turning brown at the edges, but aren’t crisping up in the middle, turn the oven temperature down to 250°F and check occasionally to see when they have baked long enough to dry out and become crispy.  However, if they look fine after 20 minutes at 300°F, then you could keep going at that temperature for another 10 minutes and check them again. Since there’s a lot of moisture in cashew pulp, it can take a while to bake it all out and get them crispy, without burning the crackers. Overall time should be about an hour, but it could take more or less time, depending on how much water is left in your cashew pulp, and differences between what you’ve set the oven at, and what the temperature actually is inside.  Here’s an interesting article on the variations between ovens: https://reviewed.usatoday.com/ovens/features/why-oven-temperatures-are-inexact

When the crackers seem baked enough, slide them off of the parchment onto a cooling rack and place rack back into the turned-off oven to make sure the bottoms are also crisp.

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Cashew Pulp Crackers (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

Author Samantha

Ingredients

• 1 cup cashew pulp
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon tamari soy sauce gluten-free if need be
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Instructions

• Blend all ingredients thoroughly with a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl.
• Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and spread out as evenly as possible, to about 1/4-1/8″ thickness.  Place dough in freezer or refrigerator while you preheat the oven to 300°F (or 250°F if you want to try slowly dehydrating/baking them).
• When oven is ready, remove dough from freezer and slide parchment paper onto the counter.  Place another piece of parchment paper over the dough, and smooth out with a rolling pin to an even 1/8″ thickness.
• Remove the top layer of parchment. Score cracker shapes with a pizza cutter or sharp knife, then slide the dough on the parchment back onto the baking sheet.
• Bake for 20 minutes, then check to see how they're doing; if they are turning brown at the edges, but aren't crisping up in the middle, turn the oven temperature down to 250°F and check occasionally to see when they have baked long enough to dry out and become crispy.  However, if they look fine after 20 minutes at 300°F, then you could keep going at that temperature for another 10 minutes and check them again. Since there’s a lot of moisture in cashew pulp, it can take a while to bake it all out and get them crispy, without burning the crackers. Overall time should be about an hour, but it could take more or less time, depending on how much water is left in your cashew pulp, and variations in oven temperatures.
• When the crackers seem baked enough, slide them off of the parchment onto a cooling rack and place rack back into the turned-off oven to make sure the bottoms are also crisp.