Vegan Banana Bread Animal Crackers

Yesterday I told you about all the cleansing foods I’ve been craving this week. I compared the bodies’ natural detox patterns to trees shedding their leaves in the fall, and we enjoyed a bowl of glorious green soup.

But I kinda left a small detail out of the story and it’s time I let it out of the bag.

I’ve been craving animal crackers.

Little crunchy, sweet, life-like animal crackers.

Dipped in nut butter, eaten plain, or topped with a couple pieces of dried fruit. *drool*

But, when this craving came on I was faced with a dilemma – either buy an $8.00 box of gluten-free animal crackers that contained corn and risk tummy aches, or come up with my own darn recipe.

Bet you can’t guess which option I chose…

Thumbs up for the animal cracker challenge!

While they’re not exactly cleansing, they are ridiculously better (and tastier ) than the store-bought variety.

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Vegan Banana Bread Animal Crackers

Vegan, Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar reduced, Yeast free, Corn free

These animal crackers make a great take along snack for any age!

Yield: 130 animal crackers

Servings: 13 (10 crackers per serving)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup +3 tbsp sweet white rice flour
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp brown teff flour *see note
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot flour/starch/powder
• 2 tbsp freshly ground flax seed
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt

• 3/4 cup mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/4 cup palm sugar *see note
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

• Water (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Set aside
3. In a larger bowl, combine wet ingredients and beat with a hand blender until well mixed.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.
5. Add water, 1 tbsp at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a large ball. The dough should stick together and have a thickness of pie crust.
6. Place the dough on a floured surface (I used extra rice flour) and roll out the dough until it’s 1/4-inch thick.
7. Use animal shaped cut outs to make small animal crackers. I used these ones.
8. Place each cut out on the prepared baking sheet leaving sliver in between each cracker.
9. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on desired crispness. They are cracker-like at 15 minutes and slightly chewy at 12 minutes. My favorite was 15.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely to firm up.

note: you could probably use buckwheat or brown rice flour to replace the teff flour if it’s challenging to find.

note2: if palm sugar is difficult to get, try replacing with brown sugar or sucanat sugar.

calories: 126 | fat: 5g | saturated fat: 3.7g | carbohydrate: 18.5g | fiber: 1.9g | sugars: 5.3g | protein: 1.7g

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I tried to love each animal equally, but every time I ate an elephant I giggled.

Look at their little trunks!

Tagged as: animal cracker, banana, easy, snack, teff flour